AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The music industry's biggest night is coming this Sunday - the Grammy Awards. And this week, as we do every year, we're bringing you the stories of a few first-time Grammy nominees. We're going to kick things off in San Bernardino, at the Yaamava' Resort and Casino...
CHARLEY CROCKETT: You just got it on the one (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: No, we're good.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah.
CHANG: ...Where we caught up with country music singer Charley Crockett in the middle of his soundcheck.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEY MR. NASHVILLE")
CROCKETT: (Singing) Hey, Mr. Nashville, out there on the town. You wine 'em and dine 'em and hand 'em a plastic crown.
CHANG: Crockett was born and raised in Texas, grew up in a single-wide trailer with his mom and says his family lineage traces all the way back to the frontiersman Davy Crockett. Well, now Charley Crockett is up for best Americana album for his record "$10 Cowboy." I was so excited to meet him, I showed up in one of my several cowgirl outfits.
Charley, I want you to take note. I wore my boots for you. I wore my cowboy hat for you.
CROCKETT: Well, you wear it well.
CHANG: Thank you so much. You wear it well, too, I have to say.
I mean, he does. Crockett exudes country cool - the white cowboy hat, the turquoise belt, the stubble. Oh, and don't even get me started on all the gorgeous vintage country outfits he takes on the road with him.
Wow. Your costumes are in, like, a vault.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR SLAMMING)
CHANG: (Laughter) Do you have a favorite jacket or...
CROCKETT: Yeah, I wear...
CHANG: ...A jacket you forgot you owned?
CROCKETT: I wear this one a lot.
CHANG: Oh, I love the fringe on that.
CROCKETT: This one's nice. You don't even need to wear nothing under it. You just button it up.
CHANG: Ooh, look at the stitching on that. My dream would be to see you wear this jacket with the leather stitching tonight with the white flower boots.
CROCKETT: OK.
CHANG: But, you know, my dreams don't always come true.
CROCKETT: (Laughter) I'm going to give it a shot. You know, when I first was getting off the street and out of the bars - I got my first agent - on the street in New Orleans, where I started dressing up. And the main reason was - is being, like, a hobo that I was, I started dressing up so the tourists would take me serious. I used to do a little jig for the tourists in front of the Cafe du Monde.
CHANG: But then you ended up preferring the street as your amphitheater. Like, you spent years playing in New York - right? - also on the subway platform, in subway trains?
CROCKETT: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CROCKETT: (Singing) Ooh, honey, how I try.
CHANG: What was that like? Like, I'm just sort of picturing this train barreling underneath Manhattan, and you're singing country and blues. Did you feel a little bit out of place?
CROCKETT: Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I wanted to go to New York because of Bob Dylan, because I - of his songwriting. And then, slowly but surely, over a couple of years, I started getting better, you know, 'cause I was spending - I mean, I was playing 10 hours a day...
CHANG: Wow.
CROCKETT: ...You know?
CHANG: That's a lot of practice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOOD AT LOSING")
CROCKETT: (Singing) They laughed at me in New York City, called me a fool in LA. I doubt that Nashville saw me coming.
CHANG: But wait, go to the album covers 'cause I want to talk about that.
CROCKETT: Yeah.
CHANG: Your album covers have this really cool look - vintage, classic.
CROCKETT: Yeah.
CHANG: What is it that you're trying to channel on these covers?
CROCKETT: I love the old records because they didn't have all this digital streaming and...
CHANG: Yeah.
CROCKETT: ...All this stuff. It was like, you had to tell the story with the picture to sell it to somebody, you know? You had to summarize what you were about in a short paragraph on the back of that thing...
CHANG: Yeah.
CROCKETT: ...As much as they could stuff in there.
CHANG: Yeah. Well, you know, I hear it in your sound, too. Like, the arrangements in your albums, they hearken back to this older time in country.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARD LUCK AND CIRCUMSTANCES")
CROCKETT: (Singing) Because it's hard luck and circumstances that brought me here. And if they...
CHANG: How do you find the right balance between resurrecting an older style of music versus creating something new and different that you can completely call your own?
CROCKETT: Well, it's funny you should say that 'cause I feel like I'm at this kind of crossroads or, you know, like, I'm in this kind of vortex. I'm all about making a statement more than a financial impact, right? But, like, let's be honest here. Like, the agents, the publicists, the studios, the labels, they can tell you they're about this, that and the third, but it's just about money, right? And if you think it's about something else, you're going to get bruised.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLEY CROCKETT SONG, "HARD LUCK AND CIRCUMSTANCES")
CROCKETT: I didn't lobby for a Grammy. I refused to join the committees. I don't advertise to consider me for the Grammys. I'm not about that. I don't.
CHANG: Are you annoyed you got nominated?
CROCKETT: No, no, I'm honored. It's great.
CHANG: OK.
CROCKETT: It's great to be recognized. I'm just saying I don't do it for that.
CHANG: But also, at this point in your career, I mean, you've played the Ryman, you've performed with Willie Nelson...
CROCKETT: Yeah.
CHANG: ...You've toured all over the world. Like, what does a Grammy nomination mean to someone who's already accomplished so much?
CROCKETT: Well, it means a whole lot to my mama.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: Maybe that's enough, then.
CROCKETT: Yeah. Yeah. She's proud of me for sure, you know?
CHANG: Something your mama might be thinking about is the pace of your life right now, though. I read, earlier in your career, the more you toured, the worse you felt. Like, you would get tired, dizzy, out of breath, and it turned out you had this potentially fatal heart valve problem. So you had open-heart surgery back in 2019. By the way, how are you feeling today?
CROCKETT: Oh, yeah. Well, I ain't pushing up daisies yet.
CHANG: OK. But you are, like, not slowing down at all. I was looking, like, you - what? - you put out 15 albums in the last nine years. And then your tour schedule this past year, every single month you are performing somewhere. And we're talking about, like, Australia, the U.K., Canada.
CROCKETT: I was out for four months straight last summer.
CHANG: So why are you moving at such a rapid, ferocious pace?
CROCKETT: Yeah, I don't know, because all the people I ever related to, everybody is, like, working so hard their whole life. You kind of work so hard that, you know, you don't have kind of time to stop and take it all in, you know? And...
CHANG: Are you afraid to stop?
CROCKETT: Yeah.
CHANG: Why?
CROCKETT: I would hate - I guess I'm afraid of getting fenced in. You know, as you move in - further into this business, you know, the ticket sales go up, the ticket price goes way up. I can tell you, it puts a pressure on you to be like, well, I need to do something more.
CHANG: Gosh. So you make it sound like making it as an artist means constantly feeling inadequate.
CROCKETT: (Laughter) Oh, I didn't mean to...
CHANG: You're never enough.
CROCKETT: ...Put it like that, but I mean, you could just say that's what it feels to be American...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICA")
CROCKETT: (Singing) America. I just keep working. Doesn't matter how I feel. America, it's been said that my whole life is in your hands.
...Right? That's what we're taught to do, you know? You got to work. You got to swing that hammer. And you know what? I'm not mad about that. I'm going to keep swinging that hammer. I'm just going to keep doing it.
CHANG: Well, keep swinging that hammer, Charley Crockett. And congratulations on your first Grammy nomination. No matter how you feel about...
CROCKETT: (Laughter).
CHANG: ...The Grammys, seriously, congratulations.
CROCKETT: Yeah. I'll give it to my mama if I ever get one.
CHANG: (Laughter) It was so great talking to you. Thank you.
CROCKETT: The pleasure was all mine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICA")
CROCKETT: (Singing) America, you know I can be hard to understand.
CHANG: Charley Crockett, up for the Grammy Award for best Americana album. Stay tuned this week as we meet more first-time Grammy nominees.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICA")
CROCKETT: (Singing) I'm only a man. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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