While I waited for the doors to open at The Fillmore, a guy walked up to several people around me. He asked if they’d be willing to give an interview about what they love about country music. Most decline, but the prompt made me wonder what I love about country music. Lonesome slide guitar, engaging storytelling, and distinct, stylized showmanship come to mind. Country music is difficult to pull off without paying homage to legends who came before, and Mr. Charley Crockett seems like he could be one of the genre’s forefathers.
Charley Crockett is known throughout the country music genre as an old soul, with his classic Western sound á la Marty Robbins combined with the swamp pop of Freddy Fender. Crockett represents a refreshing take to the modern landscape of country music ripe with bro country, Americana, and emo cowgirls.
Crockett’s opener, Early James and The Latest, was a muddy blues trio of musicians from Alabama. They embarked on their set of slow, reverberating blues around 8:30. The bass player laid down spooky swamp rock basslines for Early James to play guitar on top of. The drummer followed with ride patterns and crisp snare work. Their 50-minute-long set encompassed several slow tunes likely inspired by Tom Waits’ Orphans project.
The already-packed crowd kicked into high gear when Early James put his capo on his fourth fret and began picking out one of his higher-tempo songs, “Mama Can Be My Valentine.” Shuffling feet and hands waved as James yearningly crooned out to the audience. The set culminated in a new song coming out later in September, the release of which I anticipate as it was one of the band’s better songs. Around 9:15, Early James left the stage and Charley Crockett’s crew began taking covers off of equipment and setting up a stage reminiscent of a late 60s country bandstand.
The lights went down and Crockett’s band walked on stage to “Il Texicano.” the theme of a 60s spaghetti western. The band was outfitted in a uniform of black dress shirts and red pants. All the instruments were white, and they instantly kicked in the descending blues organ intro of “$10 Cowboy”, the title track and lead single of his album that came out this past April.
Crockett danced across the stage and peered out to the mid-level of the audience. The microphone sat on the tip of his chin as he crooned out the lines of “Visions of Dallas,” the title track of his most recent release. Most of the first hour of Crockett’s set was encompassed by cuts off “Visions of Dallas” and “$10 Cowboy.” As the set went on, his deeper catalog reigned supreme.
“Run Horse Run,” off of 2020’s “Welcome To Hard Times”, was the band’s 6th song of the evening, and arguably the highlight. The country outfit started into the up-tempo country shuffle with slide guitar swells, drums booming with train beats, and quick strums of acoustic guitar. “Can’t stop until my work is done/Run horse, run horse run.” Crockett often shouted the hook to cheers from the audience as he galloped across the stage, evoking images of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and other great country showmen.
Crockett traded his acoustic guitar for a butterscotch Fender telecaster and strummed on some of the more rocking tracks in his catalog. “I’m Just A Clown,” off of his 2022 breakthrough effort, “The Man From Waco,” was a standout of the evening. The song combines quasi-disco drums and soulful guitar stabs, culminating in a dramatic trumpet solo. The steel guitar is epochal to most country music, but Crockett combines the lap steel with New Orleans-influenced trumpet and organ playing, enabling him to achieve a much more unique sound than most country outfits touring today.
As the evening progressed, Crockett made sure to let the audience know how appreciative he was to be playing for them, as he spent his formative years between San Benito, Texas, and visiting his uncle who lived in the French Quarter. He cut his teeth in the industry busking on street corners all around town, and Charlie Mills Jr. often accompanied him on trumpet. Crockett brought Mills out for “Trinity River,” a bluesy track ripe with opportunity for improvisation. Mills stayed on stage for the remainder of the set, often adding tasteful trumpet lines and bringing some New Orleans sound.
While some try and categorize Crockett’s music as country, he believes something completely different. In banter with the audience, Crockett divulged that “When they first wrote me up in Austin, Texas, they called me a genre chameleon. But standing right here, where I got it all together, this right here ain’t nothing but the blues.” On these lines, he broke into a T. Bone Burnett cover. Crockett’s cover selection was particularly extraordinary, as he played songs from artists such as Link Wray, T. Bone Walker, James Hand, Vincent Neil Emerson, and Tanya Tucker. Most of these artists seem obscure, but within the pantheon of Crockett’s artistry, they make perfect sense to emulate.
Crockett wrapped up the evening with an encore of Tanya Tucker’s “Jamestown Ferry” and another “$10 Cowboy” track, “America”. On the concluding notes of the last song of the evening, he offered these words to the audience, “Thank y’all, I’m Charley Crockett. That’s Charley with an -ey like Charley Pride and Crockett with two t’s like Davy.” He set his guitar on a stand and walked into the arms of his wife, who was waiting on the side stage.
Crockett’s act borders on novelty while still maintaining an authenticity that isn’t present in other country musicians of the time. To most, it may seem hokey that the Valley native waltzes around the stage with one of the tallest cowboy hats around. However, to purists of American music, Crockett should represent a breath of fresh air. I stepped out into the thick humidity of nighttime New Orleans and automatically was desperate to send my outlaw postcard to the next person who could see Charley Crockett.
