Dale Watson (musician)
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HANK WILLIAMS III NAMES DALE WATSON the Savior of Traditional Country Music.
Austin, TX…Hank Williams III, keeper of the Williams musical legacy, recently named country singer and songwriter Dale Watson the savior of traditional country music.
In an Orlando Sentinel article that ran throughout November in major daily newspapers around the country, Williams says he’s “uncomfortable with the notion that he’s a savior for traditional music,” and tells the paper that, instead, “that would have to be somebody like Dale Watson.”
The 43-year-old, Austin-based Watson, a 25-year industry veteran known for his soulful baritone and for his disdain for the Nashville Pop sound that has come to be called country music in the last couple of decades, says, “Hank III is a friend who understates his role in the future of country music, but I’m proud to be thought of as a torch bearer of real country music.”
“The torch has passed from Bob Wills to Don Walser, and now Watson holds it tight. Not many folks can walk in those boots,” says The Austin Chronicle in its November 25, 2005 Watson cover story. “Steadfast in his ways, true to his meaning, and brilliantly honest, Watson is what country music should be: authentic, legitimate and bona fide heart.”
Dubbed “a honky tonk purist,” and a “leading country light” by the Austin American- Statesman, Dale Watson is a Grand Ol’ Opry favorite, and has a devoted following in the U.S. and Europe among not only fans of all ages, but performers and other industry professionals, as well.
“I’m one of Dale’s biggest fans,” Willie Nelson proclaimed in Naked Nashville, the 1998 documentary that starred Watson, and focused on traditional country music’s struggle against the Nashville Pop Country machine.
“A man like this, a real country star, knows no boundaries in life or in music,” The Austin Chronicle cover story says, “Dale Watson saves country music every day and night with one honky-tonk two-step after another.”
Dale Watson, born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in Pasadena, Texas, began performing at 14, and has appeared in clubs and concert venues across the U.S. and Europe to great acclaim.
He’s recorded hundreds of original songs, some of which have been included in major film soundtracks, has been featured in numerous complication albums with country legends, including Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam, and has performed live with Nelson as well as Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck. His music videos have aired on CMT, and he’s appeared on Austin City Limits.
He has won the British Country Music Awards “Best International Artist on an Independent Label,” and country music awards in Holland and Spain, making him a household name in Europe.
In 2005, he was inducted into The Austin Music Hall of Fame, and beat out Willie Nelson for The Austin Music Awards “Best Country” band. It was the third time he won that award. He’s also won an Austin Music Award as Best Songwriter.
Whiskey or God, his latest CD will be released by Palo Duro Records in March, 2006. In Summer 2006, feature film director Zalman King (9 ½ Weeks, The Red Shoe Diaries) will premiere Crazy Again at SXSW, his documentary about Watson, which features the singer’s performances in Austin and on the road, interwoven with the story of Watson’s breakdown after his girlfriend Terri Herbert’s September 2000 fatal car accident.
Crazy Again will be shown at film festivals in Sonoma, CA, Arizona State University, Argentina, Thailand and others in the U.S. and abroad that are currently in negotiation.
King will also direct Austin Angel, a full-length feature film starring Dale Watson as a country singer who sells his soul to the devil to save his daughter. Austin Angel will be shot in Austin and other locations during the spring and summer of 2006. David Carradine is set to play the devil.
Watson is currently writing a memoir. The book will be published to coincide with the release of the feature film, Austin Angel, in late 2006 or early 2007.
