From the first time I heard Charley Crockett sing, on his 2016 sophomore album, A Stolen Jewel, it was evident the singer-songwriter would achieve success — and firmly on his own terms.
A decade and more than a dozen albums later, the now Austin-based 40-year-old musician has taken the next step, moving from his relentless, self-motivated hustle — and prior flirtations with the music industry machinery (a management deal here; a distribution deal there) to a major label signing, releasing his 15th studio album, Lonesome Drifter, on Island Records.
“This is my first LP on a major label,” Crockett wrote in a March 14 Instagram post. “If you know me, then you already know they gave me everything I wanted. … This album here, it just kinda happened like a casual conversation you might say.”
To celebrate the new record (as he did for last year’s $10 Cowboy), Crockett will perform on the stage inside Good Records on March 22.
Not that there was much chance Crockett was going to radically alter his approach after graduating to a major label, but Lonesome Drifter, deftly showcases what has drawn so many to the one-time Deep Ellum busker. (“Feels like Commerce Street/Playing for nickels and dimes, easy money,” he says at the outset of “Never No More.”)
These dozen songs highlight his eclectic sensibility: R&B, funk and jazz dance across these nominally country tunes, underscoring the genre’s elasticity. He even tucks in a superb, organ-kissed cover of George Strait’s “Amarillo by Morning,” acknowledging his place on the vast continuum of Texas and country artists.
Drifter is further fueled by his tangy south Texas vocals laid against a finely wrought musical backdrop, lightly polished by Jennings, and his facility with phrases that often feels like folk wisdom: “Them boys in Nashville, they don’t mess around/Better watch ‘em when your deal goes down,” he sings on “Game I Can’t Win.”
What’s most striking about Drifter is the record’s feeling of depth — so much of Crockett’s recorded output has long been direct, spare and stripped back to only what was absolutely necessary.
Hearing sweet strings falling in behind his vocals on “This Crazy Life” or the N’awlins-spiced instrumental breakdown in a reworked version of “Jamestown Ferry” is to understand Crockett, through sheer perseverance, has finally realized the fullness of his particular vision.
Now that’s he’s arrived at this stage, Crockett isn’t going anywhere. He recently told the Houston Chronicle he’s already recorded two follow-ups to Drifter, and that anyone expecting him to approach his career any differently now that he’s got a bit more visibility than he had when I first encountered him almost a decade ago … well, you should know better.
“I go to L.A., and don’t get me wrong, they love the $10 Cowboy out there, but there are still those people who, they see the cowboy hat and the Texas bravado, and they automatically got this idea of what it is,” Crockett told the Chronicle. “So, there’s only two ways to deal with it as a Texan. When you go outside of Texas, you have two roads: You tone it down or you turn it up. I’ve decided to turn it up.”
Charley Crockett in-store at Good Records, Dallas. 4 p.m. March 22.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at preston@kxt.org or find him on Bluesky (@prestonjones.bsky.social).Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
