Charley Crockett Announces Surprise Album “Visions of Dallas”
No rest for the wicked, and for one of the hardest working men in music. We had to know that Charley Crockett wouldn’t be done just releasing one album in 2024 when he’s been on a two-per-year clip for a while now. We just didn’t know the turnaround time would be so quick.
To be released as a companion piece to his most recent album $10 Cowboy that just saw the light of day on April 26th, Crockett is readying the release of $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas. It will feature 12 tracks total, with ten previously-unreleased songs, as well as “Killers of the Flower Moon” that Crockett released in late 2023, and the song “How Low Can You Go” that Charley featured on a two-song EP in 2019.
Most importantly, you’re not going to be forced to wait six weeks to three months for this puppy to land on your playlist. Look alive because Chapter II: Visions of Dallas is being released on Monday, July 22nd via Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers. Yes, it’s a rather unconventional date and an even more unconventional turnaround time. But apparently, that’s how Charley Crockett rolls.
“For a truly independent artist like myself, there are no rules anymore,” Crockett says. “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.”
Well if you say so sir. The album was produced by Crockett with Billy Horton. Apparently Crockett’s better half and fellow performer, Taylor Grace, had a big hand in how all of this came about.
“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.’”
Crockett’s history with the City of Dallas goes deep. He was born and raised early on in the Texas Valley in Los Fresnos, but his mom moved the family up to Dallas where Crockett spent many of his formative years while living with his uncle in the New Orleans French Quarter in the summer. When Crockett first started performing on street corners, it was in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas—one of the historic havens for the blues.
After traveling all around the United States and in parts of Europe, Crockett eventually settled in Dallas to start his career, releasing his debut album A Stolen Jewel from 2015 while living in the city. He relocated to Austin a few years later.
Along with the new album, Crockett also has his cover of “Ghost Riders in the Sky” coming out on the Twisters soundtrack on Friday, July 19th.
Visions of Dallas is now available for pre-order and pre-save.
TRACK LIST:
1. Visions of Dallas
2. Avoiding Mirrors
3. Trouble And Misery
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Crystal Chandeliers and Burgandy
6. How Low Can You Go
7. Lonesome Feeling
8. Charlene
9. Loser’s Lounge
10. 20-20 Vision
11. Loretta
12. Goodbye Holly
July 18, 2024 @ 6:39 pm
Cant get too much charley crockett particularly since each album is well done, not just made to put stuff out. You either like him or you dont. Thanks for the info on the twister movie song as well. Heck we might get three albums this year. Remember he started the year with the willie nelson duet that he plans on doing something with.
July 18, 2024 @ 9:09 pm
I didn’t know about the Willie duet, can’t wait to hear that. And always up for more Charley Crockett. I thought $10 Dollar Cowboy was his strongest album in years, especially vocally, would love to hear him do something in the bluegrass realm.
July 19, 2024 @ 4:21 am
Stoked for this. Always love his albums. Saw him live last year and it was a disappointment, but caught a show by happenstance Monday, and he was great.
July 19, 2024 @ 5:20 am
Listened to ghost riders, here is my take. Compared to original, it has a much faster tempo. Might irk some though im fine with it. I like it when artist put their own take on a song as long as they dont get out of hand. Only time im not fine with it is when they are trying to honor a particular artist, then they should keep it original. Musically i think its great. Its another great addition to his great roster of songs to play as well as my own crockett playlist. I could def see it being played a little differently live with a longer instrumental at the beginning and look forward to hearing that one day.
July 19, 2024 @ 7:26 am
I’m gonna buy it just for “Crystal Chandeliers and Burgandy” – am assuming with that specific a name, it’s the same song Cash cut back in the 70’s? I loved that one so much!
July 19, 2024 @ 7:35 am
Have you done any research on the streaming numbers and payoffs to know if this approach to album releases works for both him an Zach Bryan? I think the primary criticism of both of them is that their prolificacy leads to repetitiveness and overexposure. I wonder if it’s a model that works well and helps count for their success in the streaming era.
July 19, 2024 @ 8:12 am
It depends on your definition of what “works.” I think Charley Crockett is a workaholic who takes nothing for granted, writes and records a bunch of songs, does worry about the quality of the recordings, though is okay with just okay writing on his songs, and releases them. Zach Bryan is writing constantly, and wants to get his music out to his fans ASAP. Neither I think is really focused on the money or “numbers” side of the equation. If they did, they would probably release less music with more lead time.
Very specifically, releasing your music on any day that is not a Friday really hurts your chances at getting good charting numbers. Zach Bryan’s new album’s chart performance is a disaster since he did wait for physical product, and he released the album on a Thursday, which basically meant he had one day to accrue numbers for the charts.
In no universe does this strategy make sense. But like Crockett said in his statements, if he feels this is the way to keep his creative juices flowing, so be it. The numbers will work themselves out in the end through the appeal they’re accruing with fans.
July 19, 2024 @ 9:45 am
You get getting at what I meant with that point. What I had in mind was Daniel Ek commenting that artists needed to be recording constantly because the old model of an album every few years doesn’t work anymore. What he was saying very specifically about the continuing engagement with fans. I think that’s what critics don’t get about why it works for Bryan despite it not appearing to make business or artistic sense. With Crockett it seems that it has that effect that he’s always on the genre playlists I follow and it’s more frequently something I haven’t heard yet than it is with other artists. I think Billy Strings is doing this in a different way using something more akin to the old Grateful Dead model with much lesser known nugs.net as his central platform for driving fan engagement online. He extended that to Spotify with frequent collaborations and now releasing official live albums.
A variation on this is a guy names Johan Röhr that Ted Goia wrote about recently. He’s using 656 pseudonyms to rack up billions of streams by getting all over playlists. The theory here is that he actually works for Spotify providing cheap filler. But my point in including this is that streaming can reward volume and engagement both separately and together. So I wonder if that might be a good business model for people like Crockett and Bryan though it’s not really why they are doing it.
July 19, 2024 @ 10:31 am
There are a lot of people who think they know the formula and say things like “you have to be releasing music constantly,” “albums don’t matter anymore,” “social media is the key,” and other such things. But the truth is there is no standard formula. There are plenty of artists releasing tons of music nobody listens to. There are artists like Surgill Simpson that are not on social media at all, disappear for three years, and come back headlining festivals. It’s different for every artist, and I always caution artists away from giving into the idea that anything is the new paradigm. I think they most important thing is to follow your heart, leaning into your strengths, follow the path that presents itself, and you’ll probably get somewhere. I think that is what Charley Crockett and Zach Bryan are doing and it’s working for them, just like the minimalist approach is working for Sturgill Simpson.
July 19, 2024 @ 9:44 am
I’m really looking forward to this. My wife and I have tickets to see him next Month in St. Augustine. Can’t wait for that.
July 19, 2024 @ 10:20 am
I’ve been on a CC kick for a while. I just spent a few days in the middle of Arizona, and “The Man From Waco” just seemed to fit the mood and scenery. Also, gonna catch him again at the Ryman next week. Needless to say, this is great news.
I would’ve bet money that the next was going to be a Lil’ G.L. album, but I guess that’s why I’m not a betting man.
July 19, 2024 @ 1:36 pm
I think if you are a entertainer like george strait or alan jackson, etc and getting signed to a big contract, the less is more approach works better. Less albums but each with higher quality is great cause people will still be fans when you release that next album. With guys like crockett, they dont have that certainty. So they have to keep themselves out there however they have to do it cause there is always newer artists trying to get their piece of the pie.
July 20, 2024 @ 11:32 am
During the 60s and maybe part of the 70s, it was not unusual for artists to release more than one album a year. In recent years, it seems to be more usual for one every couple of years so Charley Crockett is by today’s standards prolific. I really got into his music with his Live at the Ryman album which I really liked. $10 Cowboy is very good as is most of back catalogue. I am looking forward to his new album. He is another who is genuinely the real deal.
July 22, 2024 @ 5:49 pm
Goddamn there’s some great songs on here.