Charley Crockett: The Bitter End 2024

From street busker to one of the fast-rising stars of Americana and country music, Austin-based Charley Crockett is far from an overnight success. He released his first album, A Stolen Jewel, in 2015 but didn't win "Emerging Artist of Year" at the Americana Music Honors & Awards until 2021, long after he'd released about eight albums. By 2023, he was thrice nominated at the Americana Awards, including the prestigious "Artist of the Year" category — and he's shortlisted again in that category for 2024 (the winner will be announced in September).

Crockett's superpower is his storytelling prowess, as on his most recent (and 14th) album, 2024's $10 Cowboy; that intriguing title is a gateway to Crockett's rambles and gambles across the country, drifting down highways and dusty side roads, spurred on by a constant internal dialogue.

“This material is written at truck stops, it’s written at casinos, it’s written in the alleys behind the venues, it’s written in my truck parked up on South Congress in Austin," Crockett once explained in a press release. "A ramblin’ man like me, a genuine transient, is in a pretty damn good position to have something to say about America.”

FUV was fortunate to have Crockett amble into The Bitter End this spring for a concert for Marquee Members. Accompanied only by his trusty guitar, Crockett embarked on an American saga of a set, including his riveting "Killers of the Flower Moon" — a song co-written with T Bone Burnett and featured on Robbie Robertson's soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's 2023 film about the murders of Osage men and women in 1920s Oklahoma by white settlers.

Watch videos below of three more of Crockett's songs: "$10 Cowboy," "America," and "Good at Losing."

[Recorded: 4/22/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara; produced by Meghan Offtermatt; hosted by Eric Holland; videographers: Caitria Demeroto, Adithi Vimalanathan, Therese Burgo, and Nikki Estelami.]