Charley Crockett brings honky-tonk heat to First Avenue

Charley Crockett played at First Avenue in Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 29, 2022. He was joined by opener, Greyhounds. Isabel Fajardo

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November 30, 2022

Charley Crockett has lived far more in his 38 years than most people do in their entire lifetimes. His teenage years saw him trade his home in Texas for the streets of New Orleans, spending hours playing folk songs for spare change. He later moved to New York City and joined a group of subway performers, which ultimately landed him his first record deal, albeit one that didn’t pay off in the end. After a brush with the law, Crockett decided to take his playing (and his life) more seriously — much more seriously.

Crockett has released an impressive 11 albums in the past seven years, each featuring his unique blend of twangy country, storied folk, and soulful blues. He barely even let up when a congenital condition led to emergency open-heart surgery to replace a valve in 2019. He tours constantly, logging more road miles in a year than some long-haul truckers. At Tuesday’s sold-out First Avenue show, it was obvious why; performing is his entire reason for living.

For the Minneapolis stop of the Man From Waco tour, Crockett rewarded diehard fans — who trudged through more than seven inches of freshly fallen snow to be there — with a spectacular 30-song set.

Wide view of the band and the first few rows of the crowd — Charley Crockett played at First Avenue in Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 29, 2022. He was joined by opener, Greyhounds.
Isabel Fajardo

But first, the Austin-based duo Greyhounds got the night started. Consisting of keyboardist/singer Anthony Farrell and guitarist/singer Andrew Trube (as well as live drummer Russell Lee), Greyhounds sound exactly like the city they’re from. As Crockett himself put it later: “If you want to hear what the city of Austin sounds like, listen to Greyhounds.”

Greyhounds’ bluesy and soulful blend of R&B and rock and roll roots were a great precursor to Crockett. Farrell and Trube traded off lead vocal duties from song to song, and each brought their own influences. Farrell provided the passionate, soulful R&B voice, while Trube’s were much more in line with the bluesy rock and roll that made Austin famous. The duo have been playing together for 23 years, and it showed. Their voices were perfectly in sync with one another, and their playing (along with Lee’s) was tight and controlled despite their meandering, jamming style.

At one point in their set, Greyhounds welcomed a special guest, Samuel Greyhorse, onstage to sing two songs about mules. The crowd welcomed the comedic break in Greyhounds' otherwise fairly lyrically deep collection of songs, and it was a perfectly timed way to keep everyone on their toes.

At Crockett’s showtime, his band, the Blue Drifters, filed onstage and took their designated places against a gold, crushed-velvet backdrop. As they did, First Avenue suddenly took on the air of another world-famous stage: the Grand Ole Opry. Piano, accordion, and trumpet player extraordinaire Kullen Fox kicked things off with “The Man from Waco Theme.” The man himself entered with an acoustic guitar strapped high and tight.

Aiming a brief smile at the crowd, Crockett settled into a block of songs off of The Man from Waco. Living up to the tour’s name, 12 of the night’s 30 songs were from Crockett’s latest album, released earlier this year. First up was the hootin’ and hollerin’ filled ”Cowboy Candy.” The crowd ate it up and dutifully added their own hoots and hollers as “Time of the Cottonwood Trees” began.

Man holds acoustic guitar up and smiles big — Charley Crockett played at First Avenue in Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.
Isabel Fajardo

“Just Like Honey,” “Black Sedan,” and “The Man From Waco” brought us deeper into the world of Waco. On “Odessa,” Crockett offered the first glimpse at his more soulful side of the evening. “Music City USA,” “Round This World,” “Trinity River,” and “Welcome to Hard Times” allowed the crowd to let loose, dance, and bob their hatted heads a bit. Looking out across the sea of Crockett’s fans, there were about as many cowboy hats as there were trucker caps (during beanie season in Minnesota, no less!), so it’s safe to say his fanbase is pretty evenly split across both kinds.

Before launching into The Man from Waco’s “Tom Turkey,” Crockett took a moment to work a local angle. “It’s appropriate for me to play this next song since I’m in Minnesota. When I was playing on street corners, I never in a million years thought I’d get to finish a song started by Mr. Bob Dylan.”

Dylan is listed as a co-writer on “Tom Turkey,” as the song is Crockett’s fully finished version of a fragment from Dylan’s Pecos Blues collection. Seeing as the mere mention of Bob Dylan on any stage in Minnesota generally garners a massive reaction, the crowd’s raucous cheers drowned out the first few notes of “Tom Turkey.”

As phenomenal as Crockett’s original songs were to experience live, the songs he didn’t write really stole the show. Four of Crockett’s 11 albums are cover albums, so it came as no surprise to anyone that nearly a third of the set drew from that body of work.

During “Between My House and Town,” Crockett honored The Possum, Mr. George Jones. (“A little George Jones never hurt nobody… except maybe himself.”) With “Jukebox Charley,” he paid homage to Johnny Paycheck and the bygone era of jukebox country. In “Jamestown Ferry,” he tipped his Stetson to one of the original queens of country, Tanya Tucker. And with the Appalachian folk classic “Darlin’ six Months Ain’t Long,” Crockett channeled his inner finger-pickin’ Coon Creek Girl on the banjo.

But some of Tuesday night’s covers were a bit more personal for Crockett. His friend and mentor, James “Slim” Hand, died in June 2020. A few months later, Crockett released 10 for Slim – Charley Crockett Sings James Hand.

“I wanna tell you something James always told me. He’d say, ‘Charlie, anybody can pray for rain. But you best get busy diggin’ a well, son.’” With that, Crockett launched into the three-song block of James Hand covers: the pedal-steel pleaser “Midnight Run,” the tongue-in-cheek twanger “Lesson in Depression,” and the swinging honky-tonk “Don’t Tell Me That.”

Not all Crockett’s covers (or his original songs, for that matter) were strictly country-based. His soulful rendition of Jerry Reed’s “I Feel For You” was one of the rare moments in the set where Crockett crooned into a handheld mic sans guitar. During T-Bone Walker’s “Travelin’ Blues” and Magic Sam’s “21 Days in Jail,” he fully embraced the bluesman he is at heart. (“They call me country, but underneath it all, I’m pure blues.”) And with Crockett’s own “I Need Your Love” and “In the Night,” he fully transforms into a 1960s R&B singer to close out the main set.

When Crockett returned to the stage for the encore, he was alone with just his acoustic guitar accompanying him. Without so much as a howdy, he went right into the encore’s first song: “July Jackson.” After plenty more hootin’ and hollerin’ from the crowd, Crockett welcomed the rest of the band back to the stage. (“Well, whaddya say we get the band back up here and keep on going?”)

Man holding an acoustic guitar under a spotlight — Charley Crockett played at First Avenue in Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.
Isabel Fajardo

The remaining two songs turned the energy within First Ave up to 11. First up was “Goin’ Back to Texas” off 2018’s Lonesome as a Shadow. In addition to some fancy footwork from Crockett, “Goin’ Back” gave Fox time to shine with a trumpet and an accordion solo. The final song of the evening was The Man from Waco’s “I’m Just a Clown.” As the album’s lead single, it was an excellent way to close things down for the night, since it’s the perfect amalgamation of Crockett’s country, folk, and blues all in one energy-packed song.

Whether he’s performing on a street corner in New Orleans, a subway train in New York City, or at a sold-out First Avenue show, one thing’s for certain: Charley Crocket is a natural-born performer. As soon as he was on that stage, his soul came alive with a kind of vigor and charisma that only the best entertainers possess. Crockett may have already done a lot of living in his life, but if Tuesday’s show is any indication, he’s not nearly finished.

Gallery: Charley Crockett at First Avenue