Review: Charley Crockett, $10 Cowboy

Eleven months ago, while out promoting his hook-filled, semi-concept-album The Man From Waco (and the redux’d “Billy Horton Sessions”), Charley Crockett was already ruminating on his next. Looking extremely Western on the Daily Show set, he told the host, “Hard luck and circumstances put me on street corners ... I’m a cowboy singer, and I just want to keep singing my cowboy songs.” Indeed ruminative, less hooky, but still a recognizable play in the Austin-area singer’s traditional and soul country mix – new album $10 Cowboy borrows his talk show phrasing for “Hard Luck.” Black Pumas backup singers Lauren Cervantes and Angela Miller provide a gospel-ish chorus in one of a few new flourishes to the Texan’s bulletproof baritone. A photo shoot in front of South Congress’ Mustang Jewelry & Pawn also places the Arlyn Studios-made LP.

No yipping “Cowboy Candy” (2022) here, this titular “$10 Cowboy” – the album’s most successful grab at smoky rock, unlike car-commercial burnout “Solitary Road” – plays street corners for tips. Written on the road to bigger and bigger dates in his recent ascent to country stardom, the midst-of-fame capture flips between underdog vulnerability and braggadocio (especially “the street took all my money,” repeated wearily). Alongside swirls around cities, casinos, and a lot of luck and losing, “America” goes too broad under noted Crockett influence Bob Dylan. His pen could also have been loosened by LP producer Billy Horton, who’d recently mostly handled covers and reworks for Crockett’s alter ego Lil G.L. series. Supplying a few impeccably recorded onstage rockers, $10 Cowboy slots like an exploratory studio in-betweener among Crockett’s comprehensive catalog – no “Hard Luck” considering it’s his ninth album in five years.

On Monday, April 29, after a free in-store performance at Waterloo Records (4:30pm), Crockett plays the Broken Spoke (9:15pm) as part of a Texas run of $10-ticketed shows.