Lonesome Drifter (Island, 2025)

Charlie Crockett is far from an overnight sensation. He's a grinder, having issued 14 independent albums before his major breakthrough in 2024, the Grammy-nominated "$10 Cowboy." He is unstoppable now, releasing "Lonesome Drifter," on a major label with acclaimed co-producer Shooter Jennings alongside. These dozen tracks were recorded live in the studio, without many overdubs. Crockett claims he was given the freedom to do it his way.

The album is an autobiographical summary of the dues he's paid from busking in the New York subways, playing electric blues in obscure local bars in California to his current status of selling out major venues. The Texan has arrived with his distinctive baritone, in-the-pocket axe wielding and an endless well of stories to tell. He has the ingredients to be a modern-day Johnny Cash - enough appeal to the masses and just the right amount of outlaw attitude to keep it real.

Crockett works with his road band although there are a slew of additional musicians credited. The core is drummer Mario Valdez, bassist Jacob Marchese, keyboardist and trumpeter Kullen Fox and guitarists Dave Biller, Alexis Sanchez and acoustic master Rich Brotherton.

The title track opens with a slow building vocal delivery over simmering guitars until Crockett unleashes a piercing guitar solo. He takes a few stabs at the Nashville establishment in the triumphant "Game I Can't Win," prodded on by Brotherton's banjo. The pedal-steel driven "Jamestown Ferry" rolls along as Crockett bemoans a failed relationship, touching again on his past scuffling musician life, which he unveils in greater detail in "Easy Money" from his early days hooked up with a stripper to "ending up in New York soaking wet." "Neon LIghts" brings those struggling honky tonk days into brighter focus, over a heavy bed of organ and his own twangy telecaster. "Never No More" also depicts his early struggles, mixing in bluesy harmonica and guitar licks. All these elements come together in the waltzing "The Life of a Country Singer."

Staying consistent with the autobiographical theme, these two lines from "One Trick Pony" summarize Crockett's life philosophy in Merle Haggard kind of way - "My daddy worked the land and mama raised me with her hands/We all do the best we can with the cards we're dealt." He leaves us nodding to his Texas roots in George Strait's hit "Amarillo by Morning." Throughout, Crockett looks in the rearview in defiant triumph.