Consider This from NPR - Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Country music singer Charley Crockett was born and raised in Texas, grew up in a single-wide trailer with his mom and says his family lineage traces all the way back to the frontiersman Davy Crockett. This Sunday is the music industry's biggest night — the Grammy Awards. And Crockett is up for an award for the first time — Best Americana Album — for his record "$10 Cowboy." For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The music industry's biggest night is coming this Sunday, the Grammy Awards, and today we're bringing you the story of a first-time nominee. We're going to kick things off in San Bernardino at the Yamava Resort and Casino, where we caught up with country music singer Charlie Crockett in the middle of his sound check. Hey Mr. Nashville, out there on the town, wine them and dine them, and hand them a plastic crown. Crockett was born and raised in Texas, grew up in a single wide trailer with his mom, and says his family lineage traces all the way back to the frontiersman Davey Crockett. Consider this, Charlie Crockett for the first time is nominated for a Grammy. He's up for best Americana album for his record $10 Cowboy.

From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Consider This from NPR. Now, I was so excited to meet Charlie Crockett. I showed up in one of my many cowgirl outfits. Charlie, I want you to take note. I wore my boots for you. I wore my cowboy hat for you. Oh, you wear it well. Thank you so much. You wear it well, too, I have to say take note, I wore my boots for you, I wore my cowboy hat for you. Well, you wear it well. Thank you so much.

You wear it well too, I have to say. I mean, he does. Crockett exudes country cool. The white cowboy hat, the turquoise belt, the stubble. Oh, and don't even get me started on all the gorgeous vintage country outfits he takes on the road with him. Wow, your costumes are in like a vault.

Do you have a favorite jacket or a jacket you forgot you owned? I wear this one a lot. Oh, I love the fringe on that. This one's nice. You don't even need to wear nothing under it. You just button it up. Ooh, look at the stitching on that. My dream would be to see you wear this jacket with the leather stitching tonight with the

white flower boots. Okay. But you know, my dreams don't always come true. I'm going to give it a shot. You know, when I first when I first was getting off the street and out of the bars, got my first agent on the street in New Orleans where I started dressing up and the main reason was being like a hobo that I was, I started dressing up so the tourists would take me serious.

I used to do a little jig for the tourists in front of Cafe Du Monde. But then you ended up preferring the street as your amphitheater. Like, you spent years playing in New York, right? Also on the subway platform, in subway trains? Yeah. Ooh, honey, how I try What was that like? Like I'm just sort of picturing this train barreling underneath Manhattan

and you're seeing country and blues. Did you feel a little bit out of place? Yeah, yeah, but you know I wanted to go to New York because of Bob Dylan. Because of his songwriting. And then slowly but surely over a couple of years I started getting better you know because I was spending I mean I was playing ten hours a day. Wow that's a lot of practice. They laughed at me in New York City

called me a fool in LA. I dived to Nashville, saw me coming. Wait, wait, go to the album covers because I want to talk about that. Your album covers have this really cool look. Vintage, classic. Yeah. What is it that you're trying to channel in these covers? I love the old records because he didn't have all this digital streaming, all this stuff. It was like you had to tell the story with the picture to sell it to somebody. You know? You had to summarize what you were about in a

short paragraph on the back of that thing as much as they could stuff in there. Yeah. Well you know I hear it in your sound too, like the arrangements in your albums. They hearken back to this older time in country. Because it's hard love and circumstances that brought me here. How do you find the right balance between resurrecting an older style of music versus creating something new and different that you can completely call your own. Well, it's funny you should say that, because I feel like I'm at this kind of crossroads, or, you know, like I'm in this kind of vortex. I'm all about making a statement, more than a financial impact, right? But like, let's be honest here,

like the agents, the publicists, the studios, the labels, they can tell you they're about this, that, and the third, but it's, the studios, the labels, they can tell you they're about this, that, and the third, but it's just about money, right? And if you think it's about something else, you're gonna get bruised. I didn't lobby for a Grammy. I refused to join the committees.

I don't advertise to consider me for the Grammys. I'm not about that, I don't lobby for a Grammy. I refused to join the committees. I don't advertise to consider me for the Grammys. I'm not about that. I don't. Are you annoyed you got nominated? No, no. I'm honored. It's great. Okay. It's great to be recognized. I'm just saying I don't do it for that. But also at this point in your career, I mean, you've played the Ryman, you've performed with Willie Nelson, you've toured all over the world. Like, what does a Grammy nomination mean to someone who's already accomplished so much? Well, it means a whole lot to my mama. Maybe that's enough then.

Yeah, yeah. She's proud of me for sure, you know. Something your mama might be thinking about is the pace of your life right now, though. I read earlier in your career, the more you toured, the worse you felt. You would get tired, dizzy, out of breath, and it turned out you had this potentially fatal heart valve problem. So you had open heart surgery back in 2019. By the way, how are you feeling today? Oh yeah, well, I ain't pushing up daisies yet.

Okay. But you are not slowing down at all. I was looking, you put up 15 albums in the last nine years and then your tour schedule this past year every single month you are performing somewhere and we're talking about like Australia, the UK, Canada. I was out for four months straight last summer. So why are you moving at such a rapid ferocious pace Yeah, I don't know because all the people I've ever related to, everybody's like working so hard their whole life.

You kind of work so hard that you don't have time to stop and take it all in. Are you afraid to stop? Yeah. Why? I would hate... I guess I'm afraid of getting fenced in. You know, as you move further into this business, you know, the ticket sales go up, the ticket price goes way up.

I can tell you it puts a pressure on you to be like, well, I need to do something more. Gosh, so you make it sound like making it as an artist means constantly feeling inadequate. Oh, I didn't mean to put it like that. You're never enough. I didn't mean to put it like that, but I mean, all right, you could been said that my whole life is in your hands. Right? That's what we're taught to do. You've got to work. You've got to swing that hammer.

And you know what? I'm not mad about that. I'm going to keep swinging that hammer. I'm just going to keep doing it. Well keep swinging that hammer Charlie Crockett. And congratulations on your first Grammy nomination no matter how you feel about the Grammys. Seriously, congratulations. I'll give it to my mama if I ever get one. It was so great talking to you, thank you. The pleasure's all mine. I'm a man. America, you know I, can be hard to understand. Charlie Crockett, up for the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.

I'm only a man. This episode was produced by Kira Joaquim and Mark Rivers with audio engineering by Kwesi Lee. It was edited by Christopher Intaliata. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.