Waylon Jennings - When Sin Stops / Jole Blon [Silver]

Only 50 hand-numbered units. Long before the outlaw years, Lubbock DJ Waylon Jennings cut his first single with his friend Buddy Holly, revisited here on limited silver vinyl.

Jole Blon, the old Cajun waltz often called the Cajun national anthem, was an unlikely choice for a West Texas country singer, but Holly believed in his protégé. He produced the session and played guitar, with King Curtis adding a honking tenor saxophone that pulls the old song towards rock and roll.

On the other side, When Sin Stops, a song first recorded by The Nighthawks, offers a glimpse of the singer Waylon was becoming, his voice already carrying the low, steady authority that would define him.

The single was issued on Brunswick, the label home of Holly's Crickets, but it did not chart. Holly's death in the 1959 plane crash, on the tour where Waylon famously gave up his seat, changed the course of Waylon's life and left this record as a poignant marker of their friendship.

Heard today, these two sides are a fascinating first snapshot of a voice that would go on to reshape country music, and a touching document of a mentorship cut tragically short. For collectors of early rock and roll and country alike, it is a small but significant piece of history.