AARON WATSON BIOGRAPHY
It's no secret that Texas has always had its own kind of music and its own kind of music business to go along with it. But even by the wide-open standards of the Lone Star State, the ongoing career and success of Aaron Watson are something else. With an uncanny knack for mixing great songs and unforgettable performances with good, old-fashioned business savvy, Watson has grown - night-by-night, fan-by-fan, album-by-album, one honky-tonk stage at a time - into an unstoppable force in Texas Music with his sights firmly set on the national stage.
With the April 1st release of Angels & Outlaws produced by Ray Benson - Watson's eighth release under his own independent banner, BIG Label Records - the Abilene-based artist steps up to the plate and knocks it out of the park with a career-defining collection of 15 pure-country songs that celebrate his deep roadhouse roots and push his music into some intriguing new corners. To Watson, the album represents a creative career high. To everyone within hearing distance, Angels & Outlaws represents the freshest musical breeze to blow out of Texas in a long, long time.
Angels & Outlaws kicks off with "Tulsa," a revved-up and re-tooled Waylon Jennings chestnut, and closes with "That's What I Like About a Country Song," a classic Lone Star-shuffle throwdown with co-producer Benson and fellow Texas troubadours Jack Ingram, Kevin Fowler and Roger Creager joining in. In between are some of Watson's finest songs, carved from stages and well-worn dancefloors across the southwest. From the title song, inspired by the legendary love affair of Johnny Cash and June Carter, to the shotgun sentiment of "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee," to an out-of-left-field, fiddle-drenched cover of John Mayer's "The Heart of Life," Angels & Outlaws celebrates Watson's all-American artistry as well as his stubborn independent streak. His first release "Hearts Are Breaking Across Texas" topped the Texas Music Chart for multiple weeks and the release of his second single "Love Makin" Song. will find Watson pushing his single to a national audience of radio listeners as well as his home in the Lone Star State.
Angels & Outlaws came out of the gate with huge numbers that landed him at #28 on the Billboard Country chart as well as on the Billboard top 200. The album spent the entire month of April on the Country Charts as well as being a top 10 selling album for iTunes in the country genre. It further solidified that Watson is an act with an ever-growing fan base and the excitement for him as an artist continues to grow with each release. He is the epitome of a solid touring act selling over 160,000 hard tickets since 2007 by playing 150 shows annually. The blue collar work ethic that he brings to each show accompanied by the humility of being grateful to each and every fan shows that he can make a connection with an audience whether it's a sold out room or a new market and lock those people in attendance to becoming avid Aaron Watson fans. Other highlights of 2008 include feature articles in Country Weekly and Billboard, .Shut Up & Dance. (a staple of the live show) being included in the new Bill Engvall movie Baitshop, being featured in T-Mobile's Fathers Day ringtone campaign as a top download, and continuing to see double digit percentage growth across all aspects of his business in a time when a lot of the music business struggles to hold onto market share.
You'll continue to find Aaron Watson out on the road - with an ever expanding touring schedule that includes stops in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico - doing what he does best, playing timeless country music, selling thousands of records and truckloads of merchandise, and shaking the hands of those friends and fans night after night.
