Last year Charley Crockett released The Valley, an album of 16 songs that was recorded before he had open-heart surgery. It showed his abilities as a songwriter and storyteller. Not only that, it showed that he is a country musician that is worthy of your attention.
It would have been easy for Crockett to rest on that album before putting out anything new. However, Rest doesn’t seem to be on the agenda as he shows with the new album Welcome To Hard Times, which features songwriting collaborations with Pat McLaughlin and Dan Auerbach. Of the album, he said, “This record is for the folks who think everything is fixed. But you still gotta roll the dice, even when you know they’re loaded.”
There are some pretty distinct components of this album. The first is the honky-tonk songs, which is something you would expect from Crockett. With the prominent piano and the pedal steel, it’s fair to say that songs like the title track and “Tennessee Special” were made to get people dancing in a dark and dusty honky tonk. Along the same lines, “The Man that Time Forgot” is a great tune for slow dancing, whether you’re in a honky tonk or your own living room.
This album also features some more cinematic tunes, and “Run Horse Run” is a good example. This song is fueled by a shuffle beat and an upright bass line that keeps the song chugging along. It also features some good picking on the steel guitar. It’s easy to imagine this as part of a soundtrack for a gritty black-and-white Western, and it’s just one example on this album of how he can create vivid images with his lyrics.
Another component of this album is less obvious, and it comes to you the more you listen – particularly in “Paint It Blue”. There is something vaguely familiar running throughout the melodies that you may not be able to place at first. The more you listen, the more you notice a similarity to Marty Robbins in the rhythm of the guitar (but certainly not in the vocals).
It’s good news for fans that Crockett was neither slowed down by open heart surgery nor content to sit on an album he released just a year ago. He has a way of telling stories that make his songs something you experience rather than just hear.
Photo credit: Bobby Cochran
