In december 2022 ben ik als een blok gevallen voor de muziek van ene Charley Crockett. De man maakt traditionele c&w maar laat daar geregeld soulvolle invloeden in doorsijpelen d.m.v. instrumenten als blazers en Hammond orgel. Zijn manier van zingen is heel verhalend, alsof hij tegen zijn publiek staat te vertellen, wat de connectie tijdens live shows enorm versterkt. Op die manier doet hij me een beetje aan de legendarische Marty Robbins denken. Dan heb je nog die typerende uitspraak die, naar ik vermoed, regelrecht uit de trailer parks rond Los Fresnos (Tx) komt, waarschijnlijk gekruid met klanken afkomstig uit de vele plaatsen waar hij woonde en/of rond trok. Zijn laatste album The Man From Waco is nu al een klassieker.
Trouwens, de man is een afstammeling van Davy Crockett, jawel.
$10 Cowboy verschijnt op 26 april 2024 via Son Of Davy / Thirty Tigers.
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Upon leaving high school at the age of 17, Crockett decided to travel with his guitar acquired by his mother from a pawn shop. Crockett noted "I taught myself how to play and started to write songs immediately, without any chord knowledge or anything. I didn't know what key I was in for 12 years, but my ear was really good, and I could play in any key and any chord. I just didn't know what it was." His early musical influences came from hearing hip hop, and he became fascinated with the samples used. Crockett said, "I got into Curtis Mayfield through samples of his songs by other artists, and Nina Simone was through a sample. Even J. Cole, I was listening to a song of his ("Kenny Lofton"), and it was based on the sample from the Manhattans version of 'Hurt'".
Crockett played music on the streets in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in Deep Ellum, Dallas as a teenager. Later he traveled further afield by hitchhiking and riding freight, and by 2009 he was busking in New York City. As he improved his performance skills, Crockett organized a street band called the Trainrobbers, which caught the attention of a Manhattan-based representative for Sony Music. She signed the 26-year-old Crockett to a two-year management contract, although he rejected a publishing deal.
Eventually tired of life on the streets and the pending expiration of the contract, Crockett relocated to Northern California, where he combined working on farms and communes with performing for three more years. Crockett then existed on the streets in Paris, France, for a year, and briefly lived in Spain and Morocco.
