Country Soloing Over the Outlaw Groove: Mathew Lee’s Waylon Jennings Guide

Country soloing over an outlaw groove is its own universe. It borrows from blues, leans into rock, and then lands somewhere completely its own. Waylon Jennings built a sound that still turns heads. Mathew Lee has spent years breaking down exactly what makes that feel work on guitar. In this guide, you’ll get the core ingredients: the rhythm, the tone, the harmonic choices, and the soloing toolkit that defines outlaw country lead playing. If you want a wider map of the full vocabulary of country lead guitar, start there first, then come back here to dig into Waylon’s world specifically.

The Outlaw Groove: What Country Soloing Sits On Top Of

First, understand the rhythmic foundation. The outlaw country feel is a four-on-the-floor, kick-drum-driven beat. It is straight, not shuffled. However, it carries a slightly rocking character that separates it from traditional country’s bounce. Waylon’s records from the 1970s are the clearest examples: steady, driving, and relentless.

Because the groove is so consistent, your solo has to do more work to create interest. The pulse never lets up, so every phrase you play lands against a very defined rhythmic grid. As a result, rhythmic placement matters enormously. For example, a bend that peaks slightly behind the beat can feel lazy in a bad way. Landing it just ahead of the beat adds urgency and forward motion. Country soloing over this kind of pulse rewards players who think rhythmically first, melodically second.

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Tone First: The Phaser and the Outlaw Guitar Sound

Before you play a single note, get the tone right. A phaser pedal, specifically something like an MXR Phase 90 set to a slow rate, adds a subtle undulation to your signal. That gentle, moving quality is what gives classic outlaw country guitar its characteristic shimmer. It is not a heavy effect. In fact, you almost shouldn’t notice it consciously, but you will definitely hear the difference when it is absent.

Meanwhile, your base tone should stay relatively clean and present. A Telecaster or Telecaster-style guitar through a clean amp is the standard. Then, the phaser sits on top and adds that slight movement. Additionally, your pick attack shapes the tone in outlaw country more than in almost any other style. Light, fluid picking opens up the tone. Heavy digging creates a different character, which can work in louder moments.

Harmonic Landscape: The Flat-Seven Chord Relationship

Here is where country soloing over this feel gets genuinely interesting. Outlaw country uses the flat-seven chord relationship as a defining harmonic move. For example, if your groove is in E, expect to see D and A chords appearing frequently. Those are the flat-seven and flat-three chords relative to E. However, they do not function like jazz extensions. Instead, they create a modal, open-road harmonic color that feels both country and slightly rock-influenced.

Specifically, your solos should acknowledge those chord centers. When the band lands on the D chord in an E groove, you can emphasize D major shapes, open-string D voicings, or target the D note as a melodic arrival point. Because that D chord is unexpected from a traditional major-key perspective, resolving back to E from there creates satisfying tension. As a result, the solo takes on a wider tonal range without ever leaving the style. For more on the bending techniques that connect those chord tones expressively, pedal steel bends are covered in depth here.

The Country Soloing Toolkit for Outlaw Styles

The outlaw feel supports a full range of country soloing tools, so let’s walk through the key ones.

Pedal steel bends are central. They give single-note lines that characteristic singing, vocal quality. Next, chicken pickin’ adds percussive pop and rhythmic edge. For a detailed breakdown of how chicken pickin’ works at speed in country contexts, that guide gets into the mechanics directly. Double stops, especially in thirds and sixths, add harmonic density without overcomplicating the texture. Similarly, open-string lines give you a resonance that fits naturally with the groove’s slightly raw character.

Most importantly, sometimes less is more. Waylon’s guitar players understood space. A well-placed four-note phrase followed by a breath can hit harder than a flurry of notes. Then, when the moment calls for it, you rip. The dynamic contrast between sparse and dense playing is what gives outlaw country soloing its emotional punch. For a look at how blues and country interact in lead playing, that article explores the edge where the two styles blur productively.

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Building Tension and Quoting Yourself

The through-line of every great outlaw country solo is tension and resolution. You set up an idea, you delay its payoff, and then you land. However, there is another layer that separates good solos from memorable ones: quoting your own phrases. If you introduce a short melodic motif early in the solo, then bring a variation of it back later, the listener hears the solo as a conversation rather than a sequence of unrelated licks.

For example, open with a two-bar phrase in the first eight bars. Then, after a contrasting section, bring back a slightly varied version of that same phrase near the end. As a result, the solo has shape and continuity. It sounds composed even when improvised. This principle works in any style. Outlaw country soloing makes it especially clear because the groove is so steady and repetitive. The contrast between the locked-in pulse below and the developing melody above is exactly what creates emotional movement.

Start Here: Your First Steps into the Waylon World

Learn the progression’s chord relationships before you play a single lick. Specifically, map where the flat-seven and flat-three chords appear in the progression. Then, build short motifs around those chord tones and practice repeating them with small variations. Above all, keep the four-on-the-floor feel locked in your head while you solo. The groove is the foundation. Everything else grows from it.

For a broader view of country soloing techniques across styles, the pillar guide gives you context for where outlaw playing fits in the wider country guitar picture. Additionally, if you want to hear how twang and technique translate across genre borders, Andy Wood’s approach to country flavor in blues contexts is a natural next step.

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