Monday 4th September 2023
Band on the Wall, Manchester, England
Indulge, if you will, a brief discussion of meteorology. As I make my way to the Band on the Wall in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, I see the people of this city sweltering in the midst of our unseasonable heatwave. The last time Charley Crockett played Manchester it was a cold autumn and it rained on the roof of the Deaf Institute, but now, just shy of a year later, I think we would welcome such a break of cool and pleasant rain. Brewing in the tropics during the Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Franklin has pushed high pressure and warm air north towards England and the result is that, on this Monday evening in early September, the rainy city of the North is a humid 27ºC. But what different storm, I wonder, had brewed in the Gulf of Texas that called for Charley Crockett and his white-hot Blue Drifters to melt the walls of this English venue tonight?
By now, everyone who keeps a weather-eye open for such things knows that Charley Crockett can’t be stopped. He tours relentlessly and releases albums at a prodigious rate – and it’s not second-rate material either. His set-list tonight is notably refreshed from the last time I saw him, and albums that were under-represented last October now feature heavily – particularly 2016’s soulful In the Night, which is also prominently displayed on the merchandise table on the mezzanine level of the Band on the Wall venue. (It is here that I am drawn to purchasing the stylish art-deco concert poster, a limited edition for tonight’s show.)
Such is the wealth and breadth of quality material that Crockett is able to draw on, there’s a high chance that you won’t hear your favourite song tonight, even though Hurricane Charley will soon unload more than thirty onto the five hundred of us streaming into the close heat of the Band on the Wall. Of these thirty, there’ll be a few unreleased originals, proof that while Crockett’s latest album releases might be the remix of last year’s The Man from Waco and the upcoming Live from the Ryman – a unseasonably long time (for him) not to release a full album of new material – the well has certainly not run dry. And one certainly can’t complain when Charley Crockett live is an experience in itself. You’ve not heard ‘Trinity River’ until you’ve heard it flow through a crowd twenty songs into a blistering set.
It is appropriate that Hurricane Charley, which made landfall at the End of the Road Festival a day earlier, begins, like every storm, with electrical interference. Just before the show begins and without warning, a deep bass shockwave pulses through the crowd and hollows out our ears. It sounds like a speaker has blown, though I can’t say for sure. Nor, it seems, can the roadies who now gather round the soundsystem on the stage, because the problem returns during the band’s opening number.
As Charley leads his band the Blue Drifters through ‘Run Horse Run’, the emphatic note that ends the first verse leads to another static boom from the rogue amp. The roadies huddle again as Charley and his drummer Mayo Valdez exchange glances. Whatever the roadies do seems to work, for when Charley reaches the end of the next verse and tenses in anticipation of another boom, there’s no disruption. And there won’t be again: from here on out, the amp contents itself with emitting only the good and soulful sounds of the Blue Drifters.
Announced by Kullen Fox’s trumpet and running with a steady thumping beat, ‘Run Horse Run’ is a fast number that has already whipped up the crowd, despite the technical difficulties. Charley follows it quickly with a pacy rendition of ‘5 More Miles’. It’s Charley’s style to play a lot of songs and not talk too much between them, punctuating the music with lots of dancing and showmanship. Having heard Charley live before, I came forewarned and forearmed, and sure enough ‘Cowboy Candy’ and ‘Jukebox Charley’ follow ‘5 More Miles’ with barely a pause for breath. Once you get used to this approach it’s easy to appreciate, particularly as it provides a lot of momentum to a night of music.
The band light into the funky grooves of ‘Just Like Honey’, which, if tonight’s impromptu singalong is any indication, has quickly become a fan favourite since its release last year. Mass cheers follow during and after ‘Music City USA’, Charley Crockett’s spit-in-the-eye to the music industry establishment which tried to control him. As tonight’s heaving venue suggests – “we sold the joint out,” Charley will announce later in the show – making his way as an independent artist is going just fine.
Crockett and his band then unleash a one-two-three combo of James Hand cover songs to really light a match under the night. ‘Midnight Run’, ‘Lesson in Depression’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me That’ are delivered with a throwback 50s rock-‘n’-roll energy that makes you wonder why more acts can’t conjure up the sparks of this forgotten magic. Nostalgia aside, there’s something special about the old days, and it’s something Charley Crockett has been able to revive and harness in his own music.
Charley’s not been the first artist to recognise this tonight, however. Before the Blue Drifters took the stage, opening act Ags Connolly had turned his keen songwriter’s eye to the potent energy of forgotten days with his song ‘I Saw James Hand’, about seeing Slim play “in London first time”. Standing behind his acoustic guitar, the large, bearded Ags has delivered a strong set of original classic country tunes, including ‘Headed South for a While’ from his new album Siempre. ‘Get Out of My Mind’ is another highlight from his opening set, as is the catchy ‘I Hope You’re Unhappy’, which Ags jokingly describes as his “big feelgood song”.
Picking his guitar between songs, Connolly regales the crowd with a story of the last time he played in Manchester, at the Night and Day Café just a few streets away. “The World Cup semi-final was on, and we couldn’t go on until it ended,” he says, before adding, with a hard-won bathos, “it went to extra-time, and we lost, so everyone went home.” Such is the lot of the honest musician – or any artist, for that matter – trying to make their mark in an indifferent world. Sometimes I wonder if I just like hitching myself to lost causes and broken-legged underdogs – country music being a hard sell even in America outside its home states, and “British country music” sounding like a contradiction in terms – but the sincere music of the likes of Ags Connolly gives the lie to this. There’s talent if people turn their ears to listen.
But as the Blue Drifters turn up the heat in front of a capacity crowd in heatwave-struck Manchester, such concerns are far from my mind. By the end of the night, listening to Charley Crockett will feel like hitching myself not to a lost cause but to a runaway train. Charley pulls another ace from his sleeve by launching into ‘Ten Dollar Cowboy’, a fine song that, in the best possible sense, sounds like a song you’ve heard before. But you haven’t – it’s just a song that settles like that – for despite his two-albums-a-year rate, Charley hasn’t yet released this one. Given his stamina, and the song’s quality, you know it won’t be long until he does.
It’s followed by ‘Black Sedan’, a song that creeps up on you in how good it is, and ‘The Man from Waco’, two one-year-old songs that have already achieved the status of crowd favourites. The loudest roar yet accompanies Kullen Fox’s trumpet solo in the latter song, two blue spotlights fixing on him for this heart-lifting sequence of mariachi horn notes that seem to have come right out of the finest Western film you never saw. Each of the Blue Drifters will have their moments tonight – Alexis Sanchez behind his white electric guitar, Colin Colby on bass, Nathan Fleming on pedal steel, and Mayo Valdez with his propulsive drums – but it is the multi-instrumentalist Kullen Fox, seated behind his piano and organ, with both a trumpet and an accordion to hand, who is the driving force of Hurricane Charley.
However, it’s the dancing, gyrating Crockett who plays rainmaker, keeping the storm whipped up. As he will sing later tonight in his self-penned ‘I’m Just a Clown’, if you purchase a ticket, expect to see a show – and that’s just what you get. The energy, quality and colour you get on stage during a Charley Crockett set can’t be beat.
We’re still a long way from breaking out that number, however, though the band does now surprise us with a cover of ‘Act Naturally’. While I know it best from the Beatles cover sung by Ringo, ‘Act Naturally’ is of course a country song by Buck Owens, and the band and crowd both delight in the honky-tonkin’ ease with which it manifests in the room tonight. ‘Act Naturally’ is perhaps a spiritual precursor to Crockett’s ‘I’m Just a Clown’ but, despite his energetic showmanship, Charley, dressed in a black shirt and sharp grey pants, with his signature silver phoenix pendant and obligatory white cowboy hat, is no clown. No “fool who ever hit the big-time”. Charley Crockett is a bona fide old-fashioned star. Not a celebrity, but a star as they used to be. The sort of personality that belongs on a stage; the sort of name you expect to see up in lights. The sort the lights were first made for. No clown could write the music he does, and no fool could hold together such a band.
The Buck Owens song is followed by a Charley original, the slower-paced ‘Odessa’, which moves methodically through its beats, savouring every line. After it ends, Charley wipes the sweat from his brow, perhaps wondering how the sun that beats down on Odessa, Texas has followed him to the north of England. It says a lot that even the South Texan is affected by the heat, but it doesn’t change his performance. He and the band tear into ‘Borrowed Time’, a favourite of mine, but the song itself is on borrowed time, and before you know it the band have trailed its notes into ‘Look What You Done’. The soulful groove is maintained into another song from In the Night, ‘Ain’t Got No Time to Lose’, punctuated by a fine trumpet solo from Kullen Fox.
It’s time to break out a few heavy-hitters. The opening notes of ‘Welcome to Hard Times’ are unmistakeable, and many in the crowd can’t help but sing along. It’s a warm communal moment, a feeling that we’re all in this hard life together and dancing regardless, and the singalong continues into ‘Jamestown Ferry’. It’s not a hot day January, but in the September heat the song sounds at home. Alexis Sanchez smiles broadly from behind his white Fender electric and Kullen Fox, his blue shirtsleeves rolled up, provokes a further roar from the crowd with a bright trumpet solo to make the number swing.
An extended instrumental follows from the Blue Drifters as Charley leaves the stage; when he returns after a brief interlude he is full of praise for them: “Don’t they know how to make a ten-dollar cowboy look pretty gooood?” But he’s pretty good too when he’s in front of them, as he now proves. Taking off his guitar and picking up the microphone, Good Time Charley brings the blues with a sultry, hip-snaking performance of ‘I Feel for You’.
“Corner me in an alley on a dark night in Manchester,” Crockett says to cheers, “and I’ll tell you I’m a blues singer.” The band then pours a groove into ‘Travelin’ Blues’, with Colin Colby’s smooth bass punctuated by Kullen’s trumpet and Charley proving you don’t need to be in a dark alley to find out he’s a blues singer. Another band instrumental follows as Charley wipes the sweat from his face with a white towel.
Charley then proves there’s even more strings to his bow than country and blues and rockabilly, as he pulls on a banjo and picks his way through the traditional folk song ‘Darlin’ Six Months Ain’t Long’. It’s followed by ‘Lilly My Dear’, a Crockett original that sounds like he found it buried in the earth after a hundred years, such is its authentic folk appeal. The banjo lulls the band into an old-timey shuffle, with wistful touches provided by Kullen Fox – now on accordion.
But don’t be fooled by the folksy throwbacks; we’re only in the eye of Hurricane Charley. On the other side the rest of the storm is coming. Keeping his banjo strapped, Crockett leads the Blue Drifters into a fierce rendition of ‘Round This World’, lit up by an unchained Tex-Mex guitar solo from Alexis Sanchez. And then comes the song worth waiting for; the hurricane’s most supreme blow.
Charley is on record as saying ‘Trinity River’ is the song that allows the Blue Drifters to really thrive and show what they can do, and it’s proven once again tonight. Kullen Fox, the man with all the best lines, begins the song’s distinctive trumpet riff that brings a roar from the crowd. The whole band in Hurricane Charley break the Beaufort scale in this song, and Charley himself can’t resist. Now wielding an electric guitar, he provides some licks of his own as he goes down low on the stage, caught amidst the heavy rain of Blue Drifter soul.
“Manchester, we’ve satisfied your needs!” Crockett yells, and after such a song it’s impossible to argue with him. As he sings the praises of the grinning Kullen Fox, we know it’s no idle boast. Hurricanes don’t have hubris; they are pure forces of nature. After twenty-five songs and such a statement, most musicians would think of ending it there, but the prolific Charley Crockett still has songs left for us tonight.
What’s more, he has another unreleased gem. ‘Solitary Road’ is the next song, and with its punching lyrics, a soulful groove driven by Kullen Fox’s organ, and some soaring guitar solos from Alexis Sanchez, I’m happy to tip it as a future fan-favourite after just a single listen.
“Can I get a ‘hallelujah’?” Charley shouts, and he gets one, though God knows why he wants one. Perhaps it’s the heat or the roll he’s on; perhaps it’s just to know he’s got the crowd in the palm of his hand before he launches into the frenetic ‘Goin’ Back to Texas’. When I saw Crockett live last year, this was his song to sign off the night, but here it’s followed up by ‘Silver Dagger’, with Kullen’s swirling organ and a lusty solo from Charley’s unusual-looking brown-and-white electric guitar.
When the Live from the Ryman album is released in a few weeks, it will no doubt show off Charley’s fine country chops as he and the band fill that storied Nashville hall. But I do wonder how well it will show their raucous blues and soul energy, a force epitomised tonight by their final number, ‘I’m Just a Clown’. A perfect soul song, with Charley’s Bill Withers-like vocals, Kullen’s trumpet and Alexis’ bluesy guitar, it’s hard to think of a more perfect song to end tonight’s set.
The crowd doesn’t agree, however – or perhaps they do, but don’t want it to end regardless. As the musicians leave the stage and the lights go down, the whole crowd claps and stomps for an encore, shouting “Charley! Charley! Charley!” as though storms could be summoned by such primitive rituals. But it turns out we too can play rainmaker, for after a full minute of chanting Charley comes back out – alone – to cheers. Behind his acoustic guitar, he sings another unreleased original, ‘The Death of Bill Bailey’, a murder ballad “about a guy who had it comin'”, followed by ‘Time of the Cottonwood Trees’.
“Shall I invite the band back up?” Charley asks to roars from the crowd. It seems as though this storm can never blow itself out. As the Blue Drifters come back up and a meteorologist somewhere wonders why his barometer has dropped again, Charley praises them and the opening act, Ags Connolly. He then leads the band into a perfect, propulsive version of ‘Paint it Blue’.
“I’m Charley Crockett! These are the Blue Drifters!” Charley had proclaimed after ‘I’m Just a Clown’. Now, after the encore, he reminds us it’s “Charley with an ‘E-Y’, like Charley Pride! Crockett with two T’s like Davy!” He unplugs his guitar and spins the lead around before letting it fall on the stage. It must hit someone in the front row, or at least land very close to them, for Charley reaches out and apologises as he leaves the stage. That person may go home sporting a red welt, but Hurricane Charley with an E-Y has left his mark on all of us.
The storm-tossed crowd filters out slowly, the night still warm despite the late hour. I stand on the street for some time and a white rented Renault Clio drives past, with someone blowing a trumpet from the rolled-down window. I can’t see who it is. But I hope it’s Kullen Fox, still caught in the storm now making its way west towards Dublin.
Setlist:
(all songs from the album The Man from Waco and written by Charley Crockett, unless noted)
- Run Horse Run (from Welcome to Hard Times)
- 5 More Miles (from The Valley)
- Cowboy Candy
- Jukebox Charley (Johnny Paycheck/Aubrey Mayhew) (from Jukebox Charley)
- Just Like Honey (Crockett/Kullen Fox)
- Music City USA (Crockett/Mark Neill) (from Music City USA)
- Midnight Run (James Hand) (from 10 for Slim)
- Lesson in Depression (Hand) (from 10 for Slim)
- Don’t Tell Me That (Hand) (from 10 for Slim)
- Ten Dollar Cowboy (unreleased)
- Black Sedan (Crockett/Fox)
- The Man from Waco (Crockett/Fox/Taylor Grace/Bruce Robison)
- Act Naturally (Johnny Russell/Voni Morrison) (unreleased)
- Odessa (Crockett/Nathan Fleming)
- Borrowed Time (Crockett/Evan Felker) (from The Valley)
- Look What You Done (from In the Night)
- Ain’t Got No Time to Lose (from In the Night)
- Welcome to Hard Times (from Welcome to Hard Times)
- Jamestown Ferry (Mack Vickery/Bobby Borchers) (from Lil G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee)
- I Feel for You (Jerry Reed) (from Jukebox Charley)
- Travelin’ Blues (Eddy Owens) (from Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza)
- Darlin’ Six Months Ain’t Long (Traditional) (from Field Recordings, Vol. 1)
- Lilly My Dear (Crockett/Vincent Neil Emerson/Colin Colby/Tyler Heiser) (from Welcome to Hard Times)
- Round This World (from Music City USA)
- Trinity River
- Solitary Road (unreleased)
- Goin’ Back to Texas (from Lonesome as a Shadow)
- Silver Dagger (from In the Night)
- I’m Just a Clown
- Encore: The Death of Bill Bailey (unreleased)
- Encore: Time of the Cottonwood Trees
- Encore: Paint it Blue (from Welcome to Hard Times)
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