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This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross.

My guest, Charlie Crockett, is a songwriter, singer, and guitarist,

whose music ranges from country to rhythm and blues, cowboy songs, outlaw ballads, and the song

by Mir Bistuchin. Now, I don't know exactly where that song fits in, but his version is so much

fun. I'm definitely playing it later in the interview. If I had to choose one word to sum up his music,

it would be Americana, because I'd be backed up by the Americana Music Awards. He won

Emerging Artist of the Year in 2021, and two years later, he was nominated for Artist of the Year,

album of the year, and song of the year. This year, he was nominated for a Grammy. He learned to

perform while busking on the streets, including in New Orleans, Dallas, Paris, Copenhagen, and on

the New York City subways, and those passengers can be a tough crowd to win over. That was during a period

when he was pretty much broke and crashed in squats and other

people's homes. Crockett grew up poor in a Texas trailer park. His new album, Dollar a Day, was

released last week. It's the second album in his Sagebrush trilogy. The first Lonesome Drifter was

released earlier this year. He's on tour now. At the end of August, he'll begin a tour with Leon Bridges

that's billed as The Krooner and the Cowboy.

Let's start with a song from the new album, Dollar a Day.

The song is an outlaw ballad called Santa Fe Ring.

Music They sold me out to the Santa Fearing.

There wasn't any trial where justice was no such thing.

...