Outlaw story songs are a major subgenre of country music history, and you see a fair bit of reverence for those songs today. But modern-day artists just don’t write ’em like “El Paso” or “Pancho and Lefty” anymore.
Except for Charley Crockett, that is.
Crockett’s new album Age of the Ram, which concludes his Sagebrush Trilogy, opens like an old Western. You think we’re exaggerating? Roll the tape. Projector whirs and an “And now, for our feature presentation” message starts off the album.
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Creative sound choices boost the album’s themes throughout. Chugging freight trains, background bar noise and gun shots punctuate the project. Then there’s the musical decisions: Several mini-song interludes, time signature changes aplenty, and is that a nod to the 1961 Beatles’ hit “With a Little Help From My Friends” on the recurrent “Rancher Deluxe” motifs?
All in all, it’s a pretty avant-garde way to approach an age-old country concept: The life and death of an outlaw.
Most of the album exists in the space where the outlaw, a man name Billy McLane who’s on the run from cops and bounty hunters, is waiting for the other shoe to drop. You’ll find songs about being on the run, about escapism and good times, and about the outlaw growing weary and ready to accept his fate.
“Lord, I’m just a country boy with my hands upon the wheel / Of a tired Oldsmobile,” Crockett sings in the particularly plaintive “Diamond Belle (Country Boy).” “Still they’re coming after me / I think they’re just surprised / That I stand up for my rights.”
Nobody who’s been following Crockett’s career should be surprised by the specificity and nuance he uses to describe the outlaw life. A South Texas native who’s had his fair share of legal run-ins (he incurred a felony conviction for marijuana possession in 2016), the singer also is an established outlaw in terms of challenging the genre’s status quo.
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The romanticism of Western movies abounds on Age of the Ram, but so do tougher realities.
Most poignant of those is the grief that Crockett’s outlaw allows himself to feel over the life (lives?) he has snuffed out. In “I Shot Jesse James,” a retelling of the story of American outlaw Jesse James’ murder and betrayal by the Ford brothers, Crockett sings from the perspective of Robert Ford, imagining Robert taking accountability for his action.
“I shot Jesse James but it didn’t do me any good / If I could take it back boys, don’t you think I would?” he sings in one lyric, adding in another, “I shot Jesse James and we ended up the same.”
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It’s the kind of outlaw story that looms large in country music, though many of today’s would-be outlaws have forgotten the crucial part of the story where the outlaw appreciates the magnitude of what he’s done.
Imagine if Johnny Cash had combined the freewheeling bravado of shooting “A man in Reno just to watch him die” (in “Folsom Prison Blues”) with the all-consuming guilt and sorrow of his late-career murderer’s retrospective, “I Hung My Head.” Crockett captures the spirit of the outlaw narrative, but doesn’t ignore the bleak repercussions of doing terrible harm.
Keep scrolling for some of the hardest-hitting lyrics on Crockett’s new album, Age of the Ram.
No. 1: “Lonesome Dove”
The Lyric: “Everybody’s chasing that glory / Lord, it’s the same old story / But I got all my money down on you.”
“Lonesome Dove” is a rambler’s love song for the one he’s missing back home, and the lyrics in the chorus — “It’s a Coke and Pepsi world / They can have the whole thing, girl / Long as I know your love is true” — is a little saccharine, if very catchy. Our favorite line is the one that shrugs off the grind of industry and commercialism in favor of a love that’ll outlast any fleeting success.
No. 2: “My Last Drink of Wine”
The Lyric: “All of us here, we were made to die / While watching the world go by“
This song’s one of a few on Age of the Ram where the outlaw is clinging tight to freedom and good times — while he still has them. Tomorrow isn’t promised, so drink up tonight.
No. 3: “Fastest Gun Alive”
The Lyric: “I’ve been wanted / All of my life / I can’t change these things I’ve done / Please forgive my / Tears in the sun“
Crockett is in conversation with the natural beauty of the rural West throughout this album, and “Fastest Gun Alive” feels like an outlaw’s rest stop in the arms of the landscape that raised him. It’s a chance to be vulnerable, and to reflect on some of his life’s darker moments.
No. 4: “Diamond Belle (Country Boy)”
The Lyric: “Lord I’m just a country boy / With my hands upon the wheel / Of a tired Oldsmobile / Still they’re coming after me / I think they’re just surprised / That I stand up for my rights.”
There’s a lot going on in this road-weary song where Crockett sings about giving up the chase with the lawmen close behind him. Its lyrics speak not just to the outlaw experience, but for the plight of working-class people who are constantly undermined and beleaguered by unjust societal systems that don’t expect them to know, or exercise, their rights as Americans.
No. 5: “I Shot Jesse James”
The Lyric: “I shot Jesse James / And I could not see the cost / If I’m being honest / I thought I’d hear applause.”
This re-telling of the story of American outlaw Jesse James doesn’t fall prey to too much over-romanticization. The reality of taking another person’s life never matches up to any heroic Western fantasy.
No. 6: “Billy McLane”
The Lyric: “He spent a lot of time thinking about Jesus / And all the trials they put him through / Some people like to tell you to live more like Him / And then get mad when you do“
The titular outlaw in this song is the narrator through Age of the Ram, but this song is more overtly biographical than most of the rest of the tracks. While he’s hiding out in the mountains, McLane has plenty of time to contemplate the big stuff. A southern Texas outlaw might not have much in common with Jesus on the surface, but his outsider status gives him sharp perspective on the subject.
No. 7: “Powder River”
The Lyric: “You know an outlaw gets made / Can’t be born like this / Life made me that way“
It’s a stark observation on how a person finds their way to the margins of life.
No. 8: “Cover My Trail Tonight”
The Lyric: “I’ve heard ’em talk of paradise / But I’ve only known a pair of dice / I’ll throw ’em down in the afterlife again.”
Clever rhyme of “paradise” and “pair of dice” aside, the final track on Age of the Ram is a chilling conclusion to the outlaw’s story, and what might lie in store for him after he’s through with this life.
The Top 10 Charley Crockett Songs Every New Fan Should Hear
To a sub-sect of alt-country fans, Crockett is one of the biggest names in the business. The Texas-born crooner is one of the genre’s most authentic cowboy stars, and he’s won multiple awards in the Americana format. But to mainstream listeners and terrestrial radio, Crockett’s music is still uncharted territory. Keep scrolling for a primer on the best Charley Crockett songs for a new fan.
Gallery Credit: Carena Liptak
