Three Chords and the Truth

Photography by Colin LaVaute

3/31/22

I walk down the aisle with my beer in the dark, crowded Blue Note (Columbia,MO). Stage lights begin to move and a band assembles on-stage, at their various instruments. They begin to play a vamp in the half-lit setting, as anticipation builds. This classic show-opening approach has been used by everyone: from George Jones and Porter Waggoner, to Elvis Presley and Tom Jones. This is the band, the intro informs you, and then … the stage turns from blue to soft-white, and a spotlight follows a figure who appears from the wings to the microphone. This is The Star!

Charley Crockett gives the audience a crooked smile, with a guitar almost halfway under his right armpit. His eyes shoot to the back of the room, with a sly look that informs the audience the show has begun.

If you were to ask me how I feel about country music, I would tell you that I love it. But, if we were to sit and listen to a modern country music station for 30 minutes, I would no doubt be on a tirade halfway through about how these songs shouldn’t even be allowed to call themselves “Country.” And, then I would probably explain to you that my personal relationship with country music is . . .complicated. I would argue that the factors that go into said feelings have as much to do with the origins of country music as they do with my personal taste. And, I’ll cry that I know I’m not alone with these feelings!

But also, and conversely, I am aware that the title “Country” became a marketing term, more than a style, many years ago. The music I personally listen to and love and associate with being “Country” has been labeled “Americana”, for a while now. Enough so to have award shows and everything! And, how could you blame any of them for wanting to separate themselves from Florida/Georgia Line?

Call it whatever you will, seeing Charley Crockett in concert on Monday night (3/28) was a confirmation for so many of these “feelings” about country music. To make a religious idiom, Country and Blues are to Issac and Ishmael as Folk music is to Abraham. There are far more similarities, than differences, between Country and Blues. I won’t blab about all that in a short blog, but… three chords and the truth and what have you. This history and linkage is something Charley Crockett not only understands but embraces and, perhaps, embodies. His already extensive catalog includes multiple blues cover albums, as well as multiple country cover albums. This particular live performance leaned heavy on the “Country” side of his repertoire. But, he was sure to include aspects of what he called “Texas Blues” at various points during the show. Charley Crockett is not the most dynamic singer to have ever walked on a stage, but he commanded his audience from that first crooked smile to his final wave goodbye. From this writer’s place in the crowd, his stage presence is perhaps the biggest part of his appeal. Or, maybe it’s the look of the man himself? What is certainly true and seems much more important, his tone and his sincerity are unmistakably authentic. His Texas/Louisiana drawal is the stuff of golden, honky-tonk dreams. And, perhaps the most romantic aspect of Charley Crockett is that his life story is as interesting as his music. The true strife throughout his life harkens to oral (and written) legend a’ la Merle Haggard. It may seem like something you’ve heard before starts to fade toward cliche’. But then Jukebox Charley says, “Sometimes you gotta wander a long ways to find out where home is, and that’s what this song is about.”

It makes you warm and fuzzy to know he isn’t just reciting some stock line that sounds good along-side his Stetson hat and pearl-snap shirt. He has lived the song you’re about to hear. When he sings “You’re certainly welcome to hard times”, it hangs with the weight of the South, the promise of better days and an echo of truth with every. Damn. Word. Country music may smell funny. But it’s not dead. 

Wes Wingate is a musician from Columbia, Missouri. His new album Late Bloomer is available on all platforms.