DALE WATSON - From The Cradle To The Grave Review

Mainstream country artists pay a whole lot of lip-service to Johnny Cash and his legacy (witness "Johnny Cash," the pointless new single from Jason Aldean, or the dead-eyed audience response to the articulate tribute that Kris Kristofferson gave Cash in the middle of the vile, hateful spectacle that was the recent CMT Music Awards) but they rarely display even the most basic understanding of why he's such a legend both within and beyond the country genre....full text So what would you do if one of your best friends, who also happened to be a famous Hollywood personality, invited you to a famous location to record your next album? If you’re Dale Watson and that friend happens to be Johnny Knoxville and the location in question is the Man in Black’s very own cabin/studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee you of course say, “Oh hell yes!”...full text Dale Watson, born in Alabama in 1962, is a tattooed, stubborn man interested solely in recording authentic country music. This never guaranteed many sales as far as chart success and records go, but it made him the darling of critics and alternative country music fans alike. He spent his teenage years near Houston, thus growing to think of Texas as his true home state. Dale began writing his own songs at the tender age of 12 and recorded his first output just two years later. ...full text