Charley Crockett: On the Road With the ‘$10 Cowboy’

“All roses!” Charley Crockett replies when asked how he’s doing. The songwriter says he picked up the phrase on tour after hearing a gas-station attendant use it and is currently writing a song with that title. Crockett, a thrilling live performer who can transport country fans to lonesome highways or dusty Western towns with his observational lyrics, is always writing while on the road. His new album $10 Cowboy, released April 26, was birthed almost entirely on the go.

“I actually have trouble writing just sitting right at the house. I need to be moving,” he says before a gig in Miami. “When I’m on the road, people’s stories are just spilling out on the street in front of me and I’m always wanting to take those pieces.”

The other day, he overheard a drifter remark, “I’m not done losing yet” and jotted it down. “It’s those things that slowly turn into songs and land on records,” Crockett says. “There’s a million of them I have going all the time.”

Crockett’s been prolifically recording albums since returning to his native Texas, in 2015, after years of grinding it out as a street performer. Last year he dropped his 12th, The Man From Waco, and found his largest audience yet. Now he’s headlining Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, L.A.’s Greek Theatre, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and playing for audiences around the globe: RS cameras captured him at a gig earlier this year in Melbourne, Australia.

“We’re having a lot of success outside of the United States,” Crockett says. “Maybe over the years, the word of mouth has helped me to be able to go [abroad] and sell tickets. I’m happy about that.”