Willie Watson Finds Himself on New Record After Leaving Old Crow Medicine Show

Willie Watson isn’t afraid to share what his heart of hearts is urging him to say or play anymore.

"There's always a sad song livin' in my heart," he confesses in the lyrics of his new track, “Sad Song,” from his self-titled solo debut, “There’s always a sad song livin’ in my heart.”

While the tune is essentially a breakup ballad, the 45-year-old singer-songwriter and founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show admits that being so outwardly open, especially when it comes to sharing his feelings of loneliness and sorrow, took some time to accept. But once he tapped that well, it proved to be fertile, even though he felt like his words landed more like a personal journal confession than anything else during the writing process.

“I listen to old music and lofty ballads with imagery that’s of ravens and willows and oaken woods,” Watson explains. “Then I listen to music with rowdy blues streets, Memphis streets, and songs of the Mississippi Delta. Beautifully worded gospel songs. I hold what words do up to a high standard.

“So for me to put words down on the page that sound like a diary entry — I feel lost and I’m hurt and I’m sad — that was hard for me to do. … But it was a whole shift of what my perspective of what a good song can be.”
Teaming up with co-writer Morgan Nadler helped Watson really showcase his voice via the nine numbers he’s shared as a solo artist, thirteen years after leaving Old Crow. Like on “One to Fall,” the initial song Watson and Nadler finished, and how Watson likens his career arch to a bloodied and battered prize fighter who keeps finding himself up against the final count.

“We had a song in four hours, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually not just good, but awesome,’ and that was the first one,” he explains.

Though he didn’t intend to, the album is ultimately about Watson finding himself again through music and finally doing things his own way.

“This record is the building of that relationship with myself. You’re witnessing it. These songs are about it,” he shares. “I didn’t know they were about it. When we were writing the songs, we were just doing the work.”

Now Watson is readily sharing those stories from the stage during his current tour, which also features his two-member backing band. The Denver stop happens on Saturday, November 16, at Globe Hall. Viv & Riley and local singer-songwriter Palamara are also on the bill.

Watson, steeped in his affinity for American roots and Appalachian folk music, still possesses that high-octave, rustic croon that became his calling card with Old Crow, but don’t expect to hear it. Instead, he’s enjoyed showing listeners his range. Though familiar, how Watson sounds is surprisingly different and refreshing. He showed flashes of what can be heard now on the pair of Folk Singer cover albums, released in 2014 and 2017.

It's been a slow, and sometimes frustrating, process to creatively get to where he is today, to be comfortable with being Willie Watson the solo artist.

“When I was out of Old Crow, I was at a bit of a crossroads. What am I going to do? Start a band? Find some people to collaborate with, write songs with? Or be a solo artist and write songs by myself?” he recalls. “I had a hard time with it. I stopped myself, really.”

That’s not the case anymore.

“I sing differently now on this record. I’ve built the songs differently,” Watson continues. “I have not wanted, for the past 25 years, to get on stage and sing the way I’ve been singing. I liked it and it’s a way I can sing, but there’s so much more I can do that I’ve wanted to do. No one knows I can do it. And it’s kind of blowing their minds.”

From the spoken-word delivery of “Reap ’em in the Valley” to the bluegrass storytelling on “Slim and The Devil,” Watson is an artist unfettered.

“I do want people to know that I can sing not just in a high-lonesome, mountain voice. I want people to know that I’m not just Mr. Americana here,” he says. “I contain a lot more, and always have. I’ve always been able to sing the way you hear me singing on this record. I’ve been able to sing like that since I was fifteen. I do at home all the time.”

The only person who's held him back, as he sees it, has been himself.

“It’s time for me to really believe what Willie Watson can do, have a lot more confidence, and know that I can go out there and kick some ass,” Watson concludes. “It’s really just the story of this kid who grew up to be a full-grown adult and beat himself up real bad the whole time. It’s time to stop beating myself up and not be afraid to put those lines on paper.”

Willie Watson, with Viv & Riley and Palamara, 7 p.m. Saturday, November 16, Globe Hall, 4483 Logan Street. Tickets are $27-$30.