Charley Crockett Unveils New Album ‘Lonesome Drifter’

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Charley Crockett; Photo: Bobby Cochran

Grammy Award-nominee Charley Crockett has unveiled his new album Lonesome Drifter releasing March 14, his official debut for Island Records. Crockett will release the album’s title track and accompanying video tomorrow (Jan. 31).

The 12-track album was co-produced by Crockett alongside Grammy award-winning Shooter Jennings over the course of just 10 days at the legendary Sunset Sounds Studio in Los Angeles.

“Shooter and I barely talked about it,” shares 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 for the project comes to fruition in the first single and title track, “Lonesome Drifter.”

“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.”

For years, Crockett has quietly kept his head down and delivered music at a relentless pace, refining his “Gulf & Western” sound and evolving as both a songwriter and performer. All of that work paid off as he and Shooter prepared to record Lonesome Drifter.

In the album, Crockett pays homage to an array of his musical influences such as Waylon Jennings, Bill Withers, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. He pulls on themes from his unbelievable, true experiences and stitches them together with a slow-burning vocal delivery and rustic instrumentation to create a real, cohesive body of work.

Lonesome Drifter Track Listing
1. “Lonesome Drifter” (Charley Crockett)
2. “Game I Can’t Win” (Charley Crockett)
3. “Jamestown Ferry” (Bobby Borchers, Mack Vickery)
4. “Easy Money” (Charley Crockett)
5. “Under Neon Lights” (Charley Crockett)
6. “This Crazy Life” (Charley Crockett)
7. “The Death Of Bill Bailey” (Charley Crockett)
8. “Never No More” (Alan Block, Don Hect, Rita Ross)
9. “Life Of A Country Singer” (Charley Crockett, Shooter Jennings, Kyle Madrigal, Richard Lenz, Brotherton Jr.)
10. “One Trick Pony” (Charley Crockett, Francis Farrell-McDaniel)
11. “Night Rider” (Charley Crockett)
12. “Amarillo By Morning” (Terry Stafford, Paul Fraser)

John Nix Arledge
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