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The eeriness is well-placed: “Ghost of Guy Clark” is a lyrical dream sequence in which Watson encounters and receives songwriting advice from a late legend. “I recorded their wind chimes in the closet at my house, and that's how the record starts off,” Watson says.“Because there's just an eeriness, a lonesome feeling when you hear those wind chimes.” Consider the first thing you hear on the album -ambient chimes that lead into the mission-statement opener, “Ghost of Guy Clark.” Watson actually recorded the sounds of wind chimes handed down to him by both his grandmothers. Some of the sounds that set a tone or help tie Red Bandana’s tracks together were captured right there among the comforts of home and family. That was the design of Watson, who wrote the bulk of the songs during reflective mornings on the ranch in Buffalo Gap, Texason his beat-up first guitar bought from a pawn shop. You’ll find equal parts sadness, joy, nostalgia, hope, familial love, and strength throughout the new album. Imagining the loss of such a large presence, “Riding With Red” seamlessly transitions into Red Bandana’s title track, an elegiac cowboy poetry benediction sure to leave a lump in anyone’s throat.
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But I wanted to write from that perspective so that people who have cowboys like that in their life will, after hearing that song, go hug them and know, ‘I don't need to take that person forgranted.’” They just gravitate towards him he's a legend,”Watson says.“And in the song,you think that Red's passed away. The real-life inspiration for the touching ballad? Texas cowboy poet Red Steagall, whom Watson considers a friend and mentor. First,“Riding With Red” elevates the lessons and the example offered by older, wiser cowboys. The new record comprises 20 songs he wrote by himself, with tracks and musical moods that hit on every era of his life.Īt Red Bandana’s heart is a couple of tunes that give the album its title. Twenty years after he released his debut studio album, 1999’s Singer/Songwriter, he’s found an imaginative way to commemorate his two-decade journey. Red Bandana not only reacquaints fans with an artist serious about song craft and sonic diversity it also marks a career milestone for Watson. He’s more comfortable than most walking the line. As a singer-songwriter, husband, father of three, and self-made musical success, the 41-year-old Texan has forged a slow and steady path to country stardom by both honoring tradition and embracing the unknown. Old-school but timeless: That’s how Aaron Watson characterizes his bold new full-length collection, Red Bandana, but he could also be describing himself. Anywhere you find those things, you find that red bandana. “The symbolism of the bandana for me is like the American working-class heart: hustle, grit.