CHARLIE CROCKETT, DOLLAR A DAY

Back in March, I wrote about Lonesome Drifter, the first installment in a planned trilogy from Charley Crockett. It was his 15th album, his first under a major-label deal with Island Records, and proof that even when stepping onto a bigger platform, Crockett wasn’t willing to sacrifice control or urgency. He recorded it in just 10 days with Shooter Jennings, keeping true to the hustle and instinct that have defined his career from busking to building one of the most prolific catalogs in modern country music recording a new album almost every six months for nearly a decade.

Now comes Dollar A Day, the second chapter in what Crockett calls The Sagebrush Trilogy. The series is rooted in Western imagery, drawing on the idea of a lone drifter, part Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy,” part Louis L’Amour, arriving in a corrupt town to set things right. As Crockett put it, he and Jennings wanted to “open the portal” with Lonesome Drifter and then step through with Dollar A Day, telling a larger story through the figure of a wandering outsider.

A spirit of defiance and survival threads through the album. The title track reflects on the grind of living on next to nothing, while songs like “Tennessee Quick Cash” and “Crucified Son” take aim at exploitation and predatory deals. “I Stay Ready” leans into his blue-collar work ethic, showing how he keeps moving forward against long odds. Stylistically, Crockett’s music leans into echoes of classic ’70s country, creating an atmosphere that serves as the perfect backdrop for his storytelling.

With Dollar A Day, Crockett sharpens both the themes and the storytelling of his trilogy, tying his personal battles and observations to the figure of the drifter. And while the third piece is still to come, this record makes clear that Charley Crockett isn’t just chronicling the grind of survival, he’s building a saga, one album at a time.