Life’s a gamble and the dice are loaded. at least that’s how Charley Crockett likes to think of it. The 36-year-old, Texas-born country musician’s newest album Welcome to Hard Times is a testament to that. Gambling, sinning, lies, and a whole lot more awaits as Crockett invites you into his world.
“You’ve got the blue mountains, the winding roads, green pastures,” Crockett describes over the phone as he drives through rural Arkansas, a scene reminiscent from his music videos. “It’s very beautiful.” Sprawling landscapes serve as the backdrop to this outlaw’s journey. Raised in rural Texas by a single mother in a trailer park, Crockett left home at 17. He played music on the streets of Dallas, New Orleans, New York City, and later lived in Paris, Spain, Morocco, you name it. “I grew up in casinos and bingo halls on the Gulf Coast, Mississippi, Louisiana,” Crockett recounts. “You see the gambling, man. You see the poker game that it is.”
After years of living on the streets, hopping around the world, and a few run-ins with the law, Crockett finally settled back down in Texas. “There’s people like me who catch the hard times but never catch a break,” he says. “I said, ‘you got to get off the street, or you’re never going to.’” So, he decided to stay put and offer up his debut album A Stolen Jewel. Crockett has released six additional studio albums since, including Welcome to Hard Times—as thematic a product of 2020 as we’ve come across.
The album’s name comes as a coincidence, though, as Crockett wrote the title track back in November of 2019, long before any inkling of a pandemic emerged. Sharing the same title as the 1967 Western starring Henry Fonda, Welcome to Hard Times (via Thirty Tigers) also borrows elements of cinematic storytelling. With what feels like a beginning, middle, and end, Crockett cites his blues, folk, and rock n’ roll origins, along with his commitment to an old-school style of country music, as influences on his songwriting. “When I’m talking about country, that’s what I really like. That cinematic picture that’s painted by the story,” he says. And his story is a torrential one—from his hardships growing up to his recent battle with heart disease that saw a major surgery in early 2019,
His solace and calm? The storytelling he learned during his years’ ups and downs, amidst the chaos. The album’s ultimate song, “Poplar Tree,” serves as the last chapter of this storybook, whispering from the grave. “If you knew that your life was going to end at the end of that rope, then does it make all those rivers you’ve crossed and those valleys you’ve walked through invalid?” he asks, followed by a deep and stirring pause. “It does not.” Crockett reminds us that it’s not the cards you’ve been dealt, but how you play your hand.
Written by Nate Rynaski
Photographed by Katherine Squier