Charley Crockett $10 Cowboy on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Looks A Lot Like Me

I'm sharing some joy with you as I just woke up from a nap. Jukebox Charley brings us to the pawn shop with a country tune written in 2024 with the stylistic patina of 1978’s Burt Reynolds movie Hooper.

Sure, I owe you, dear readers, a Substack post about what people would eat on submarines at war, but enjoy this tune as Charley makes his way on tour for $10 Cowboy starting in May (and coming as close as New Hampshire to me).

The $10 Cowboy Tour - Presale code - 10COWBOY

I'd like you to consider this a post-script to my Jukebox Charley album review.

$10 Cowboy on Jimmy Kimmel Live

My first impression of the title track from Charley’s forthcoming album is “of course I like it.” True to formula and showcasing his signature voice and lyrics, $10 Cowboy brings us to a time where we at once are feeling pretty swell but are a bit down on our luck.

Looking sharp, we head to the pawn shop, but our signature pieces, 3 sterling silver skull rings, are placed on the glass display with a hardy “howmuchyougimmefor.”

Maybe they’ll come out of hock and back on fingers when luck turns around.

What’s worse is tomorrow, we’re returning to the scene of acquisition to pawn back the one weapon that can make money. “So Down And Out,” the acoustic guitar is once again in the pokey for the sin of being in the hands of a sinner that “just can’t make it right.”

This is cosplaying a bit. The one time I went to a pawn shop was to get my girlfriend’s ex’s engagement ring appraised, and it wasn’t ever enough for her to part with the thing. Spot how many red flags you see about that relationship without mud in your eye.

I love Charley’s cadence. It offers a homogeny to his lyrics and voice that critics might not embrace, but no one says that about Johnny or Willie.

Country music has its own set of rules. And this former busker certainly lives by his own with the career he made out of nothing. With “all the greats,” you get what you’ll get, and don’t get upset. From slide and lead guitar, his band really cooks, with keys dancing underneath. The riff has a swagger, and the lyrics are what I needed to hear today about perseverance and turning it all around.

Second Verse-

“If you’re a ten-dollar cowboy
Then you already know
That there never was a rider
Who couldn’t be thrown
Even Billy McClain
Fell off a time or two
He was a ten-dollar cowboy
Who looked a lot like you”

Here, Charley pays tribute to Old Red by Marty Robbins. His reverence for the classics and exactly the ‘kind of country’ I grew up on, taping Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell from the Abington Public Library records for my Dad and me.

Third Verse-

“I’m a ten-dollar cowboy
I play a little guitar
People always ask me
If I’m a rodeo star
Doubt if I got eight seconds
But I can sing you a song
Like a big bullrider
I’m steady holding on”

Me too, Charley. I’m steady holding on. And good things are in the works—good, good things. I might try to break Old Red daily, but I’ll dust myself off.

In my case, I’m riding my bike 3 hours before dawn to make rent, and the dusting off is Boston winter street salt. The plot twist is that this Clay intends to stay above the clay for a long time now…

“Out in the West is the place where they rest
This cowboy that never was thrown
And one foot away restin' there 'neath the clay
Is the outlaw that never was rode” — Old Red

Charley Crockett "$10 Cowboy" Written By: Charley Crockett & Billy Horton