This past weekend, Charlie Crockett performed at the Bear Shadow Music Festival in Highlands, North Carolina, with a set that included his album. Clovis, which remained out of public view for a long time.
«"They deleted this record, but I'm still going to play it," Crockett said on stage before launching into the album's opening track, "The Hallelujah Trail.". Clovis Album was mysteriously removed from streaming platforms early last month shortly after its surprise release in late April. Crockett's documentary "« Cowboy in London »" also disappeared from YouTube after a short run.
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Clovis Album, Produced by Crockett and Shooter Jennings, it was recorded at Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico, this spring. It is Crockett's 17th studio album since his debut, A Stolen Jewel , in 2015. It is also his first independent album since the April release of Age of the Ram , which marked the final chapter of the Crockett trilogy Sagebrush Trilogy , released on Island Records (Universal Music Group).
«"I think in the music business," Crockett says Rolling Stone Behind the Scenes at Bear Shadow, "they often treat mules like thoroughbreds and use thoroughbreds like mules if you don't play by their rules the way they want, you know?"»
In an Instagram post Thursday, Crockett announced that his "street crew" will be handing out free CDs of the album during this week's CMA Fest in Nashville.
A representative for Island Records did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rolling Stone about the comment.
It was your decision to remove Clovis from streaming, or was it outside your control? This is beyond my competence.
But wasn't it an independent release? Well, it's an independent release. It was self-released.
So you're saying it was against your contract with your former label? Yes. Clovis is he going to release an album again? I really hope so. I'll release it. You know, I turned down every offer I got for seven or eight years, and the Universal system offered me contracts in various formats before they settled on Island. I'll say this: I'm very proud of the three albums I made with them. And they had no input on those albums. I just turned them in, and we released them. And I don't think they expected me to release albums that quickly. They have their own system, and theirs is two-year release cycles... It took them about three years before I agreed to sign. And the reason I finally gave in was because Island gave me creative and release control. I'm not sure they thought I'd ever actually use that control. Are you still under contract? I'm free now. So why are they following you? Well, that's a difficult question. A lot of bureaucracy with lawyers? Yes. Everything is fine. Are there many cooks in the kitchen? Yeah. I'm proud of the albums. Honestly. You know, I had a manager back then, and I wasn't involved in the process and couldn't negotiate the way I would have liked. And then I had to deal with a lot of people trying to take over when "SuperManager X" was no longer in charge. I had to deal with a whole flood of people trying to come in and take over my business.
I mean, I can't point the finger at Universal and say those guys treated me wrong or anything. I just learned that their system turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. And I think maybe what they thought of me, based on the views of the businessmen around me, was very different from how I would play by their rules. So, in the future, would you like to sign with another label or stay independent? I've released 14 records on Thirty Tigers, and they call it an independent label. But they're distributed by Sony Orchard. That's not truly independent. Nobody's truly independent if they're distributed by a major label. And if you're not distributed by a major label, you're kind of invisible. You see, that's always been my problem—being someone who maybe wasn't easy to pigeonhole or easy to market within, say, the American music industry. And I'm grateful for Americana, because who knows how I would have ever gotten anywhere. But I've said many times over the last five to seven years that one of the problems with the American music industry is that it operates exactly like the major labels, only with less money. Smaller gatekeepers. Yes. But they were very wary of my strategy for releasing music in the American music world, considering it aggressive, and I broke that. I broke that vicious cycle, sort of went against it. Does this have anything to do with the reason the documentary was removed? They are connected. I managed to watch it before it was removed. Have you seen it on YouTube?
Yes, that's true. What I particularly liked was that the film gave you perspective. When you were there, you remembered the old days when you were playing in the street and there was no one around, and then you realized you were playing to full houses in London, and then you went to the Royal Albert Hall, looking to the future. Yeah. We didn't know how it would turn out. [Director] Jared Christopher and I have been working on this film for over two years now, approaching three—it's a film I asked him to make with me, which I've personally financed. It's kind of a blend of fiction and documentary. My original goal, somewhat naively, was to shoot this film in six weeks and release it alongside [the 2024 album]. $10 Cowboy .
The machinery of filmmaking works slower than the machinery of recording. And besides, I don't think anyone around me, other than Jared and myself, business-wise, believed in us or showed any real interest in helping us achieve this goal and see it through. Jared asked if he could come with me and my then-manager to England. In fact, as has often happened since then, big business got involved. I started touring Europe when I wasn't getting paid, right? Without an agent in Europe back in 2017. I was able to go there, take my whole band, and perform with a full band for years. As soon as big business got involved… they told me I couldn't afford to go to Europe. And they said, "Go there and play solo. Let's just do press conferences." It's just corporate bureaucracy.
I rewatched the documentary about the end of the tour with you and Leon Bridges, released in October 2025, and I wrote down two quotes from you: "Resist the rising tide of conformity" and "I've spent a lot of time devoting my energy to defending my art." How does that relate to where you are now? That's really all you need to know. The further you go public, the more pressure you're under to conform to the interests of the businesses around you. It's truly the world of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. And when you become famous and start taking money from them, they show up to buy you out. And if you don't accept the buyout offer, they shift their focus to ruining you. And if people don't understand this, it's because they've never had representatives of companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi knocking on their door.
Does it nourish you or leave a bitter taste? Both. It's hard. There's a quote from the movie. «Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid» . There's a line where [Paul] Newman plays Butch Cassidy, and the big corporate interests that hire, so to speak, bounty hunters to ruin Butch and Sundance. Newman says, "If he'd just pay me what he's paying me to stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him." I've seen a lot of things in my life. And the only thing that gives me strength is that I don't think these people can put me in jail. I also don't think they can take my birthday away.
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