New Waylon Jennings recordings set to surface

An upcoming Waylon Jennings album will feature previously unreleased music recorded by the country legend shortly before his death in 2002.

The set, tentatively titled "Goin' Down Rockin': The Final Recordings," is expected to surface later this year, and will feature eight tunes not previously released by Jennings. According to the Associated Press, the new tracks are simple affairs featuring only guitar and vocals and were cut at steel guitarist Robby Turner's studio before Jennings' death of complication from diabetes at age 64.

Several musicians who worked with Jennings contributed to completing the new songs, according the report.

Singer/songwriter Shooter Jennings, the singer's son, said the release was part of a bigger effort by Jennings' family to create a legacy brand for the Country Music Hall of Famer.

"Feb. 13 will be 10 years since he died and I do feel like it's time for him to have a presence," the younger Jennings told the AP. "It should have been before, but I don't think anybody was ready to take it on. I certainly wasn't. I know this year we're about to bring him back, you know what I mean?"

Turner called in Jennings friends like guitarist Reggie Young and songwriter Tony Joe White to finish off the album, which will include White's "Goin' Down Rockin'" and Willie Nelson's "Sad Songs & Waltzes" and was described by Turner as similar in spirit to the "American" series of recordings -- the last of them only days before his death -- that Johnny Cash did with producer Rick Rubin near the end of his life.