OUTLAWS REDUX: The young crop of alternative-rockers...

OUTLAWS REDUX: The young crop of alternative-rockers and punks don’t look to just Neil Young or Lou Reed or Iggy Pop for inspiration. It turns out a lot of them also worship country star Willie Nelson, who spearheaded the outlaw movement that revolutionized country in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And to honor him, a bunch of young rockers are recording his songs for an album set for release in January.

Sessions last week were held in L.A., with L7 doing “Three Days” (with a cameo expected from fellow country outlaw Waylon Jennings) and in Seattle with former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil and Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney backing Johnny Cash on “Time of the Preacher.” Other contributors in the can include Alice guitarist Jerry Cantrell, Tenderloin, Supersuckers, Best Kissers in the World and a teaming of Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan and Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis.

“They looked at Willie as a role model in terms of staying true to your art and not kowtowing to the industry mainstream,” says Randall Jamail, the project’s producer and owner of Justice Records, which will release the album.

The one thing Jamail was most concerned about was that the new versions would sound corny, especially if the rockers tried to sound country.

“I explained to the bands that we really wanted to take the songs to a new audience,” he says. “We needed to interpret, arrange, produce and perform these songs as if they were part of their own sets.”