Meanwhile, his aim is to keep plugging away, keep building, have faith, and when he meets with success, try not to let it go to his head. It’s about putting in the effort, appreciating steady growth, and always making fans feel like part of the family. When he discusses artists he admires, he often talks about their journeyman years. “We work hard, and we ride a horse named Hustle,” he says. He stays hours after performances to talk to every lingering fan. Doesn’t matter how many show up, he says, always give them your best.įor the past eighteen years, he’s picked away at his craft, recording albums at a furious pace-thirteen so far-on which he’s written nearly all the songs. Rather than play to her in an empty theater, they walked her to the bus, climbed aboard, and played a private acoustic set. He was about to hit the stage, and he texted his friend, business partner, and manager Gino Genaro: “What if no one shows up?” Genaro thought Watson was just having preshow jitters and tried to encourage him. “Whoever shows up tonight,” he says, “they’re gonna go home and they’re gonna tweet, they’re gonna Instagram, they’re gonna Facebook: ‘Man, we had a blast at the Aaron Watson show tonight, and he hung out with us afterward.’ ” He remembers a show, years ago, in Ardmore, Oklahoma. He’s not worried whether he plays tonight for two thousand or twenty he just wants to play a good show, and if he does, he knows the word will spread. And yet here he is, with a number one album to his name, about to play to a packed house on a cold, wet night in the Midwest.īefore the show, Watson lounges in the back of his tour bus, his boots up on a seat, a grapefruit LaCroix in hand, ball cap askew because of his propensity to pull it off and rub his head while he talks. For years, Watson had been turned away by Nashville recording executives, who all said he’d have to change his sound if he ever wanted to succeed outside Texas. The album is titled, appropriately enough, The Underdog. His 2015 album debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart he’s the first male country singer to have a number one record without a major label. Meanwhile, seemingly every Stetson wearer in central Ohio is heading to the Newport Music Hall to see Aaron Watson, the latest country music phenomenon to emerge from the Texas Panhandle-and an upstart one at that. The street food vendors are heating up their flattops, and cabs are beginning to flip on their lights. College students are going out for the first Saturday night of the spring semester, emerging from stately brick houses and old shiplap homes, and congregating in loud masses at the bars and nightclubs along High Street across from the Ohio State University campus. The temperature is hovering just above freezing, and a bone-soaking rain falls continuously. It’s a miserable night in Columbus, Ohio.
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