Charley Crockett Delivers Perfect Performance Of “Name On A Billboard” On ‘The Daily Show’

Charley Crockett country music

Charley Crockett is the real damn deal.

His The Man From Waco Redux is slated to drop next month, which will be a digital-only release featuring reworked versions of songs from the first installment.

He says he believes that if your tune holds up and can withstand the test of time, it should be able to be put to many different arrangements with different bands and still have the story shine through.

The redux is a helluva way to test that theory out, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

And during an appearance last night on The Daily Show to promote the new project, he talked to guest host Jordan Klepper about his life journey thus far, which is fascinating and includes quite a few years busking in New York City, working with Bob Dylan on “Tom Turkey,” how he first got discovered and much more.

Charley noted that a journalist from a major publication is actually working on a lengthy feature and profile on him right now, and has interviewed pretty much everyone he’s ever worked with.

And specifically, all a few former managers, who all told the journalist the same thing: Charley always had a plan for his career, though Charley told Joran that couldn’t be further from his reality:

“This journalist was saying that a couple of my old managers, they said, Charley, you had a plan… you knew where you were going, you had this grand scheme. But I never did, you know?

The reason I started playing in public and on street corners in the first place was this was this was a career last resort. Hard luck and circumstances put me on street corners, I wouldn’t be in this business if I’d had an easy way.

And so there was no grand scheme to beat the game. The only thing I ever wanted to do was keep playing… I’m not a cowboy, I’m a cowboy singer, and I just wanna keep singin’ my cowboy songs. And they might sound a little different from some of the old boys.”

He also told this cool story about opening for Willie Nelson in NYC last fall, which was the ultimate full-circle moment, in my opinion:

“Back in September, the first bridge I ever played underneath in Central Park, I played about 100 yards from it… opening up for Willie Nelson, so that felt pretty good.”

The Man From Waco (Redux) will be out everywhere on digital platforms on May 26th.

You can watch his performance of “Name on a Billboard” during last nights show here:

And the full interview is well-worth your time because Charley is absolutely fascinating:

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