ALBUM REVIEW: Charley Crockett Offers a Riveting Set on ‘Dollar a Day’
2024’s $10 Cowboy spotlighted Charley Crockett’s range and a production style that referenced the Las Vegas Strip as much as the Honky Tonk Highway. With Lonesome Drifter, released earlier this year, Crockett strove to reembrace the traditional country sound of his earlier work. Despite the impeccability of his songwriting, however, he couldn’t quite free himself from the broad shadow of $10 Cowboy. Though the set certainly included highpoints, Crockett seemed stranded between The Bellagio and The Grand Ole Opry. With his new album, Dollar a Day, he is wholeheartedly back in the shadowy dives of Nashville.
Crockett’s songs still highlight how multifaceted he is as a singer and songwriter – the stranger, raconteur, gambler, and highway poet – but are largely stripped to essentials, accentuating his nuanced vocals and subtly eloquent lyrics. The result is a sequence that features Crockett setting a new and inspired trajectory while doing what he does best, delivering catchy songs that brim with world-weariness, humor, and wisdom.
