Dale Watson to Release New Album “Call Me Insane”
Dale Watson has been slaving away at his Ameripolitan Studios in Austin, TX, working on his followup to 2014’s Truckin’ Session Vol. 3, and 2013’s El Rancho Azul, and just announced Wednesday (3-18) he’ll release his latest record Call Me Insane on June 9th. The news comes as Dale will make an appearance on Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel LIVE from SXSW sitting in with Kimmel’s Cleto and the Cletones band.
Dale is known as a prolific artist, sometimes releasing two and three albums a year, but what makes Call Me Insane different is Dale solicited the services of legendary Texas steel guitar player and producer Lloyd Maines to help him with the project. “Having known Lloyd over 20 years and worked with him as a musician, I knew he was a great guy and picker,” Watson says. “But having Lloyd produce your record is like letting your mom in your kitchen. You know you gonna like what comes out and it’s amazing how such basic ingredients can be made even better. He is an artists’ artist.”
Lloyd Maines has similar positive sentiments about Watson. “I’ve been a Dale Watson fan since I played steel guitar on some of his early records,” he says. “My early musical influences are the same as Dale’s. We both grew up playing ‘real’ country music. Dale is one of a very short list of today’s artists who still keeps it ‘real country.’ I’m honored that he asked me to produce his new record. I think he knew that I would maintain the integrity of his passion for the music.” Maines also plays some acoustic guitar on the new record.
Call Me Insane was recorded with Dale’s “Lone Stars” backing band which includes Don Pawlak (pedal steel), Mike Bernal (drums & percussion), and Chris Crepps (upright bass & background vocals). Watson also put piano and a “honky tonk horn section” on the record, and it was engineered by Cris Burns.
Some of the songs fans can expect to hear on the new album include Dale Watson’s George Jones tribute “Jonesin’ For Jones,” and the only cover of the album, “Mamas Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Babies” written by Tony Joe White with Ed and Sally Bruce to be an answer song to Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings’ hit of the juxtaposed name. Other tracks include “A Day At A Time,” Bug Ya For Love,” the teary “Crocodile Tears,” the serious “Burden Of The Cross,” and the title track.
Call Me Insane is being release by Red House Records, and will come on CD, digital, and vinyl formats.
March 18, 2015 @ 5:57 pm
Love Dale and enjoyed the last Lloyd Maines produced album I listened to which was REK’s bluegrass album. The duet with Natalie, a cover of Emmylou Harris, was the highlight. I think this “Ameripolitan” bit is a bit quixotic though.
March 18, 2015 @ 6:54 pm
Thank you for saying so…..I’m in agreement. In fact, I don’t get it at all. It smacks of a clique throwing a party for themselves. Wish it would go away. Dale’s better than this.
March 18, 2015 @ 7:27 pm
I have been wondering lately about producers. Most of the time they have more control of what goes in a record than the artist. What will it take for the likes of our allies like Maines, Cobb, Viers, Cannon, Liddell, Brainard and Morlix to take the reigns from Moi, Stevens, Bradfock and McNally? Would like your thoughts
March 18, 2015 @ 10:51 pm
I think the latter just took the reigns from the former. Hoping for them to switch back at this point is probably foolish. But the good news is folks like Maines, Cobb, Liddell and the rest are still helping to make excellent music. It’s just not getting the mainstream play it once did, except for Liddell.
March 20, 2015 @ 8:45 am
Cobb produced one of the best albums being marketed by a mainstream label (Chris Stapleton) set to come out in 2015. Liddell still produces a handful of top country chart acts (Miranda and David Nail). I don’t think they’re going anywhere. McAnally actually produced Kacey Musgraves records. He’s just also producing Sam Hunt and Old Dominion (Hunt’s with Zach Crowell).
It’d be AWESOME if mainstream artists would take a chance on Gurf Morlix or Lloyd Maines (his work on the upcoming Rogers/Bowen set is great as usual) but I don’t know if they even know who these guys are, especially since it seems more and more that artists are co-producing their projects with songwriters around town (Crowell, McAnally, Clawson, Ross Copperman, etc.)
One producer you probably won’t hear producing any more country records is Howard Benson, the rock dude who tried to transition to country with Rascal Flatts but failed miserably when radio rejected that “Payback” song. Now the trio will likely return to Dann Huff or just produce the next record themselves (though they’re probably disliked here quite a bit, I do wonder what a Maines or Morlix-produced Flatts album would sound like…)
March 18, 2015 @ 8:47 pm
Red House?…really? i wasnt aware that they did country.
March 18, 2015 @ 10:15 pm
I’m really looking forward to Dale’s new album. I heard him play some songs from it last month in concert and it’s good stuff, pure country.
March 18, 2015 @ 10:25 pm
For someone who hasn’t listened to much Dale Watson, is there a consensus best album to get started with?
March 18, 2015 @ 10:48 pm
Live in London gets my vote.
March 19, 2015 @ 6:27 am
This album can’t come soon enough!! Like always will be a real treat to the ears!!.
March 20, 2015 @ 12:50 am
it doesn’t get any better than this. Dale Watson can do no wrong – the absolute real deal and a true gentleman to boot. Can’t wait for him to come back to London.
March 20, 2015 @ 7:50 am
You can always count on Dale Watson to keep it country…
May 26, 2015 @ 3:20 pm
That Jones song is worth that album by its self. Dale is one of the hardest working men in the industry and needs to be supported.