Charley Crockett Returns with, ‘Music City USA,’ Plus a Documentary Film

We used "returns" in the headline like he went anywhere. Two albums clocking in in just under 7 months, someone wanna tell Charley Crockett this isn't a race. Wait, never mind. Don't do that. Let's just let him keep 'em comin'.

In February of this year Crockett dropped, 10 for Slim: Charley Crocket Sings James Hand; here we are in September with more new music from one of our favorite singers, songwriters, and performers. Today, Charley with a "y" released Music City USA, his 10th studio album in six years.

“I’m looking at it in this way, where it’s like, well maybe the reason that I got lucky is because I really stayed true to myself,” says Crockett via Texas Monthly. “You know, I’ll have ten records out by the end of this year. [They’ve] all been done my way.”

The Texas native released his next to last album Welcome to Hard Times in July 2020, right smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. While most were cautiously holding on to albums and pushing release dates, Crockett posed the question to us, that with a name like this album has "what better time to release it?"

Get our free mobile app

Accompanying the new project is a making-of documentary, The Road To Music City USA. In the opening of it the San Benito native and former street busker shares “That’s the life that I’m relating to be, and I don’t set out to necessarily write that stuff specifically, it’s just what pours out. And when I cobble it together and look back on it in reflection, it just looks like the path that I walk now. And maybe mine is unusual for today, I’d say it’s highly unusual to the point where people think it’s made up, you know? The truth is, I’ve toned it down.”

I won't lie, in February '20, right before the lockdown, when Charley told us on Radio Texas, LIVE! that his plan was to release new music ever 12-18 months I took it as more hyperbole than anything. He's cranked out three new albums since he told us that just 19 months ago. That's a lot of work. And let's not put it past him, there's still about three months left in 2021.