‘Call Me Lucky’ – the Heart of the ‘Ameripolitan’ Sound

‘Call Me Lucky’ – the Heart of the ‘Ameripolitan’ Sound

By Mark Randall

news@theeveningtimes.com

Dale Watson has been making music for over 30 years that he wasn’t even sure what number his latest album “Call Me Lucky” is.

“They tell me it’s my 32nd album,” Watson said.

“Call Me Lucky,” which was released on Feb. 15, is Watson’s latest effort and contains 12 original tracks featuring his signature old school country honky tonk sound.

Watson said the tracks on “Call Me Lucky” are like most of his other music, except this one has more of a Memphis vibe. The album was recorded in Memphis at Sam Phillips Studio and tips its hat to the earliest music rebels like Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash who came out of Sun Records.

“I think that has some of its influence soundwise on it and materialwise,” Watson said. “I don’t write deep songs. If anything I might be described as a troubadour because I write about stuff that goes on in my life.”

In fact, Cash’s drummer, W.S. Holland, plays drums on the novelty tune “The Dumb Song,” a rockabilly throwback in which Watson rails against all the dumb habits he shouldn’t be doing, but won’t quit, like drinking and smoking and eating too much fried chicken. “A lot of things I’m doing I shouldn’t do, it’s true. But I’m gonna keep on doing all the________ things I shouldn’t do,” the refrain goes.

“Johnny and June” is an ode to the long love affair between Johnny Cash and June Carter. Sung as a duet with his girlfriend, Celine Lee, Watson said the pair actually wrote by exchanging text messages.

“We actually wrote that about four years ago,” Watson said. “She was in New York and I was in Texas. We had an idea for the song and texted each other our ideas and put it together.”

“Restless” is perhaps the most deeply personal track on the album. Watson wrote the song 19 years ago but never found a place for it on an album until now. The song pays tribute to his girlfriend, Terri Herbert, who was the love of his life and was killed in a car wreck in September 2000.

“It’s hard to believe she has been gone that long,” Watson said. “Its always been a good song. I just never had the right album to put it on. I felt like I wanted a song with that kind of a feel to it. So it was the right timing.”

Others songs on the album, like “David Buxkemper,” were inspired by fans or his own life events. Buxkemper likes Watson’s trucking songs and sent him an e-mail which led to Watson penning the song. When Watson met Buxkemper, he learned that he was a farmer who illegally hauls his crops twice a year because he doesn’t have a truck driver’s license.

“He sent me an e-mail and his story sounded interesting,” Watson said. “And the fact that his name was Buxkemper make me perk my ears up and listen to his story out in Llano Estacado. You can’t make that up.”

“Tupelo Mississippi and a ‘57 Fairlane” was inspired by a road trip Watson took to check out a ‘57 Fairlane that was listed on Craigslist.

“I wanted a car to have to drive around in Memphis,” Watson said. “I saw a Craigslist for this old ‘57 Fairlane and I went to check it out in Tupelo. I bought it and on the way home I wrote a song about it.”

Watson is no stranger to Memphis. He’s been playing the clubs on Beale Street and other bars like Murphy’s for 30 years.

Although he is better known in Austin and the Texas dance halls and honky tonks, Memphis is a city that he has come to love and plans to spend more time in.

Watson bought a home in the Whitehaven section of Memphis, a few miles from Graceland, which he has decked out in 1950s decor. He also bought Hernando’s Hideaway, a historic music hall where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis played back in the day, and is in the process of restoring it. He plans to re-open it in March as a place for local and touring musicians to play__________ Austin in the 1980s,” Watson said. “I still have a home in Austin. But it’s not like it used to be.

They’re tearing down all the places I used to play and putting up condos.

Memphis isn’t so quick to tear down old places. It’s on the verge of being a very important hub for touring musicians. I haven’t abandoned Austin.

But I am going to split my time between Austin and Memphis and spend more time in Memphis.”

Watson keeps a busy touring schedule. He’s on the road over 300 days and has made several trips overseas as well.

“I’m always touring and always trying to spread the music,” Watson said. “So I’m around. A lot in Texas. They can find me anywhere and everywhere.” in Alabama but raised in Texas where he cut his teeth in the honky tonks and dance halls of Texas.

Watson’s sound is as pure country as you can get, a throwback to Hank Williams, Bob Willis, and Merle Haggard. Watson’s original songs are written and sound like the kind of soungs that were made when country was country. They’re just good, simple country songs that are about three minutes long.

When people ask him what kind of music he plays, he’s quick to say that it’s not country. He’s too country for country.

The Nashville establishment doesn’t want anything to do with guys like him, and he doesn’t care much for them either.

While other contemporary Nashville artists turn their roots, Watson has always embraced it. He’s coined his own term, Ameripolitan, to describe his kind of music – original songs with roots in honky tonk, western swing, rockabilly, old style country, and Outlaw.

“If I tell them I play country music, they are going to assume Taylor Swift or Jason Aldean and that kind of stuff,” Watson said. “If they come to a show expecting that, they are going to be disappointed.

This is all new stuff, but with identifiable roots.”

Watson created the Ameripolitan Awards back in 2013 as a way to recognize artists who, like him, are too country for country. He’s proud that Ameripolitan has its own fans.