Dale Watson and his band, the Lone Stars, play to smaller audiences in smaller venues and they like it that way.  They play old-school music their way and fans eat it up.

Dale Watson’s music is so old-school that he had to find a new-age sounding genre to describe himself.

And he’s fine with that.

He’d rather be classified as “Ameripolitan” — a blend of honky tonk, outlaw, Western swing and rockabilly — than be confused with mainstream country music.

“It’s not a retro thing, but it’s just a continuation of the roots of traditional country music,” Watson said this week. “It’s another branch. New country music — it’s not even on the same tree anymore.”

He was born in Alabama, but hails from Texas, according to him.  He prefers Texan  music to the Nashville sound.

Your sound has strong ties to traditional country music, with your band featuring an upright bass and a pedal steel guitar. But you’ve distanced yourself from the “country” label. Why is that?

Watson: I call it Ameripolitan music, because we don’t really fit into mainstream country music anymore. Since country music is going [away from the traditional sound], it’s more important than ever to keep the roots involved in the music. Anything without roots is artificial. You can draw a straight line from what we’re doing and what the Ameripolitan award winners are doing to Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb.

He is emphatic about country's shift from it's roots.

You took issue with Blake Shelton a couple years ago, when he claimed country music was merely evolving. Why did you think he was off base with that?

What they’ve done is absolutely just ignore the roots that are there. If I’m going to come out and say I’m a rap artist now and still do what I do, that’s the equivalent of what they’re doing. They’re successful. They’ve won. It’s the new definition of country music.

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Article Source: Star-Telegram 

Photo Source: Sarah Wilson