Dale Watson – Whiskey Or God

The word “crazy” and the idea of a person being driven insane by love has been used frequently in country music songs, but Dale Watson’s powerful “I Wish I Was Crazy Again” has a special resonance. “They say I went crazy/And by crazy, I mean mentally insane,” Watson sings, and he really means it. Watson was unable to come terms with the 2000 death of his girlfriend in a car accident, and in 2002 Watson committed himself to the a psychiatric facility. Since then, Watson has scaled back his music career and moved from Texas to Baltimore to be with his daughters.

While no other songs on Whiskey Or God hit quite as hard as that one, the album is full of Watson’s trademark classic country material. Recalling everyone from Ray Price (“Sit And Drink And Cry”) and Johnny Cash (the title track) to Gary Stewart (“My Heart Is Yours”) and Jerry Reed (“Truckin’ Queen”), Watson breaks no new ground here, nor has he ever. For more than a decade, however, Watson has used his last-call-defying barroom baritone and his knack for honky-tonk wordplay to uphold a fading tradition. Here’s hoping the hard times are behind him.