The Valley - Charley Crockett (2019)

It seems hard to believe that a story like Charley Crockett’s could exist in the 21st century. He spent his 20s as a street performer, traveling “by hitchhiking and riding freight trains” (according to wiki; who the hell hitchhikes these days?!).

He eventually settled down a bit and started recording his honky tonk music that isn’t so much neo-traditionalist as just unreconstructed traditionalist, like he stepped through a hole in time.

The record features a handful of covers and the oft-adapted trad song 9 Pound Hammer, but it’s mostly his own compositions.

With a couple of exceptions, like the scrambled and hectic 5 More Miles, most of the album’s originals lean heavily into what made country and western music so successful in the 1940s and 1950s: laid-back pedal steel, simple beats, and catchy choruses.

Crockett’s voice and attitude are what keep all of this from sounding like a term paper about old-time country music. He inhabits the songs fully, and none of it sounds the least bit ironic or winking.

While I love a good genre-bending, this record of pure old school country is a great listen without any of the modern fatigue we all feel sometimes.