from: jackassworld.com

Posted by johnny knoxville Saturday, May 31st, 2008 12:20 pm

part one:

part two:

part three:

Click here to read Johnny Knoxville's comments on this liquor infused interview with Dale Watson.

LINKS:

dalewatson.com
myspace.com/dalewatson
hyenarecords.com

Watson Keeps Country Old-School

from: TheWeekender.com

by Nikki M. Mascali

Dale Watson looks like country and, with his twangy bluesy delivery, he sounds like country. But don't dare insult him by calling him country. Correction: Don't dare insult him by calling him today's country.

To Watson, that is the ultimate "c" word that he likens to Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Rascal Flatts, all of which he isn't shy of lambasting.

"They have successfully taken what was country music and turned it into something else," Watson explained. "Obviously a lot of people like it or it wouldn't be so successful, but just because it sells a million [copies] doesn't mean shit to me."

Watson is based in Austin, Texas — a musically hot city that has been homebase for many: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Asleep at the Wheel, Butthole Surfers and the annual South by Southwest festival.

"Austin's never not been a hot scene, really," he said. "There's so many different genres. It's very musically free — there's no shackles like there is in Nashville where you have to be Top 40 to get listened to."

Today's Top 40 country is quite different from the Top 40 of Watson's youth when today's legends — Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Buck Owens, Bob Wills and Johnny Cash — ruled the airwaves in the '70s.

"That's when it was still great country music, it wasn't this pop stuff," Watson said. "The general public will consume whatever is advertised the most, that's just the way it is. Even that William Hung sold a bunch of records, and he's about as bad as you can get.

"People like me, there's no animosity or jealousy in what's going on, it's just the way it is and it's always been this way. Whatever is marketed and has money behind it is what is going to be the flavor."

For the artists like himself, Watson created the term "Ameripolitan," which he has defined on Wikipedia as "original music with prominent roots influence." He coined the phrase because he found "Americana" too broad a term for his type of music.

"It didn't really focus on or strengthen the type of music that I like to keep out there," he said. "I think country music — what was country music — has to go the route of bluegrass, which was considered part of country music, but they created their own festivals, awards and genres."

Watson practices what he preaches in keeping his own music thoroughly rooted in yesterday's country, and nowhere does he capture those roots more than on his latest release, last year's "From The Cradle To The Grave."

Watson recorded and wrote most of it at the Tennessee log cabin of his friend Johnny Knoxville, which just so happens to be the former cabin of one Johnny Cash (click here to read full article...).

DALE WATSON News, Tour Dates, Music, etc...

Please visit DaleWatson.com or MySpace.com/DaleWatson for news and a complete list of upcoming tour dates.

Click here to buy Dale Watson's "From The Cradle To The Grave" today!

LINKS:

http://www.dalewatson.com
http://www.myspace.com/dalewatson
http://www.hyenarecords.com/dalewatson

The title track from Dale Watson's latest "From The Cradle To The Grave" is featured on the new American Songwriter "Country Way" compilation that comes free by purchasing the magazine.

You Can Buy This Issue Here: http://www.americansongwriterstore.com

Or Subscribe Now Here: http://store.americansongwriter.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

from: BlogCritics Magazine

Concert Review:
Dale Watson
Phoenix, Arizona, April 22, 2008

Written by Benjamin Cossel

Published April 27, 2008

Ask Dale Watson if he can spare any change and you just might get lucky. Such was the case for one fan, April 22 at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix when Watson and his Lone Stars took to the stage for a typical marathon performance.

Watson is the cowboy with no cowboy hat. His boots, plain black with no frills, have the high gloss of paten leather. You won't find him wearing one of those god-awful, garish "cowboy" shirts so popular on the Nashville scene. Nope, Watson prefers a simple shirt with his signature black leather vest and thigh length top-coat. And then there is the guitar. A Fender Telecaster to be exact with some modifications. Coins are glued all around the body and on this night in Phoenix, one fell off and was offered to an unsuspecting audience member, "Hey buddy, spare a buck?"

Hailing from the great state of Texas, where everything is larger including the performances, Watson and the band started the show a bit on the early side, hitting their first song at the 8:05 pm mark. To the unknowing fan, one could assume that they were in for a typical hour or so set, leaving the bar 'round 9:30 or so and safely in bed by ten. Wow, these country music fans are a bunch of fuddy-duddies right? Not so fast my man, Watson and his gang shut the place down, and for the most part, the audience hung in there with them (click here to read more...).

Click here to read the full concert review at BlogCritics.org

from: Phoenix New Times

Dale Watson

Venue: The Rhythm Room
Date/Time: Tue., April 22, 8:00pm
Price: $10-$12

Downtrodden Dale

By Chris Parker

Like a sepia-toned photo of days gone by, Dale Watson embodies a sound Nashville disowned years ago for rhinestones and snakeskin. His deep baritone is dark as pumpernickel, smooth as steel, and haunted as that house in Amityville, NY (click here to read more...).

Click here to read full article at PhoenixNewTimes.com.

Dale Watson performs "The Ballad of Billy Joe" about Billy Joe Shaver on March 8, 2008 at The Broken Spoke in Austin, TX.

from: Creative Loafing Charlotte

Saving Country’s Ass

Dale Watson out to represent the genre

Published 03.26.08
By Grant Britt

If you want to hear what Dale Watson thinks about the current state of country music, all you have to do is listen to him sing. "They took the soul out of what means a whole lot to me," he laments on "Country My Ass." It’s enough to set Hank and Lefty (Frizzell, one of Watson’s idols) spinnin’ in their graves, voicing their displeasure through Watson: "Tell ’em stick it up high where the sun don’t shine," Watson has the dead duo saying. "Get pissed, get mad, that’s country, my ass."

Watson has been voicing his displeasure with country for the better part of two decades. He agrees with Charlotte’s Unknown Hinson, who says there hasn’t been any decent country since they stopped playing Faron Young’s music. "He’d be the first one to tell you it sucked, even when he was alive," Watson says of Young’s take on the genre (click here to read more...).

Click here to read full article at CreativeLoafing.com.

DALE WATSON Announces April Tour Dates
In Support Of His Acclaimed Recording
FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE

"Dale Watson writes songs that wouldn't sound out of place on one of Johnny Cash's best albums -- songs that will endure...addressing matters of life and death, truth and justice, loss and longing in a voice that rings -- make that, rumbles -- with conviction."
- The Washington Post

Watch Dale Watson's video for "Hollywood Hillbilly" here

Brooklyn, NY -- Austin, Texas troubadour Dale Watson continues to build momentum behind his acclaimed album, From The Cradle To The Grave, on HYENA Records. He's just been nominated for two CMT Music Awards for the videos "Justice For All" and "Hollywood Hillbilly." Additionally, at the invitation of longtime fan and friend Johnny Knoxville, he performed live with his band on MTV during a "Jackass 24 Hour Takeover." And now after spending the first half of 2008 gigging around Texas, Watson gets back on the road with a run of 19 shows, hitting both coasts and the Midwest, throughout the month of April.

The upcoming tour dates are:

April 2 / The Handlebar / Greenville, SC
April 4 / Berkeley Cafe / Raleigh, NC
April 5 / Puckett's Farm Equipment / Charlotte, NC
April 7 / IOTA Club & Cafe / Arlington, VA
April 9 / Thunderbird Cafe / Pittsburgh, PA
April 10 / The Beachland Ballroom / Cleveland, OH
April 11 / Fitzgerald's / Berwyn, IL
April 12 / Club Tavern / Middleton, WI
April 13 / Oneida Casino / Green Bay, WI
April 14 / Oneida Casino / Green Bay, WI
April 15 / Oneida Casino / Green Bay, WI
April 16 / Lee's Liquor Lounge / Minneapolis, MN
April 17 / Knucklehead's / Kansas City, MO
April 18 / The Broken Spoke / Austin, TX
April 19 / Railroad Blues / Alpine, TX
April 22 / The Rhythm Room / Phoenix, AZ
April 24 / Safari Sam's / Los Angeles, CA
April 25 / Fish Lips Bar / Bakersfield, CA
April 26 / Berkley Theatre / Fallon, NV

Released in the Spring of 2007, From The Cradle To The Grave was recorded at Johnny Knoxville's Tennessee mountain cabin, which previously belonged to Johnny Cash. Upon the album's release, Watson rejected the country music label and declared his sound, "Ameripolitan," in protest over what modern country music had become. Critics raved about the album. American Songwriter stated: "On From the Cradle to the Grave, Dale Watson combines Bakersfield filigree and basic country stomp for a record of terse, elegant fatalism." Popmatters.com wrote: "When Dale Watson sings something, it stays sung...it's kinda difficult to argue with a man who sounds like God." Despite Watson's unease with the current state of country and the irony in being nominated for two CMT Music Awards, perhaps TwangNation.com said it best when they declared: "Thanks to Dale's enduring and brave 25-year career and to this album, to paraphrase the late, Great Mark Twain, the rumors of country music's death have been greatly exaggerated."

www.DaleWatson.com
www.HyenaRecords.com/DaleWatson