Released To Coincide With the Film's 30th Anniversary, Companion Album to Legendary Documentary Features Very First Recordings by Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell and John Hiatt, plus Front-Porch-Intimate Performances by David Allan Coe, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark

IN STORES VIA HACKTONE/SHOUT! FACTORY ON MARCH 14th

LOS ANGELES -- HackTone Records and Shout! Factory announce the CD release of Heartworn Highways, the whiskey-warm companion album to the cult documentary of the same name. Recorded in 1975-76 in Nashville and Austin, Heartworn Highways captures the birth of an alt-country movement light-years from the spit-polished Music Row.

Armed with little more than a camera and microphone (and maybe a case of Jack), the filmmakers captured lightning in a bottle, spotlighting a particular band of brothers--Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt, Guy Clark and perennial outsider David Allan Coe--at the dawn of their careers. They also captured inspired performances from relative unknowns Gamble Rogers and Larry Jon Wilson that will instantly convert listeners into adoring fans. What they walked away with is a document of the fierce, raw talent burning at the core of some of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time.

The CD, produced with the direct involvement of the movie's original producer, Graham Leader (In the Bedroom, etc.) and editor, Phillip Schopper, features 20 audio performances recorded for the film, as well as key dialogue excerpts. After more than six months of painstaking audio restoration from the raw Nagra tapes, each song has been restored to its unedited length, speed corrected, and remastered to stunning audiophile quality. This historic collection will be in stores on March 14th for the suggested retail price of $18.98.

Naturally, the first-ever recordings by Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, and John Hiatt--not to mention previously unreleased acoustic performances by David Allan Coe, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark--demand a unique treatment. Rather than doing a literal soundtrack, HackTone started from scratch, compiling an album from all of the recordings made during filming in order to create a stand-alone listening experience that captured the essence of the film. They eliminated songs featured in the film that were irrelevant to the new wave of artists it was conceived to document; they also included several tracks from artists that were omitted from the original film. All of which says nothing of the meticulous audio restoration, done by GRAMMY-award nominee Alan Silverman and Heartworn Highways editor Phillip Schopper, which restored all of the recordings to their original length and captured all the richness and warmth inherent in their original performances. It's this exacting attention to detail that makes the Heartworn Highways CD a deeply intimate listening experience as well as a historical document of incredible value.

Heartworn Highways includes the previously unreleased versions of “Waitin' Around To Die” and “Pancho and Lefty” by Townes van Zandt, “Desperados Waiting for a Train” and “LA Freeway” by Guy Clark, the unreleased song “One for the One” by John Hiatt and the first recording ever of “Mercenary Song” by Steve Earle. And a spontaneous, whiskey-soaked version of “Silent Night” sung by Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and Steve Young during Christmas Eve at Guy's house is unexpectedly beautiful.