Country/blues singer Charley Crockett is known for his old-school sound and tireless work ethic. Since his 2015 debut, he’s recorded a whopping 15 albums and slowly achieved greater recognition with each one. His latest, Lonesome Drifter, marks Crockett’s crossover from independent label Son of Davy to Universal Music Group’s Island Records. Even with a larger label in the mix, Crockett has maintained creative control, crafting a direct continuation of the sound and mythology he’s developed in the last decade.
In fact, Drifter seems largely uninterested in expanding Crockett’s sonic palette. Crockett maintains his casual vocal style for the majority of the album, reaching for a falsetto or a shout only occasionally, like on the funky love song “Never No More.” The well-trodden country-soul sound of Crockett’s previous records feels revitalized and dangerous on the sleek, rollicking title track; meanwhile, “Easy Money” offers one of the album’s most melodic and poignant choruses, wherein Crockett’s own struggle is paralleled with that of a nightclub dancer. Elsewhere, the album misses the landing, from the silly carnival horns on “Jamestown Ferry” to the pleasant but forgettable “Night Rider.”
The record feels like a sequel to 2024’s Grammy-nominated $10 Cowboy, which saw Crockett reflecting on his days as a street performer. On Lonesome Drifter, he shares more of the history that brought him into the spotlight. He recalls “Mama’s air conditioning went out in July/She bought me this guitar, never said why… I woke up in New York City without a name/Wasn’t long before I learned the hustler’s game” on “Easy Money.” Likewise, “Under Neon Lights” remembers his mother working two jobs as he ages and grows weary of “the lonely patrons in this old honky tonk.” These plain-spoken images of struggling against poverty are integral to the Crockett persona.
At times, Crockett seems to affirm the message of the American Dream, that a driven Texas man can find success with enough blood, sweat, and tears. Ultimately, however, he seems to assert that the American Dream is a rigged game at which he can’t help but try his hand. “They can’t stand to see you free/Your check ain’t never coming in,” he intones, before admitting, “I’ve always loved a game I can’t win.”
Even those who do beat the odds and find success, Crockett warns, will pay a price to get there. “Amarillo by Morning” (made famous by George Strait in the 1980s) depicts a cowboy with a broken love life and rodeo injuries, who finds solace in proclaiming, “I ain’t rich, but Lord, I’m free.” Similarly, Crockett confides on “Life of a Country Singer” that “riding out to meet my glory” means “breaking my damn heart in songs for you.”
Lonesome Drifter is a record whose primary goal is writing the definitive mythology of the rags-to-riches Charley Crockett persona. He even nods to his own catalog with a loose and animated rendition of Tanya Tucker’s “The Jamestown Ferry,” which he first covered on a 2017 album. This record will satisfy fans, at the risk of seeming self-aggrandizing to those uninterested in the singer’s lore. Regardless, the prolific Crockett is already onto the next project—telling Billboard that Lonesome Drifter is the first in a trilogy of records and its follow-up is already finished.
2 of 5 stars
