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Dale Watson

Dale Watson is a living legend of American roots music. With Texas-sized defiance and drive, he's spent four decades flying the flag for his own brand of honky-tonk, outlaw country, western swing, and rockabilly. That signature sound has a name — "Ameripolitan" — and its originator is Watson himself: a singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, actor, cultural architect, and rule-breaking traditionalist for the modern world, championing the traditions that fly in the face of the homogenous mainstream. 

More than 30 albums stand between Watson's teenage years in Texas, where he cut his teeth on Houston's honky-tonk circuit, and his latest release, 2026's Unwanted. That body of work hasn't just brought him an international audience stretching from East Texas to Europe with TV appearances on major national platforms like PBS’s Austin City Limits, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Late Show with David Letterman; it's also cemented his reputation as a musical maverick who's worthy of sharing the same stage as his heroes, with shows alongside Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. 

With Unwanted, he fires another double-barreled shotgun blast of country twang and honky-tonk bang. It's a raw, rowdy record, recorded in Austin and Memphis — two cities that have always lived large in Watson's history — and fueled by the heartaches, hard-won lessons, and high-speed thrills of a life largely logged on the road. Singing with a booming voice that could cut through the chaos of a packed dancehall, Watson runs the show like a roots-rock ringleader. He salutes his vices on the galloping "Willie Waylon and Whiskey," reflects upon a lifetime of loss with the gorgeous ballad "If You Really Loved Me (Outlive Me)," and gets wistfully reflective on "Life is Like a Song." Entirely written and produced by Watson, Unwanted is the sound of an Ameripolitan diehard with plenty of life left in the tank, speeding toward a horizon of his own making.

If the heart of American music beats loudest where tradition and innovation intersect, then Dale Watson's albums are the lifeblood of a sound that never dies. 

Dale Watson

Dale Watson is an award-winning hardest working real country musician and producer who has been creating music and performing live for over 40 years. He has shared the stage with such icons as Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson, just to name a few. He has been seen on David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, and Austin City Limits, but most of the time, he is touring the world, killing it for his fans, keeping the country music roots sound alive. With over 30 albums and singles, Dale knows his way around the recording studio, which is why he built Wat-sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, complete with the 1937 board from Sun Studio.

 

Summer Dean

Texas based recording artist Summer Dean is as authentic as they come. The acclaimed singer-songwriter owns the stage from the moment she struts into the spotlight, captivating audiences across the country with her sly wit, Southern charm and soulful songcraft.  Night after night, her down-home dynamism illustrates exactly why she’s a highly sought after artist and opener for the likes of Marty Stuart, Asleep at the Wheel, Colter Wall, Charley Crockett and Mike and the Moonpies.

A captivating candor is palpable in every syllable and sound of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s new record, The Biggest Life, a profound, vivid document of a songwriter cementing her place among the top rank of Texas tunesmiths.

“I’m very proud of myself and this record,” Dean says. “It’s the most real and vulnerable I’ve ever been with my writing.”

In a moment where so much of country music is safe, slick and simple, there is indeed a rawness and a reality to Dean’s songs which sets her apart as a songwriter of substance. It’s no wonder Texas legends like Bruce Robison, who agreed to produce Life on the strength of Dean’s demos, call her work “bracing.”

You can hear hard-earned humanity in “Big Ol Truck,” a wry ode to reality not always matching expectations, just as you can hear it in the woozy cantina swirl of “She’s in His Arms, But I’m in the Palm of His Hand,” and particularly in the album’s shattering closer, “Lonely Girl’s Lament,” Dean’s most formidable moment on record to date.

“It’s a human story she’s telling,” Robison says. “She’s showcasing life from her perspective. There are things in Summer’s songs that can resonate with people, even if they’ve never lived anything she’s talking about.”

For her part, Dean says Robison’s stamp of approval was “incredibly validating.” “His credentials and record as a writer gave me the confidence I needed to make this kind of album — completely analog, unfiltered and organic,” she says.

Dean has been steadily gaining momentum since the release of her break-out 2021 LP Bad Romantic. Critics hailed Romantic, with Texas Monthly saying Dean showed “deft skill at disarming listeners with her vulnerability,” while the Boot said Dean “spins vibrant tales of her blue-collar life, turning life’s ordinary moments into extraordinary ones.” Dean was also just named the 2023 Ameripolitan Honky Tonk Female of the Year and selected as “One of Five Females Essential to the Future of Country Music by The Recording Academy/Grammy’s.

Dean’s devotion to honesty in the making of The Biggest Life extended to its creation, with these 13 songs being recorded completely analog at the Bunker, Robison’s Lockhart studio, with a hand-picked band of collaborators. It’s a fitting approach for music that leaves nowhere to hide and spares no detail.

Embracing an approach which made every studio take a high wire act suited Dean’s sensibility for this new material: “It made me let go of perfection,” she says. “I think when any artist does that, they do their best.”

That’s precisely what Summer Dean gives you on The Biggest Life: A handmade album, teeming with unadorned, universal truths, written and performed by a consequential artist whose singular perspective on the world may just profoundly alter yours.

Dale Watson and Ray Benson were meant to sing together. Both hailing from, in and around Bedsore, TX, Dale and Ray have both individually worked their way through the local honky tonks and beer joints, entertaining the crowds with their own Classic Country and Western styles. But, they have NEVER recorded a record together… UNTIL NOW!

“Dale and Ray,” to be released in January 2017, is sure to be a Classic Country Record for the ages. Channeling from the likes of Willie and Merle, The Louvin Brothers, Buck Owens and Don Rich, Dale and Ray will be showcasing their own NEW original songs like “Bus Breakdown,” “It’s Crying Time Again,” “Dale and Ray,” “Feeling Haggard,” to covers like “Write Your Own Songs” (Willie and Waylon) and “I Wish You Knew” (The Louvin Brothers).

Get ready to see and hear Country’s NEWEST DUO from Texas!