And a new label home on Island Records.
GRAMMY® Award-nominee Charley Crockett has announced his new album “Lonesome Drifter”, out March 14 and it’s his official debut for Island Records. Crockett co-produced the album alongside multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning Shooter Jennings. Over the course of just 10 days, they cut the record’s 12 tracks live at the legendary Sunset Sounds Studio in Los Angeles, CA. During the sessions, Crockett and Jennings set themselves the target of bottling “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.”
That vision appears to crystallize 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.” Listen to it below.
“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.”
Musically, the album traces a roadmap through Crockett’s own myriad of influences, tipping a hat to everybody from Waylon Jennings, Bill Withers, Bob Dylan, and Woody Guthrie, drawing on his countless experiences since he first left his native Texas. From the singular vocal performances to the raw and rustic instrumentation to the storytelling, “Lonesome Drifter” could be his most cohesive body of work to date. Just this week Crockett had a GRAMMY® Award nod in the category of “Best Americana Album” for last year’s “$10 Cowboy” but lost out to Sierra Ferrell. Maybe next year Charley! The album can be pre-ordered from this link.
“Lonesome Drifter” Tracklist:
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
Sold Out on this link at the moment. Can still pre-order through Island.
Not sure how you can sell out a preorder… Good to know thanks Andy