If a cowboy is supposed to be a man who lives by his own rules, then Aaron Watson is one of the few real cowboys left in country music. A major star in Texas and the Southwest, Watson has built his career through playing music that's polished but still shows its roots in the Lone Star honky tonk sound, with songs that speak about real emotions and small-town lives without synthesizers or Auto-Tune, and he's avoided the major labels to release his own albums through independent distributor Thirty Tigers instead. And for Watson, the old-fashioned way has paid off; in February 2015, Watson's album
The Underdog debuted at number one on the Billboard country albums chart, and came in at number eight on the Top 200 chart, beating out plenty of major-label projects with far bigger promotional budgets. If the success of
The Underdog came as a surprise to some, it demonstrates that there's still a healthy audience for traditionalists despite the rise of bro-country, and that hard work, a busy touring schedule, and fostering strong relationships with your fans remains a winning strategy, especially if like Watson you write good songs and have the voice to bring them to life. ~ Mark Deming