Dale Watson is a living, breathing American roots-music legend. Yet, inexplicably, there are still plenty of folks outside his home state who’ve never heard of the guy. Some of that has to do with the Texas music scene. Bumper stickers tout the “republic” as basically its own country. Artists mold entire careers out of their affiliation with the state and the well-traveled live music circuit that connects Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and the nearby Hill Country region. (See Robert Earl Keen.)
A ceaseless road warrior, Watson has never bought into the whole provincial thing. And no one embodies the multifaceted Texas archetype quite like him: a singer/songwriter, guitarist, actor, cultural ambassador and champion of traditions that duck mainstream norms. His “Ameripolitan” blend of outlaw country, western swing and rockabilly has its beginnings in the honky-tonks of oil-crazed ’80s Houston. Four decades and 30-some albums later, Watson remains, for lack of a better word, timeless.
That said, it should come as little surprise that he wrote and produced everything on his new LP, Unwanted (Forty Below), recording its 12 tunes with two core bands in Memphis and Austin. “She Was My Baby” was tracked with the Texas contingent.
“I wrote ‘She Was My Baby’ as an amalgamation of the women who make men lose their minds and common sense to where they don’t recognize themselves until it’s over and they can look back with more clarity,” says Watson. “I’ve been in that mindset, where you’re so in love or insane that your judgment is out of character. I’ve seen friends there. It’s hard to be talked out of it—and hard to talk someone out of it. It usually has to run its course.”
We’re proud to premiere Dale Watson’s “She Was My Baby.” Unwanted is out April 24.
—Hobart Rowland
See Dale Watson live.
