Between 1985 and 1995, The Highwaymen recorded three major label albums: two on Columbia Records and one for Liberty. Their Columbia works produced three chart singles, including their number one, signature tune, the Jimmy Webb composition ‘Highwayman’, in 1985. During this time, the members of the group - Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings - provided the voice and dramatisation for the Louis L'Amour Collection, a four-CD box set of seven of the author’s stories, published by the HighBridge Company, although the four were not credited as "The Highwaymen" in this work. Besides the four formal members of the group, one other vocal artist appeared on a Highwaymen recording: Johnny Rodriguez, who provided Spanish vocal on ‘Deportee’, a Woody Guthrie composition, from the album Highwayman. The four starred in one movie together: the 1986 film Stagecoach.

Inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2004, Kris Kristofferson’s place in music history is assured as the writer of such classics as “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, “For The Good Times”, “Me And Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, all included here. These songs have been huge hits for the likes of Gladys Knight, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Al Green, Andy Williams, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and Johnny Cash. Kristofferson has also had hits with his songs in own right, including the duets “It Sure Was (Love”), “Lover Please” and “Give It Time To Be Tender” with his wife Rita Coolidge. And these recordings were made by Nashville’s top producers: Fred Foster, David Anderle, Dennis Linde, Chips Moman and Norbert Putnam.

Legacy’s 2010 collection The Essential Highwaymen doesn’t merely cover recordings made by the supergroup of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, it rounds up selections from their solo albums of the ‘70s, ‘80s, ’90s, and 2000s. Specifically, these selections are written by other members of the group, so the net effect is a generous 36-track collection of Highwaymen highlights in all forms, drawing a more detailed portrait of their crossed paths than any individual album by the supergroup.

Tribute albums frequently betray their subject, but not this homage to Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears, the country giant’s 1964 salute to Native Americans. A concept album about a discomfiting cause – the US’s treatment of its indigenous people – Tears was a radical statement resisted, to Cash’s fury, by the Nashville establishment. For its 50th anniversary, producer Joe Henry gathers a stellar house band that takes turns to lead. Gillian Welch delivers an entrancing As Long As the Grass Shall Grow; Emmylou does likewise with Apache Tears. Steve Earle drawls: “I ain’t no fan of Custer” and instrumentals evoke North America’s haunted plains. Very fine.