What becomes a country-music legend most?

It’s charm, modesty and a sense of humor, as Waylon Jennings showed a near-capacity crowd Monday at the Maine Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus.

Jennings could have settled for giving a perfunctory greatest-hits set, then hitting the road. But instead the old outlaw performed 21 songs in 90 minutes, carefully crafting each one.

Jennings, dressed in a black shirt, black jeans and boots, sang in a voice as craggy as his weather-worn face. Yet still his sound has gotten better with age, with emotion replacing nuance.

He told the audience that the last time he remembered playing in Bangor was as a member of Buddy Holly’s band.

“I ain’t never been here … that I can remember,” he joked with the Orono audience.

Jennings also poked fun at himself and musical cohort Willie Nelson.

“The way it is nowadays, with all those pretty faces out there, me and Willie wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Five cuts from Jennings’ latest album, “Waymore Blues (Part II)” showed that he is still a viable musical force in Nashville.

He also performed the songs that made him famous, including “Good Hearted Woman,” “Luckenbach, Texas,” “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “Amanda” and “Dukes of Hazzard.”

Although he’s still recovering from surgery on both hands for carpal tunnel syndrome, it wasn’t noticeable to the casual observer. His hands flew along his Telecaster guitar in his self-taught, “chicken-pickin”‘ style.

Jennings also struck up a quick rapport with the audience. When someone put a can of beer on the stage, he walked all the way around it without picking it up. He explained, “If I have that one, I’ll have to go find the truck it came from.”

Later on, he traded that beer for a Maine license plate emblazoned “WAYLON,” which he returned to its owner at show’s end.

As Jennings picked up his two roses from fans and walked away, the crowd rewarded him with a second standing ovation, for a job well done. He had erased any doubts people may have had about his place in country-music history.