Now that he’s cashed in chicken shit bingo at Big T Roadhouse in San Antonio for Hernando’s Hideaway in Memphis, longtime Austinite Dale Watson wants us to call him Lucky. So be it. For his latest fast-acting batch of straight-to-the-point pickings, the Ameripolitan extraordinaire and his tight-knit Lone Stars holed up in Sam Phillips Recording and fanned out a deck of Tennessee aces, including Johnny Cash’s one and only drummer, W.S. “Fluke” Holland. From the brassy cruise and shuffle of “Tupelo Mississippi & a 57 Fairlane” to the sweet Music Man drive of “Restless” and tender evergreen glow of “Johnny & June” (a duet with Celine Lee), Watson echoes ghosts while turning phrases in his silver and gold baritone voice. Like a snowbound Harlan Howard, Watson knows how to get in and get out of a song, but with a West Coast grin and a tip of the pompadour.

***.5

This article appears in May 3 • 2019.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US