Highwaymen Solve Legal Wrangle Over Name : Pop music: The all-star country group settles suit by sharing Universal Amphitheatre bill with its namesake, an unusual ‘60s folk group.

As judge for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Stephen Trott is one of the top legal officials in the country. But he recently found himself conceding to the simple common sense of country music giant Waylon Jennings.

“Maybe we should turn the legal system of the U.S. over to Waylon,” Trott said from his chambers in Boise, Ida.

The matter in which Jennings earned this praise was the case of the Highwaymen vs. the Highwaymen--one being the country music supergroup consisting of Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson that is currently touring the nation, the other being the old folk group whose “Michael” was a hit in 1961. One of the members of the old Highwaymen is Judge Stephen Trott.

In March, the old Highwaymen, who still perform occasionally and continue to earn royalties from their songs through oldies reissues, sued the new Highwaymen over use of the name. But with a messy court case seemingly inevitable, Jennings hit on a simple solution: Why not give the original group the opening slot at one of the new group’s concerts, giving them a payday and an opportunity to promote their oldies ventures?

“Everyone said, ‘Hey, what a good idea,’ ” Trott said. “With a single swipe he eliminated all the usual things that go with the resolution of this kind of case.”

And so tonight, the double-Highwaymen bill will appear at the Universal Amphitheatre. It may seem like a heady development for the old folk quartet, but in the early ‘60s, when Jennings, Nelson and Cash were struggling in Nashville and Kristofferson was just another Rhodes scholar and songwriter, Trott and his cohorts were among the most popular acts in the folk music boom.

In 1961, while the Highwaymen were still students at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., their recording of the traditional Georgia Sea Islands song “Michael” rose to No. 1 on the pop chart and sold more than 1 million copies.

It’s brought in more than $15,000 in royalties over the past two years, according to Trott. A second single, “Cottonfields,” also reached the Top 20 and sold more than a million copies in early 1962.

“We started as brothers in a fraternity and kept going,” Trott said. “We never for a moment thought it would turn into a commercial venture, but the next thing we know we were discovered and selling records.”

But as easily as it came, the group was willing to let it go.

“We never thought music would be our lives,” Trott said. “We were thoroughly involved, did Ed Sullivan a couple times and Johnny Carson. But we always had a sense that folk music was the type of thing that is big today and not tomorrow. We all knew there would come a time when we would go separate ways. . . . So we got out on our own terms rather than someone else’s.”

Trott and Bob Burnett both went to Harvard Law School, Trott ultimately serving as the No. 3 official in the Reagan-era Justice Department before donning judge’s robes. Burnett is now a bank executive in Rhode Island. Steve Butts is a computer expert and administrator at Grinnell College in Iowa. Only David Fisher, who arranged and produced the group, stayed in music, becoming a Los Angeles-based composer for film, television and commercials. (A fifth original member, Chan Daniels, died in 1975.)

When the two Highwaymen share the bill at the Universal, the newer one may pick up some tips on folk harmonies from the original. But Trott, who will preside in court in Pasadena the day of the concert, might ask Jennings for some more legal advice.

“I’ve always said it’s too often that we turn to the courts in this country to resolve problems, and this is a classic example,” he said. “I think it’s wonderful.”