Charley Crockett has announced his new album Lonesome Drifter, out March 14, his official debut for Island Records. On Friday, Crockett will unveil the album’s title track and accompanying video. Crockett will be performing two nights at Geodis Park here in Nashville opening for Tyler Childers on Oct 10 and 11. GET TICKETS HERE.
Crockett co-produced the album alongside multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning Shooter Jennings. Over the course of just 10 days. During the sessions, Charley and Shooter invariably bottled “the magic of performance on tape.”
“Shooter and I barely talked about it,” says Charley. “I just brought all of my guys out, and the album made itself. It was live without a lot of overdubs. There were no inhibitions. I wasn’t being judged, and I didn’t feel self-conscious. Shooter knew how to cut loose and let this thing unfold.”
His vision crystallizes on the first single and title track, “Lonesome Drifter.” A rolling drumbeat and steady tambourine underscore the slow-burning vocal delivery, “I’m just a lonesome drifter on the only highway.”Guitar wails like a siren in the background until Crockett’s fret-scorching solo shakes the bridge. The visual translates the tune’s energy to the screen, speaking to his incredible journey thus far in the process.
“I started writing the song back when I was still playing in subways in New York,” he recalls. “It’s how I learned to play electric guitar with an amp on my shoulder. While I was waiting for the next train, I wrote songs. A few years later, I was in California working on the ganja farms, and I came up with the ‘Lonesome Drifter’ section. When I arrived on the West Coast, I worked to stay out there as a drifter, so I could get away with playing music for a living. At night, I was doing heavy electric blues and hillbilly shit at local bars for six hours. Shooter got me back into that mindset. The burden of becoming a troubadour is you’re standing in a position that gives you a clear perspective of the struggles of humans. When all is said and done, everyone is just swinging a hammer to survive.”
All of that work and life effectively prepared him to record Lonesome Drifter with Shooter. Musically, he traces a roadmap through his own myriad of influences, tipping a hat to everybody from Waylon Jennings, Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, and Woody Guthrie, drawing on countless, often unbelievable true experiences since he first left his native Texas. From the spellbinding vocal performances to the raw and rustic instrumentation to the unforgettable storytelling, Lonesome Drifter stands out as his most cohesive body of work to date.
Charley garnered a GRAMMY® Award nod in the category of “Best Americana Album” for last year’s $10 Cowboy. The GRAMMY® Awards ceremony airs on Sunday, February 2, 2025, on CBS from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA.
TRACKLISTING
1. Lonesome Drifter
2. Game I Can’t Win
3. Jamestown Ferry
4. Easy Money
5. Under Neon Lights
6. This Crazy Life
7. The Death Of Bill Bailey
8. Never No More
9. Life Of A Country Singer
10. One Trick Pony
11. Night Rider
12. Amarillo By Morning
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