My favorite quote from this interview:
Q - Does your music go particularly well with Texas beer?
A - You know what? It's a perfect blend. You should never drink Lone
Star Beer and listen to Tim McGraw. It just don't work. It'll curdle.
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Honky-tonk man
Look Who's Coming: Dale Watson, country singer
By MATT EHLERS, Staff Writer
Dale Watson is a hard-core honky-tonker, the sort of guy who would fit
perfectly on a tour with legendary country-outlaw Johnny Paycheck.
Thing is, Paycheck died a couple of years ago. And that style of music
has been dead much longer, at least in the eyes of country radio
programmers. These days country stations depend on light-rockin,'
pretty-boy types like Chris Cagle and Rascal Flatts.
But he keeps making his cheatin' and drinkin' songs. Dale Watson and his
Lonestars will appear Wednesday at The Pour House in Raleigh.
Although you might assume most of his fans are retirees, the kind of
people who like country the way it used to be, Watson said a good
percentage of the people who come to his shows are in the 18-to-25
range. "Younger people are more apt to not be told what to like. They
experiment with music," he said.
Watson, 42, spoke from his home in Austin, Texas. He answered the phone
promptly at 9:30 a.m. -- not the most honky-tonkin' hour of the day --
but a time necessitated by the band's 10 a.m. departure for a show in
Tulsa, Okla., that night.
Q - What's wrong with country music these days?
A - Oh my gosh. Man. We've only got a few minutes, don't we? Why don't
we go with the short list -- what's right with it.
Q - OK. Let's do that.
A - What's right with it? That bluegrass has finally got its time in the
limelight. Virtuosity is back.
Q - Do you think honky-tonk will ever have the same reinvigoration?
A - No, I don't. Mainly because it's based more on a good time, real
hardship thing, not just the fluff honky-tonk that Brooks & Dunn do.
It's like the old, Buck Owens type of vibe, you know? Where you'd sing
about stuff that's a little more hard core. People don't want to hear
that. Well, it's not that people don't want to hear it, it's that radio
doesn't want to play it.
Q - For someone to make a lot of money, do they need to get played on
the radio?
A - Absolutely. It's the do-all, end-all as far as making money in this
business. But if you're in this business to make money, that's the wrong
way to come into it.
Q - Why are you in this business?
A - You know what? I ask myself that every day. Because it's not easy. I
was up till 4 in the morning the last few nights getting this tour
ready, and it's not going to make me money. I could sit here in Austin,
Texas, and make twice as much money as the money I go out on tour and
make ... I'm doing it because I love the music and because it's still
fun to me. But with the gas and hotels and expenses, it's becoming
something that I don't know if I can keep doing like this.
Q - Is your band named after Lone Star Beer?
A - Actually, it was named after the Lone Star state. But it's kind of
like the chicken or the egg. I don't know which came first, the band or
the beer.
Q - You have a sponsorship deal with the beer company, right?
A - I do. But that came later.
Q - Does your music go particularly well with Texas beer?
A - You know what? It's a perfect blend. You should never drink Lone
Star Beer and listen to Tim McGraw. It just don't work. It'll curdle.
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WHO: Dale Watson.
WHEN: 10 p.m. Wednesday.
WHERE: The Pour House, 224 S. Blount St., Raleigh.
COST: $8 advance, $10 at the door.
MORE INFO: www.the-pour-house.com, 821-1120.
Dale Watson
Moderator: SMLCHNG