Waylon's main problem has always been the unevenness of his material; while [Are You Ready for the Country] is better than his last few efforts, it still stumbles badly in a few places. Waylon is a sucker for the sort of romantic, hard-boiled poesy that people such as Billy Joe Shaver and Shel Silverstein turn out like poker hands…. Waylon's songwriting suffers from this approach as well, and three of his four compositions on Are You Ready are more or less disposable. But the fourth, "I'll Go Back to Her," is one of the album's triumphs, just a good, lean love song.

Part of Jennings's attractiveness and value is his willingness to blend a couple of the rock culture's pleasures—fast, loud music and a reckless demeanor—with country's more precise discipline and tradition. But he has no instinct for rock music….

Another matter is the persistence of...