Charley Crockett: (1) Look What You Done
by Country Music Saved My Life
In The Night made a huge impact on me at the first listen, and
my first impression was confirmed all the times I've come back to it since
then.
Charley Crockett engages audiences with
his one-of-a-kind raspy but still very sweet voice and a sound that blends
old-fashioned country music, Electric Texas blues, Cajun accordion, vintage
country blues, ragtime and funky Southern soul music all in one package. But he doesn't
seem academic.
With such a personal fusion, he creates
Americana musical art that looks to the past while staunchly remaining in the
twentieth century. His authenticity is so powerful to the point of reminds you
why you became a fan of Americana music in the first place.
Released on June 6, 2016, before the
artist landed on the public's radar, In The Night is a stellar
collection from the San Benito, Texas native artist, filled with so many good
old-school sounds that you can just throw on and put it on repeat for the
night.
Stylistically expansive and sharply focused, In
The Night is a very strong sophomore album with zero weak spots and
that nods to his Texas country and Louisiana blues
roots.
The subject matters of choice that
permeates the album are relationships, struggling and the darkness he had been
going through.
One thing that I noticed since my first
contact with Crockett's music was his great deal of empathy for the socially
ostracized. His lyrical themes are populated by drunks, hobos, night shift
workers, prisoners, outlaws, gamblers, and the down-and-out. Outcasts and
ordinary people with whom he both has real connections and matches some of
those descriptors himself.
Carley Crockett is a distant relative of David Crockett, a 19th-century American folk hero, who served in the Texas Revolution and that's considered one of America's most celebrated frontiersman. A native of South Texas, the artist was born in San Benito, located about 20 minutes from the Mexican border, but grew up in Los Frenos. Soon after he and his family arrived at this isolated, rural part of the Rio Grande Valley, his father departed, so Charley was raised by a single mother since an early age, living in a faded trailer just outside the city, surrounded by poverty. He would later chronicle the region in his 2019's The Valley, his most personal album yet, made up of autobiographical songs in which he revisits and faces his past.
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Rio Grande Valley (Photo by mlhradio) |
When he was 9-year-old, he and his mother relocated to Irving, just outside Dallas. Back in those formative years, Crockett used to go to New Orleans in the summers, living with his uncle.
The first time he arrived at the Big Easy,
he was 10-year-old and became fascinated by the contrast between his hometown
and the city's heavy street culture, vibrancy, music, diversity, and somewhat
loose morals. It was there he would later discover a love for folk music,
hearing traditional old-timey, jug bands, brass bands, and spirituals tunes all day long, while performing gigs on the
streets for changes in the city's oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter (after
its foundation in 1718, New Orleans developed around this national historic
landmark district, also known as the Vieux Carré).
Anyway, moving north to Irving did not
allow them to achieve the opportunities they were seeking for. What happened was just
the opposite: things get worst as her mother lost his job.
It was at that time that remarkable events got in the way. Crockett was
pulled into a stock fraud operation by his half-brother (he forged Crockett's
name onto documents). Although he was not convicted (it was proved that he did
not know the scheme's machination), his brother was sentenced to seven years.
This would ultimately enhance his awareness of being an outcast. Furthermore,
it was in those years that Charley lost his sister to addiction.
By his early twenties, Charley headed to Northern California, where he stayed for about a year working on farms, living in communities, and offering his time and work in exchange for food and free accommodation. Eventually, he traveled east to New York City, where he would spend years on the streets as a homeless, riding the rails and playing for spare change alongside rappers as an unknown busker. In the Big Apple, he performed on street corners and subway platforms, but accordingly to the seasons he would jump from New York to the deep South, to North Carolina, and then to the West Coast since he frequently slept in park's benches (and even floor) outside.
Later, Crockett started playing not only on the streets but also in the
bars and cafes of the Manhattan and Brooklyn areas. With the money he had made,
Crockett hit Paris, where his gigs experienced a surprising amount of success.
When in Europe, he also would travel to Spain and Northern Africa before coming
back to America, where he would have new brushes with the law.
In 2014, he was busted for marijuana possession by Virginia police. This
resulted in him being a twice-charged defendant.
Those were hard times since even probation would greatly hinder his
determination to pursue a formal musical career. After all, being in prison or
even on parole he could no longer travel from city to city, what had been - and
would be - an essential element of his career development. In 2016, he faced a
judge, who gratefully spared him any serious punishment.
Continuing the series of mishaps, more
recently Crockett faced down a serious heart condition (aortic valve stenosis)
that needed life-threatening heart surgery in January 2019, for replacement of
the diseased valve (it was not his congenital Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome
that led him to undergo surgery).
Not surprising, then, that from such an
eclectic, colorful, and biased background emerged the most interesting thing
about his music: it was shaped by his struggling issues. Surely, he's lived a
life worthy of writing about.
He can truly write and sing about those
subject matters, and this would be even more evident on his eighth album, the
critically acclaimed Welcome to Hard Times, released in July 2020).
Charley Crockett says that an important
aspect of his artistic identity is that he has lived the songs he writes and
sings. As he says: "I've always had to work so damn hard to get any
little bit of anything".
Each of his albums proves, again and
again, that Charley Crockett wants to carry on what artists like Jimmie
Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Hank Williams, Lead Belly, and Curtis Mayfield
did before him.
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Photo by Ralph Arvesen |
While this album is full of songs any
proper barn dance would approve, one of its greatest moments lies in the
swing-oriented Look What You Done.
Incorporating vintage and contemporary sounds, Look What You Done offers an enthralling and enjoyable listen even when he sings about being a hurt heart. Penned by Hamilton, Ohio native Emery Blades, a rockabilly artist from the '50s, the song's original title is slightly longer: Look What You've Done To Me. While Crockett didn't have a hand in writing the tune there is much connection between the singer and the song, a result of Crockett's unvarnished veneration of old-school country.
The song structure fits in the traditional AABA ternary format, consisting of two verses and a short middle eight (bridge) that contrasts in chords and harmony to the verses sections. As this building block is not repeated throughout the song, the total running time of the song is only 1:58 (Blade's original cut is a little bit longer, clocking 2:35). Although this very short duration, in the first moment, causes a sense of frustration, at the same time this option of the author reveals his bluesy simplicity and sharp focus. I mean, if there's any flaw to this song at all, it's the short running time, but what's here is so good that it's substantial regardless of the brevity.
In effect, Charley builds his songs
with an accuracy that recalls the classics. This guy knows how to keep things
straight, to a point that maybe we could label it regressive
country (this is not to be taken seriously).
Built around fast notes and a
propulsive beat, Look What You Done prompts foot-tapping, head-nodding,
hand-clapping, and all sorts of visceral responses. What we get is a killer,
timeless groove and tasty tape goodness to the flow and feel of this tune.
Look What You Done could easily fit into any early-'40s Western
Swing album with its ballroom sensibilities, Dixieland tones, and killer pedal
steel guitar line.
Releasing music his own way, Charley
Crockett has quietly been one of the most prolific artists of the '20s, putting
out ten albums over six years. It couldn't be better.
Song Information
• Writer: Emery Blades
• Charley Crockett - vocals, acoustic and electric guitar [rhythm]
• Jay Moeller - drums
• Billy Hortonf - electric upright bass
• Kullen Fox - piano
• Nathan Fleming - pedal steel guitar
• Alexis Sanchez - rhythm/lead electric guitar [lead and rhythm]
• Matt Farrell - piano
• Producers: Charley Crockett and Jay Moeller
• Recorded at Fort Horton Studios, Wildwood, TX
• Release date: June 6, 2016
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