Dale Watson - American Music Original
Dale Watson isn't one to uphold the music industry's status quo. He's moving forward on his own terms and true to his own convictions
Even with frequent proclamations declaring him one of country music's last authentic voices (like that in Crazy Again--a recent documentary on Watson's life--when a fan declares, "son, you play country like country was when country was country"), Watson is done with the "C" word and what it's come to represent in modern times. So much so that he's created his own genre, simply called Ameripolitan.
In a recent posting on his website (www.dalewatson.com), Dale explains it like this: "I've been trying to come up with a name the best describes this music that me and folks similar do. When folks ask, I hesitate, down right embarrassed really, to say country. I didn't used to be that way, but with the change in country, the term doesn't mean the same as it used to. If you say traditional, or old, or western swing most folks think 'retro' and dismiss it without hearing it. I wanted a name that didn't say country anything and didn't give anyone a preconceived idea. I came up with Ameripolitan. I even put it in Wikipedia defined as: Original music with 'prominent' roots influence." And so it goes with Dale Watson, the kind of unparalleled iconoclast that's far too rare in music today.
To that end, Dale Watson is heading into 2007 with a full head of steam. His latest album, From The Cradle To The Grave, hits stores on April 24th through a new deal with the critically-acclaimed and musically diverse independent record label, HYENA Records. The story behind the recording is as mythic as any in Watson's already deep and fascinating discography. Having taken six months off in January 2006 to relocate his family to Baltimore, Watson was preparing his return to music when old fan and friend Johnny Knoxville offered up his cabin in theTennessee mountains for the band to reconvene and rehearse. However, this wasn't just any mountain home. The cabin Johnny Knoxville was offering just so happened to be previously owned by the one and only Johnny Cash. Watson, of course, jumped at the opportunity. It was also suggested by Knoxville that Dale record a new album while on his visit. The idea was at first dismissed due to the logistics of getting recording equipment up to the cabin. That problem would be quickly solved though when Charlie Boswell, head of the digital media and entertainment unit at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), offered to send a complete recording facility. The next hurdle would be songs. Dale hadn't been writing and therefore wasn't prepared with an album's worth of new material.
"I got up there and basically wrote ten songs in three days," remembers Watson. "At first I was adamant about not writing anything even remotely reminiscent to Johnny Cash as I figured I'd be instantly dismissed for trying to cop his vibe, but his presence was so strong up there that I decided why fight it, let the chips fall where they may and go with the feeling."