Album Review: Charley Crockett – Clovis

It’s been a while since an album caught me out, like Charlie Crockett’s Clovis did in 2026. From the first discordant elements of “The Hallelujah Trail,” I felt that there was something different coming from this album. As I made my way through the first time, I kept being impressed at every new turn. In this review, I want to go over some of my favorites, explain why I think this is a candidate for Album of the Year, and hope that you all will join me in the adventure.

The opening song, “The Hallelujah Trail,” has crunchy guitars and an absolutely evocative storyline that pulls the listener in right from the start. It reminds me of old-school classic country music, where the narrative triumphs over every other aspect of the writing. Of course, Crockett’s characteristic vocal comes through in each line, but I knew right from this first track that this album was on another level.

While I appreciate both “Down by Law” and “One-Eyed Jack” as quality roots country-type songs, I want to focus a little bit here on “Image of a Woman.” This shows Crockett’s softer side, his ability to croon and swoon in his writing. The instrumentation still echoes those classic mid-century roots country elements, but the production here does a wonderful job of allowing Crockett’s vocal to soar through the style. This is a song that brings forth rhymes, concepts, and lyrical turns that feels refreshing with each new listen. It’s definitely one of the centerpieces of the album for me, and I hope that folks who maybe don’t like the rambling side of Charlie Crockett so much will find a lot to love in this tender side.

Another one of the most significant tracks on the album is “Top Hand.” And it’s one of those songs that comes across as simple, right? It’s got elements of Tejano culture, some Spanish-language lyrics, and it’s about the West. You couldn’t ask for a more Western song than this. It feels very rooted in the way that only Charlie Crockett can seem to write these days, that shows a person who’s out working hard, working the land. The main lyric concept is about, in some ways, bragging about competence as a worker, it’s also self-expression: “I know what I’m doing out here, and I’m good at it, so give me credit.” And I think that that is a message that’s both a story in the song, but it’s also a self-declaration that Crockett is making. He knows that he is a top artist in this genre, and he deserves to be acknowledged for it.

The next track I want to highlight is titled “Country Music,” and it is a lighthearted country narrative talking about the music itself. He tackles some of the tropes like working like a dog, living like a horse thief, and breaking your mama’s heart. These are all classic references, but he’s also got this turn of phrase about what makes country music unique is a feeling that you have to step into. You have to take ownership in the way that people like Waylon Jennings, who he specifically mentions in the song, did it in the classic years. The instrumentation has that mid-century classic country style about it, like others on the album, but there’s a conviction in Crockett’s vocal that I think really conveys this in a way that most of the Nashville folks can’t seem to conjure up. Charlie Crockett sounds like he really did grow up on country music. He sounds like he’s not making an homage to it, so much as he’s living this in our own world. And that really comes through in the delivery of the lyrics on this song and the rooted sound that’s curated really throughout the album.

There’s four more songs here that I want to talk about, but we’re running low on space for the review. So let me just say that “Last Night at the Alamo” has a wonderful historical vibe to it, and again, it’s a Texas-based theme that will resonate with a lot of folks. The title song, “Clovis,” is an amazing track that features strings and the classic western film soundtrack; it might not seem like a fit in the middle of this album, but for those of us who grew up watching western films, it absolutely fits. “Don’t Take Your Guns” is a song from traditional lore, of course originally written by Johnny Cash, but there are not many people who can cover Cash well, and Crockett does it justice here. Then you have the following, “Albuquerque Lights,” which is a Crockett original that absolutely hangs with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in terms of the cleverness of the writing, the instrumentation that feels like it was written and recorded back in the ’60s. There’s a few other songs here that, of course, if I had more time, I would address.

But the last one I want to talk about is “Waylon Rides Again.” This is an absolutely outstanding way to end this record. He leaves the listener with the sense that country music is in a good place if you listen to the right people. And this is an argument that I’ve personally made in my own writing. It’s part of what motivates me to continue writing about music and allowing country to be one of the genres that we cover, because there’s so much that is blaspheming the genre that comes out on country music radio that I want to continue finding people like Charlie Crockett or Colter Wall or Tyler Childers who are doing this the right way. If you check out the song Waylon Rides Again, you will hear that Charlie Crockett is the genuine article, and I cannot come up with much higher praise for a country music artist than to say they are authentic and that they convey the stories and the feeling of the music accurately for the next generation.