Album Review – Dale Watson’s “Unwanted”

Traditional Country – Ameripolitan (#510) on the Country DDS.

Dues paid? Perhaps nobody has ever paid more of them in country music history than Dale Watson. He may have never ascended to the Mount Rushmore of country legends, or sold out concert halls coast to coast. But you see him standing up there on stage in your local honky tonk with his pompadour, popped collar, sliding in and out of Lone Star jingles like a pro, and you’d swear he gives up nothing to all the old greats.

Dale Watson is not an album or a singles artist, and never really was. That’s not to say that he doesn’t have some great albums and songs. He absolutely does. But at The Broken Spoke or Continental Club in Austin—or jumping up on stage at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way in Memphis—this is Dale Watson’s element. He’s a creature of the honky tonks. And just like the difference between seeing a bear behind glass at a zoo, or seeing one in all its majesty in the wild, witnessing Dale Watson on a honky tonk is a site to behold.

Two of the selections from his new album Unwanted really embody the essence of Dale Watson, honky tonk hero. “Don’t Let The Honky Tonks Go” is an excellent boot shuffler, and epitomizes Dale Watson’s preservationist spirit. So does the song “Never Mend The Broken Spoke,” destined to be an drunken anthem sung on South Lamar in Austin under those low ceilings for hopefully centuries to come.

But neither of these honky tonk songs, nor the super fun, if not a little silly “Willie Waylon and Whiskey” that starts off the album really tell the story of Unwanted. Though there are some detours along the way, Unwanted feels very much like an exploration of Dale Watson’s love for his wife and fellow performer, Celine Lee. In the album’s most touching and memorable moments, it’s their love that swells the inspiration.

Unwanted is completely written and produced by Dale himself. He pours his heart into a song like “If You Really Love Me (Outlive Me),” saying what all true lovers feel. “Just Yesterday” employs a very peculiar, but ultimately very touching type of musical poetry to convey how a true love only grows over time. Then “If I Can” takes the feelings to an entirely other level with its ghost-like inferences. Through these songs and his duet with Celine Lee on “You’ve Got My Heart,” Dale Watson confers the true meaning behind “love is forever.”

As can be drawn from the album cover that portrays Dale, Celine, and their dog in pencil sketch, Unwanted unfolds with a very cinematic aspect. In fact, there is a film entitled If You Really Love Me, Outlive Me directed by Alejandro Ruax & Saskia d’Altena that debuted earlier in April in Florida. You can feel that grand vision come to life in how Unwanted unfolds. And even though Dale Watson might not be considered some master songwriter, he really excels on this record, showing a gentler side on “Life Is Like a Song.”

But don’t worry, this album isn’t all warm embraces and gentle cooing. It’s a Dale Watson record, so that means it’s a honky tonk record, with plenty of hard-charging punchy moments, perhaps no more powerful than his “What The Hell Happened To The Cadillac.” Though the song first appeared on his 2023 album Starvation Box (under a slightly different name), this new version feels like the definitive one. And the message of the song is so damn important, nobody will second guess cutting it twice.

Dale Watson is the living country legend that is accessible, that you can see up front and personal, that will sign your CD, and that you can two-step to all night long. His insistence on keeping the music in the honky tonks, and taking a blue collar approach to his career, along with championing others through his Ameripolitan pursuits, it has made Dale Watson not just a legend, but the people’s country music hero.

8/10

Purchase on CD/LP from Forty Below Records /// Stream on Spotify