Watson isn’t interested in what someone else thinks he should do. But instead of getting
lonely as he sidesteps expectations, he’s gaining followers––hundreds of thousands of
them. Delivered with a warm smile and fueled by a wild spirit, Watson’s rebellion echoes
the land that helped make him. Watson remains strikingly similar to the people that still
dot his native West Texas. They’re a rugged people, proud of home but humble and
hardworking, the first to help a neighbor but also fiercely independent. And Watson is
unquestionably one of them. “I’ve always considered myself an anti-rock star,” Watson
says, his drawl cracking slightly as he grins. “People don’t like me because I’m a rock
star. People like me because I’m just like them.”
Throughout his 17-year career that spans a dozen albums and more than 2,500 shows
in the U.S. and Europe, 39-year- old Watson has stubbornly and sincerely identified with
the everyman––even as he’s proven to be the exception to the rule. The latest evidence
of Watson’s homespun singularity is Vaquero, an ambitious 16-song set of character-
driven storytelling, level-headed cultural commentary, and love songs for grownups that
promise to further solidify his status as one of today’s finest torch-bearers of real country
music.
Vaquero is the follow-up to 2015’s The Underdog, an acclaimed collection that also
made history. Watson was sitting at his kitchen table as his wife Kim scrambled eggs
when he got the call: The Underdog had debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country
Albums Chart. It was the first time an independent, male country artist had ever outsold
majors to premiere at the top spot.
Tickets are go on sale Friday, September 29 at 11 a.m. at
www.MeyerTheatre.org, the Ticket Star Box Office in the Resch Center or by phone
800-895-0071.
