James Robert Webb Releases New Full-Length Album “Weekend Outlaw”

James Robert Webb’s Weekend Outlaw Is a Shot of Real Country Grit with a Modern Americana Kick Review by a Lifelong Country & Americana Enthusiast

If you’ve been following James Robert Webb over the past few years, Weekend Outlaw feels like a long-anticipated exhale — a record that finally pulls together all the threads he’s been weaving through his recent singles, EPs, and genre-straddling releases. It’s part love letter to the Outlaw Country legends, part modern-day anthem for folks straddling two lives: the 9-to-5 reality and the creative fire burning underneath it.

From the first guitar riff on the title track, you can feel that Webb isn’t interested in playing it safe. “Weekend Outlaw” hits like a jolt of caffeine and diesel fumes, equal parts vintage Waylon swagger and Brooks & Dunn polish. It sets the tone immediately: this is music made for folks who clock out Friday evening and chase whatever keeps their heart beating faster.

That message carries beautifully into “Gentlemen Start Your Weekends,” which feels like a southern-fried Springsteen anthem for the modern blue-collar dreamer. It’s got just the right balance of tongue-in-cheek and wide-eyed sincerity. Even the guest rap verse from Classic Williams fits more comfortably than you’d think, proving that Webb isn’t afraid to stretch boundaries while keeping one foot firmly in the roots.

But Webb doesn’t hang his hat on just barroom romps and Friday night anthems. “Ride or Die” and “Lovesick Drifting Cowboy” both slow things down without losing intensity. “Ride or Die” feels like a backroads love story dipped in chrome and gasoline, while “Lovesick Drifting Cowboy” is the record’s most unapologetically outlaw moment. The lyrics drip with classic country fatalism, and Webb delivers them with a conviction that feels lived-in, not costume.

By the time we hit “New Moon Light” and the wonderfully quirky “local participatin’ honky tonk,” Webb starts to show more of his sonic palette. The saloon-style piano and fiddle work across these tracks don’t feel like throwbacks — they feel essential, grounding the record in traditions that too many modern country acts forget entirely.

“Buenos Noches Nacogdoches” is a standout — slow, poetic, and steeped in atmosphere. It’s the kind of track that reminds you how underrated Webb is as a lyricist. There’s something deeply Southern Gothic in the way he paints a romantic goodbye with words like velvet handcuffs and laudanum. Following that up with the touching “Adore” and the heartbreak ballad “She’s Not You” gives the album real emotional weight to match its rowdy highs.

And let’s not forget: Webb is doing this while maintaining a full career as a radiologist. That might seem like a gimmick, but the deeper message of Weekend Outlaw is clear — that we’re all more than our day jobs, and life is too short not to chase what lights us up.

In a genre that often plays it safe, Weekend Outlaw is brave, heartfelt, and relentlessly fun. It’s country music made for now, without losing sight of where it came from.

Michael Rand