The authors misunderstand the transition entirely.

"Depending upon which lens of the historical perspective you view this through, this 12-song collection is the last gasp of true honky tonk, the first stab at mainstreaming it into the Nashville sound of the 1960s, or country music's first concept album." (AlllMusic review of Price's Night Life album--the correct answer is all three, but Hank Thompson's "Songs for Rounders" could be seen as the first country concept album, with "Night Life" as a conceptual challenge to Thompson's bad boy ethos).

Price's Phase 2 as the authors describe it is primarily honky-tonk, but with The Night Life, Price reappraises honky-tonk as a a dead-end and looks toward a softer, less macho (less patriarchal) style / attitude. The title track from Night Life--a Willie Nelson original--expresses the ambivalence toward the classic honky-tonk phase of country western. ("They tell me life's an empty scene / An avenue of broken dreams / Because the night life / It ain't no good life but it's my life") The arrangement of the final track, "Let Me Talk to You," shifts to the countrypolitan format that the authors call "supper club sellout." At the beginning of the Night Life album, Price talks directly to the record buyer. At the end, the singer's persona seeks to talk directly to his beloved. Honky-tonk is exorcised as a solipsistic, self-defeating expression of self indulgence.

About a decade later, the outlaw movement would rediscover the outsider energy of honky-tonk, but there's always a bit of nostalgia in their writing and performing. To my ear, the outlaw movement is more sad than proud or defiant.