“Don’t Cry” by Charley Crockett
Charley Crockett recorded his newly released album, Welcome to Hard Times, in Valdosta, Georgia, and wrote “Don’t Cry” with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. But most of the twists and turns in his life have been unpredictable, from losing a sister to addiction to nearly dying himself from a rare heart condition.
“I’ve gotten more than my fair share of raw deals in my thirty six years. But I don’t let hard luck own me,” he says.
“Don’t Cry” Lyrics
When the geese fly south for that winter
I wonder how far down they go
Well, I can tell you no matter that distance
Just like me, girl
They're always coming back home
When I leave you, it's early in the morning
You'll be crying, but girl, you oughta know
Like I told you, leaving is my business
You know me, girl
I'm always coming back home
Don't cry
Don't cry for me, darling
No, honey, don't cry
While you're all alone
I can't stand it
But leaving is my business
Because I love you
I'm always coming back home
[Instrumental Break]
Don't cry
Don't cry for me, darling
No, honey, don't cry
While you're all alone
I can't stand it
But leaving is my business
Because I love you
I'm always coming back home
I'm always coming back home
I'm always coming back home
I'm always coming back home
I'm always coming back home
-xxx-
Charley Crockett Bio
The new album from Charley Crockett is perhaps even more potent proof of his literal heartbreak than the scar on his chest. After undergoing open heart surgery that saved his life, Charley says he considered calming down for “just a minute” but once he recovered he did just the opposite. He states boldly with one eyebrow raised, “I wanted to make an album that would change the entire conversation about country music.”
That album is Welcome to Hard Times, an aptly-named collection that perfectly fits these troubled days even though it was made just before the pandemic hit. The music was shaped by his heart issues and producer Mark Neill’s desire to make “a dark gothic country record.” Charley certainly knew how to deliver that. “I think you can hear that deep, dark sadness in this record,” he says, “but I think it’s the kind of darkness that will uplift others.”
Charley says Neill, the acclaimed producer of albums such as The Black Keys’ Brothers, JD McPherson’s Let The Good Times Roll, and many others, is the only person who could have brought his vision to life. “Mark understood where I wanted to take the music. He heard what I had written and he said: ‘This is a movie. We have to tell this story.’”
Welcome to Hard Times is certainly cinematic. In fact, the title song shares its name with a 1968 Western starring Henry Fonda that Crockett admires. Twelve originals and one perfect cover create a world populated by outlaws, prisoners, gamblers—all of them suffering heartbreak. It’s also a sonic feat that strikes that precarious balance of being both retro and contemporary and brings in elements of piano-driven honky-tonk, soul, and blues to complement a sound that is completely country. “I wanted to figure out how to make something Gulf Coast, Country, and Western, simultaneously,” he says. “I think that real country music—in the 50s and 60s, especially—was always eclectic,” he says. “Rhumba beats behind a honky tonk band, incorporations of the blues, soul, Caribbean, cha-cha. Eclectic mixes were going into making those records.”
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