Charley Crockett Albums - Ranked

In the Night

Released in 2016 on his own Son of Davy records, named as a nod his famous ancestor, frontiersman Davy Crockett, Crockett's sophomore album, In the Night, was a woozy late night affair as he continued to hone his own take on the vintage country, jazz and blues he picked up in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas, via Memphis and New Orleans.

Highlights include the swinging jazz of 'Ain't Got No Time To Lose,' the brassy swagger of the deeply personal 'I'm Workin,'' and the sweetly vulnerable 'I Am Not Afraid,' dropping early hints at where he'd take country blues and contemporary Americana with subsequent albums.

In 2017, Crockett began a tribute series of cover albums named after his nick-namesake and fellow country-blues connoisseur, G.L. Crockett, with Lil' G.L.'s Honky Tonk Jubilee.

The 16-track collection was far from just a simple covers album as Crockett tipped his increasingly wide brimmed hat to the artists and songs that had shaped him, and paid it back with songs from Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker and Roy Acuff and set the bar high for the Lil' G.L. covers albums to come.

Highlights include a perky cover of Leon Payne's 'Brothers of a Bottle' and a suitable slurry, regretful rendition of 'Am I That Easy to Forget.' The way that Crockett was able to still inject a freshness and originality into classics that have already been covered countless times before was a testament to his true appreciation and dedication to Americana's past.

Visions of Dallas

A companion album to 2025's $10 Cowboy, which had been released just three months earlier, Charley Crockett proved prolificacy wouldn't stand in the way of quality with another 12 tracks of modern country that felt like stepping into an alternate universe where the 80s and 90s never happened.

Featuring 10 new songs and two fan favourites – 'Killers of the Flower Moon' and 'How Low Can You Go' – the album felt like a gift to his fansfor sticking with him. With the bluesy '20-20 Vision' and the Johnny Cash Jack Routh cut 'Crystal Chandeliers and Burgundy' among the particular highlights.

“For a truly independent artist like myself, there are no rules anymore,” Crockett continues. “Why release Visions of Dallas now? To indulge myself in artistic freedom. The days of 18-to-24-month release cycles have gone the way of the dinosaur. I’ll have my 14th studio album out next week, and every single one has been released how and when I wanted them to. I see no reason to change now.”

"We recorded the songs during the same sessions as $10 Cowboy down at Arlyn Studios in Austin," explains Crockett. "Could have released a double record. But then Taylor Grace wrote 'Visions of Dallas' in a hotel room overlooking that city. She thought about my relationship to Dallas and the great state of Texas in general, and suggested we do a second album where all the songs tie back to Dallas and Texas. The result is Visions of Dallas."

Lil' G.L.'s Blue Bonanza

Crockett’s encyclopaedic knowledge of various strains of American music - country, folk, soul, blues, R&B, rock & roll and more - were put to use again on the second installment of the Lil' G.L. covers series released in 2018.

He continued to pay tribute to the singers and songwriters that paved the way for him with a lovingly curated collection of songs by Tom T. Hall, Ernest Tubb, Ray Charles, T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Reed and Charles Brown, as well as a cover of G.L. Crockett and Jack Daniels' 'It's a Man Down There.'

The highlight is a charmingly, beery-eyed rendition of George Jones' big weeper from the '60s, 'Burn Another Honky Tonk Down,' with its cajun accordion swaying along with Crockett's soft, resigned delivery as he recounts the story of a man who works in the timber industry, cutting wood to build a honky-tonk, only to discover his lover is spending his money there, at which point he turns to arson.

Lonesome as a Shadow

Charley Crockett upped the soulful ingredients of his sound on his 2018 album, Lonesome as a Shadow, with a set of songs that soaked up Stax records and Muscle Shoals country soul. The follow up to Lil' G.L.'s Honky Tonk Jubilee, the 12-track album felt musically freer than his sophomore with the lively album opener 'I Wanna Cry' leading the way.

It was album closer, 'Change Yo' Mind,' that really stole the show though with his garbled baritone and a ghostly horn section making listening to the mournful country ballad feel like an almost spiritual experience.

A Stolen Jewel

Listening back to the 2015 debut studio album from Charley Crockett and it's easy to pick out the seeds of the upsized honky tonk, countrypolitan soul soaked "Gulf & Western" sound that would take him all over the world in the next decade, but with its naive, loose charm 'A Stolen Jewel' still remains something of an anomaly in his back catalogue and one of his most enjoyable listens ten years on.

Scratchy, raw and echoey, the production nods to his busking days and makes it feel like you're propped up at the bar next to him, singing and clapping along at a Dallas honky tonk lock-in in the 1960s or standing on a street corner in Deep Ellum. 'Trinity River' and upbeat sawdust kickers like 'Drivin' Nails in My Coffin' and 'I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday' are particularly fun while you can almost hear the pews creak in the weary gospel spiritual 'Cold Water.'

Lil G.L. Presents: Jukebox Charley

With the fourth edition of his Lil’ G.L. tribute series, JukeboxCharley, Crockett continued to enliven country music history by looking back for inspiration and crafting his own singular sound whether through the songs of others.

Produced by Billy Horton, Jukebox Charley, found Crockett mining country music’s past once again and filtering it through his “Gulf & Western” sound - throwing old school blues, R&B, soul, cajun, western swing and traditional, classic country into the mixing bowl. The album included songs written by country legends like Willie Nelson and Jerry Reed, as well as lesser-known regional acts like Louisiana’s Larry Brasso and Red Sovine. Highlights included his take on George Jones’s ‘Out of Control’ and a version of Tom T. Hall's 'I Hope It Rains at My Funeral'

“I’ve done a few Lil’ G.L. records now,” said Crockett about the album. “This Jukebox Charley LP makes four. I wanted to really stretch out on this one and take some chances. Do something different. We took some risks and laid down a lot of lesser known, more adventurous classics. Hope folks pick up what I’m puttin’ down.”

Music City USA

For his 10th album in just six years, Charley Crockett chose a more straightforwardly old school classic country collection, but he still found time too for the bluesy 'Foolish Game' and rickety bluegrass jangle of 'Round This World.' Mostly though, Music City USA was set very much in the honky tonks and bars of Nashville.

“I think you think that I got lucky / I see it written on your face / You say you’d like to fill my shoes / How easily you take my place," Crockett sings on the perky title track, looking over his shoulder at all the copyists he already knew were coming for him.

"I shouldn't have come here in the first place / Cos folks in here don't like my kind," he sings in the chorus, ever the outlier and probably happier that way. Three years later and he was still struggling with the industry side of the city on 'Hey Mr. Nashville.'

The album included two covers among the originals on the record, Stonewall Jackson's 'Muddy Water' from 1965 and a version of Henson Cargill's 1967 civil rights country anthem, 'Skip a Rope,' which felt just as timely coming out in 2021 amidst the Black Lives Matter movement as it did amidst the political upheaval of the '60s, asking an older generation why they felt they had to pass their prejudices onto the younger.

Lonesome Drifter

His major label debut, after he signed with Island records in 2025, Lonesome Drifter marked the first release as part of the “Sagebrush Trilogy.”

Recorded over 10 days in March 2024 at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles and co-produced by Crockett and GRAMMY-winner Shooter Jennings, the album found Crockett continuing to refine and expand his “Gulf & Western” sound as he offered more tales from his unbelievable life so far. While Jennings' production added a warmth and a little swagger to Crockett's previous two albums, $10 Cowboy and Visions of Dallas, as the singer moved fully into his outlaw era.

Retracing a musical roadmap that took in everything from Waylon Jennings and David Allan Coe to folk singers like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, a handful of covers like 'Jamestown Ferry' and 'Amarillo By Morning' were overshadowed by some of his most best written originals so far.

The Valley

Charley Crockett's 2019 album, The Valley, could have been his last. After going to see a doctor for routine hernia surgery, the singer was told he had a life-threatening heart condition that required difficult surgery.

Recorded just a week before he went under the knife for life-saving open heart surgery in January 2019, the album stirs with an introspection and urgency to tell his story. It's a story of an artist searching for his place in the world, absorbing the sounds of the country; it's a story of exile and promise. The result was a gloriously record shambolic felt like a loving embrace of his Texas roots with fiddle and pedal steel and a roll call of country's finest including Nathan Fleming, Alexis Sanchez, Jay Moeller, Kyle Nix and Brennen Leigh.

The life-affirming country gospel clap-a-long 'Borrowed Time,' written with Turnpike Troubadours' EvanFelker, opens the record and sums up the unabashed tone of one of Charley Crockett's most consistently enjoyable records.

10 For Slim: Charley Crockett Sings James Hand

When James Hand unexpectedly passed away in 2020 aged 67, Charley Crockett decided to pay tribute to the singer songwriter from Waco, Texas, who counted among his friends and who Willie Nelson called 'The Real Deal.'

From the heartfelt spoken word intro to the careful covers of songs like 'Just a Heart,' 'Lesson in Depression' and 'Over There That's Frank,' Crockett breathes new life into songs that country music lovers would already be familiar with.

"I’d told him I was going to record these songs," Crockett explained. "I just thought he was so unappreciated, in every way. It’s not to say he didn’t get opportunities or chances, but with a guy like that, it sometimes takes somebody recording their songs. I wanted to get it recorded and in front of people, so it wasn’t like James’ name was fading or that he was just one of these central Texas bar-type country singers."

It was the album closer, 'Slim's Lament,' that made the collection particularly momentous for Hand fans ad Crockett fans alike.

"That last one was this song he sent me," Crockett explains. "He’d been demoing songs on his iPhone. He had sent me two or three, not long before he died. We ended up calling it ‘Slim’s Lament’ because it didn’t have a title. The tag-line was 'I’m praying to God, but I’m calling for you' and it’s this whole song where he’s saying 'I swear that I tried everything but suicide, oh death, you’ll have so little left to claim.' It was this crazy song we ended up adding to the album.

Read our full interview with Charley Crockett telling us why he loves James Slim Hand here.

Despite not containing any Charley Crockett originals, there is something almost otherworldly about listening to the songs on 10 For Slim, which is why it proudly stands at number five in our ranking of Charley Crockett albums.

$10 Cowboy

For his 2024 album Charley Crockett suddenly found himself on top of the world, after its critically acclaimed predecessor Man from Waco had propelled him to new heights, establishing him as one of the leading exponents of a contemporary revival of traditional country and folk music.

Recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin, $10 Cowboy was produced by Crockett and his long-time collaborator Billy Horton and recorded live to tape, with anywhere from 6-12 musicians on each track, giving the songs the feel of a live performance. It’s a sound that Crockett had been after for years and it felt like he was enjoying himself in the studio more than ever on songs like 'America' and the title track. It's a joy that the listener can feel when they put it on.

“The reason I cut it on tape is, when you get the right folks in the room, great players rise to the occasion," he says. "When that red light is on and the tape is rolling, you get the magic of a performance.”

A lifelong student of Bob Dylan, he explored a looser style favoured by Dylan throughout $10 Cowboy, favouring songs with no lyrical hook, just a turn of phrase, and in the lead up to the album Crockett wrote freely, over a two-month period, as he wound his way across the United States on the back of a tour bus, and the resulting songs - raw, personal, vivid portraits of a country in transition - ended up being connected after all.

Dollar a Day

Following his major label debut, Lonesome Drifter, coming out in March 2025, Charley Crockett released the second part of his “Sagebrush Trilogy" before the summer was even over.

Once again recorded at the fabled Sunset Sound Studio 3 in Hollywood with creative kindred spirit and co-producer Shooter Jennings, the album immediately felt like he'd hit a high point in a career full of them.

“With Shooter, I’ve never felt more like myself in the studio,” explains Crockett. “I don’t feel judged. At all. It’s truly a partnership. Hell, I’d say he’s my best friend, and you can’t aspire to greatness without that kind of trust. With Lonesome Drifter, it felt like we opened the portal. With Dollar A Day, we stepped through and came out the other side.”

Songs like 'All Around Cowboy,' 'Ain't That Right' and ‘Crucified Son’ were cut with the same outlaw country swagger of Shooter's father Waylon's albums from the '70s, while the sweeping strings of 'Alamosa' and 'Woman in a Bar' reinvent countrypolitan for a whole new generation of country fans with the kind of effortless cool that's so hard to pull off.

This is a damn fine sounding country record, which is why it drops straight in at number three on our list.

Welcome to Hard Times

The eighth album from Charley Crockett was the follow up to The Valley from 2019 as the singer took his time over a carefully considered set of songs that felt like his most fully realised statement yet when it was released.

After undergoing open heart surgery that saved his life, Crockett said he considered calming down for "just a minute" but once he recovered, he did just the opposite.

"I wanted to make an album that would change the entire conversation about country music," he stated boldly at the time with one eyebrow raised, but that's exactly what he did, which is why it's at number two on our list.

Even though the aptly named collection was made just before the pandemic hit, the record felt like it perfectly fit the troubled days that followed. Shaped by his heart issues, the album felt like a wider reflection on facing mortality and the "hard times" that followed, which fit nicely with producer Mark Neill's desire to make "a dark gothic country record."

The result was a faultless throwback country record that felt like it was drawing from country music's often overlooked politically conscious and conscientious past.

"I had been struck by a new level of sadness that would get me every once in a while, that I had never known in my life," he told Texas Monthly about his mood after his heart operations. "I think you can hear that deep, dark sadness in this record, but I think it's the kind of darkness that will uplift others."

With its focus on themes of hardship, isolation and struggle, the album felt like Crockett's most obviously political yet, with two songs in particular - 'The Poplar Tree' and 'Blackjack County Chain' - that told the stories of the oppressed and marginalised and disenfranchised in America.

"I wrote all this stuff last year," he said when the album came out in 2020. "It didn’t have anything to do with 2020. I didn’t need the social media movement of 2020 to tell me what was going on in America. But I’m glad that it’s happening and it’s an amazing awakening. The younger generations need this to have any kind of control over our own destiny, rather than it being decided by people on their way out. I think we’re tired of that. I think young people are correct to rage against that. I think we’d better, or we’re going to be in a lot more trouble than we are now."

"I talk about this in so many songs: the dice are loaded or life is hard and all I can do is play my cards," he says. "That is how I feel about America. The joke isn’t that you’re in a casino. The joke is on you, that you don’t realize you’re in a damn casino, and that’s America."

The Man from Waco

“Everybody was telling me, ‘Go right, go right, go right,’” Crockett said about making his 12th studio album. “I went left. I had to hold on to what has gotten me this far.”

What started as a demo session with producer Bruce Robison at Robison’s studio The Bunker outside Austin, TX, turned into the first album Crockett had ever made with his band The Blue Drifters backing him from start to finish. Mostly first takes with only a handful of overdubs, The Man From Waco found Crockett refining his 'Gulf & Western sound even further to take in rich country soul, R&B and twangy country funk.

“I just wanted an honest partnership: do it at your place, live to tape, everybody in the room,” Crockett says of the recording experience, and Robison was happy to accommodate. “The magic is in the performances on that tape. That’s what Bruce wanted to do, that’s what I wanted to do. When we were done, I said ‘These are masters, not demos.’”

Writing or co-writing all 14 songs on the album, in many ways The Man from Waco felt like the purest distillation of his artistry to date but it also found him at his most freely creative since his first album. There’s a loose narrative thread that ties the album together, but at the centre of The Man From Waco is Crockett, who continues to walk his own line.

“Sometimes, you know it’s better to be thought of as a fool,” he sings during a particularly perceptive moment on the album's breakout single, 'I'm Just a Clown.'

There's often thought to be a fine line between bravery and foolishness, and over the course of 15 albums in the last ten years, Charley Crockett has proved time and time again that it takes a lot of courage to continually risk going against the grain, and there's nothing silly about that.