Words: Slade Rand
Photos: Jon Angel
Charley Crockett delivered two dozen rapid-fire songs with expert precision in front of tall gold curtains and a matching bandstand on Thursday night in Denver.
Crockett began his pair of rodeo weekend shows with a shot at ‘$10 Cowboy,’ the title track off his new album announced this weekend. He leaned in close to a standing microphone and poured his soul into 45 minutes of music, as if he were singing head on to an unseen camera, before ditching his guitar and mic stand to strut the stage for a raucous run of songs midway through the show.
The 39-year-old Crockett played guitar and banjo during his clean-cut performance at Mission Ballroom, and he belted every song. The Texan’s showmanship calls back to the likes of Elvis or Johnny Cash, but Crockett himself leans more on the bedazzled charisma of Dolly Parton.
“I loved the whole old-school variety-show aspect of what Johnny (Cash) was doing,” Crockett wrote in a letter to fans in 2023. “It’s the same reason I love Dolly Parton, who’s probably my number-one influence in terms of stage performance.”
Crockett wrote that note about his first time performing at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 2022, a sold-out affair released as a live album in September 2023. Crockett also produced limited cassette tapes of the memorable night with his band, the Blue Drifters, at the legendary venue.
The Blue Drifters joined Crockett onstage at Mission Ballroom for his two headlining shows during the National Western Stock Show in Denver this weekend. The sharp quintet features Houston native Kullen Fox on keys, accordion and trumpet, Alexis Sanchez on electric guitar, Jacob Marchese on upright and electric bass, Austin, TX native Nathan Fleming on pedal steel and Mario Valde on the drum kit.
Fleming was a constant uplifting force on pedal steel Thursday night and Fox at times played the organ with his left hand while blasting into a trumpet with his right.
“I’ve still got work to do, but every time I get onstage, I try to show all my different colors, everything from playing a banjo song to putting down my instrument and grabbing the mic and crooning like a lounge singer,” Crockett wrote in his 2023 letter.
The house PA played music by Magic Sam, Errol Dunkley and William Onyebar before Charley Crockett, a descendant of Alamo hero Davy Crockett, stormed the Mission stage Thursday night. The Blue Drifters took their places and dove into the opening take on ‘$10 Cowboy,’ which Crockett began playing on the road last summer.
“I’m Charley Crockett, thanks for coming out tonight,” the singer said, pausing for only a moment before launching into crowd-favorite ‘Black Sedan’ off of ‘The Man From Waco.’
The tune from Crockett’s 2022 concept album gave the Denver crowd its first name drop of the night, as the Texan crooned on passing through Dodge on his way to the mile-high city.
Blue Drifters keyboardist Kullen Fox first picked up his accordion for a take on ‘Cowboy Candy’ later in the show, lending an authentic and full sound to the night’s third song from Crockett’s recent concept album.
Throughout the tightly performed set, bassist Jacob Marchese swapped between stand-up and electric. The engaged crowd down in front had spent the day around the corner at the National Western Stock Show, and brought a rowdy energy to the packed floor space.
Crockett performed a rockabilly version of Buck Owens’ 1963 hit ‘Act Naturally,’ before darting offstage while the band grooved an interlude. He returned without a guitar and just a microphone in his hand, and egged the crowd on ahead of a version of ‘Juke Box Mama,’ written in 1971 by North Carolinian Link Wray.
Later, Crockett picked up a banjo for a take on original tune ‘Lily My Dear.’
“These days they call me country, and I’m proud of that,” Crockett told the crowd. “Whatever you want to call it, but as I stand in front of you tonight I’m gonna tell you the truth — I ain’t nothing but a Blues singer.”
He tore through country-blues standard ‘Travelin’ Blues’ while strutting the stage framed by the Blue Drifters. Crockett recorded a version of the Jimmie Rogers-written tune for his 2018 release ‘Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza.’
He’s reverent of the music that’s inspired him, and Crockett lays down covers of country standards on a handful of albums. The 1959 Webb Pierce tune ‘I Ain’t Never’ that played on the PA a few minutes before Crockett walked onstage Thursday also appears on his 2017 album ‘Lil G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee.’
Crockett picked up an electric guitar toward the end of the Thursday night show for a high-energy rendition of ‘Trinity River’ where he slid around the stage while Kullen Fox played both keys and trumpet.
Charley Crockett headlined two nights at Mission Ballroom during the National Western Stock Show in Denver, helping close the two-week event after the venue hosted Colter Wall for three nights a week earlier.
Click here to view a full gallery from Charley Crockett at Mission Ballroom on Thursday, and click here to view a gallery from Colter Wall’s performance at Mission.
After Midnight 
Leave a comment