Aaron Watson – Crazy Bull Cafe, Torri di Quartesolo (Vicenza, ITALY), July 27th, 2011

It is not a coincidence at all that Texas – as I had the chance to write elsewhere – has provided over the course of american music history the greatest number of country musicians: Ernest Tubb, Buck Owens, Lefty Frizell, Willie Nelson, Waylong Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Kenny Rogers, Ray Price, Lyle Lovett, George Strait, Clint Black, Clay Walker… And history goes on, confirming that the Lone Star State remains the most industrious breeding ground, guarantee of quality since the days of Bob Wills. Last July 27^th, at Crazy Bull Café in Torri di Quartesolo (near Vicenza) another important chapter of this history was written. And it was written by probably the youngest representative of the country music Texan wave: Aaron Watson, 34 years old from Amarillo, brought to Italy with self-abnegation, passion and many sacrifices by LoneStarTime, an Italian association which dedicates itself to the promotion of our beloved musical genre, just 48 hours prior to his appearance as a headliner at a renowned French country music festival in Craponne Sur Arzonne.
An unforgettable evening where fans and lovers responded with fierce heat (there were several american people coming from the military american bases of Aviano and Ederle, as well) even if the concert held midweek (and it’s hard to stay up late when on the next morning you have to wake up early to go to work) and even if the show started a few minutes before 11 pm – while at the beginning Facebook spread the news it would have started at 9 pm and the official posters later told 9.30 pm – half hour after the end of the show of the Italian opening group, the diligent The Claw.
Introduced to the audience without placing too much emphasis and with poor english knowledge (but Aaron really didn’t demand nothing more than that) by local dj Maestro Steve California and by Cristian Gualandri of LoneStarTime, Watson got to the stage with the enthusiasm of a child spending his energy to excess to give everyone a little bit of himself and of his honkytonk style. On this mini European tour he came along with a tremendous five trusthworthy pieces band: Jondan McBride at bass, Jason Lerma at electric guitar and mandolin, Damien Green at fiddle, Joey Borjia at a magic pedal steel guitar (a pedal steel guitar to perfection on Italian soil at last!) and Brian Ferguson at drums. The first three of them are also part of Aaron’s band, ‘The Orphans of the Brazos’, with whom  he tours high and low Texas in his shows, which are really a lot all the year round. «Grazie! Grazie!» Watson commenced in Italian saying “thank you, thank you!”. Then in English: «Thanks so much for coming out here tonight, while we’re long away from home. It means a lot that you guys are standin’ out so… Yessir, yessir… Let’s do a lot of honky tonk music, Italy!!»
The show was really a distillation of honky tonk, texas swing, country rock and texas walts. It ranged over a wide variety of songs, from “Walls” – which opened the set – to the fast “Heyday Tonight”; from “Honky Tonkin’ Around Texas” to the romantic “Off The Record”; from “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo” to the fastest “Wake Up And Smell The Coffee”. “Hearts Are Breaking Across Texas” got a particular presentation, which cut a fan among the audience in on it: «We have a request from a sweet Italian girl named Marika…» Aaron told before singing it. And then, realizing that many other requests were adding on from lots of cowboys in the hall he stated: «We don’t take requests from men but we do take requests from women! So yes, madam… Yes, Madam… She wants to hear “Hearts Are Breaking Across Texas”… Yes Madam…» I know Marika is a huge fan of Watson and I think that she will remember that night all her life through. Aaron never stopped a minute: with a few words between the songs, during the show he took many pictures and shot videos using his mobile cell from the stage to the audience in front of him, threw plectrums in a large quantity (he had even a bag full of it!) and joked with the them posing for who wanted to take a picture of him singing on the stage. On one occasion in particular, before singing “Diesel Drivin’ Daddy”, Aaron nicely picked on a guy from Ohio who was half plastered and had requested a song from Garth Brooks addressing him with a «Buddy I’d feel better playing a George Michael’s song». And even I myself literally adore Garth I must admit it: he got nothing to do with that night… Watson really felt the dedication for the ballad “Barbed Wire Halo”: «This is a song that I wrote for my papa and for my grand daddy and I never intended for it to be put on a cd, which is kinda gonna be a gift for my grand mamas and, I don’t know, I guess that what I had planned for this song and what God had planned for this song were two different things and so, you know, it’s a song we sing every night and we always dedicate this to all the grand daddies who are out there!»
Enthusiasm and simpleness are the words which better describe the show which took place at Crazy Bull Café in Torri di Quartesolo. Enthusiasm from the public and enthusiasm from Aaron, who really cared (and more than once) for letting the audience know that he was really happy to be in Italy to play. Genuine feelings combined with the chemistry between him and the hall and between him and his band that made the night of July 27^th, 2011 a really magic night. However one of the main features of the texas bands is the high frequency of the live shows, which makes them capable to really entertain their audiences (the annual average number of the live shows goes not infrequently beyond 200).
Halfway along the concert Watson could not miss his inevitable tribute to one of his musical  “mentors”, Merle Haggard. This time with his beautiful “Silver Wings”, during which he gave Joey Borja a double passage with his pedal steel guitar. Indeed, most part of the spotlight went to the fiddler Damien Green, 20 years old, ruler of every single string of his fiddle, capable of really rare virtuosities, despite his young age (he performed fantastic solo before “Wake Up & Smell The Coffee” and “Off The Record”). “Reckless” closed the show after only 1 hour and a half. But it was a 90 minutes set really intense and exciting. No ‘encore’ was scheduled (Steve Calilfornia himself, once got onstage after the end of the show, didn’t know which way to turn) but, called back out by the audience screaming «Usa! Usa!», Aaron turned back on his steps for a last song, the fast “East Bound & Down” written by the late Jerry Reed, from the movie “Smokey And The Bandit” starring Burt Reynolds.
Maybe the concert could have lasted a little bit more but take into consideration that, once “East Bound & Down” was over, Watson rushed over the merchandising stand where he gave himself all to the fans signing autographs on every possible writable surface (from cds to trousers, from pictures to cowboy hats), chatting and posing for pictures with each and every person patiently waiting in queue. As if we were at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville! Really a country artist and a man!
I briefly met Aaron Watson right at the merchandising stand at about 2 am, after one and a half hour of nonstop meet&greet and I have to admit that really few meetings in my professional experience were that emotional. He joked with me as if he had arrived at the venue five minutes before, as fresh as a daisy and so available. «You know» he told me «I do this job for a living and if I can live with it I owe it to you all. And I will love this job till I find people like you. I don’t feel myself different from any of you, that’s why I am here tonight». I saw that, during the pics&signing session he was kissing lots of girls who didn’t have eyes for anyone but him – besides an amazing country music artist, don’t forget he is a really good looking Texan boy as well! I asked if Kimberly (his wife) is jealous about so much “female presence” in his success. «Until she puts the euros I earn on my tour in his purse she won’t complain!» he answered laughing «It’s a kind of mutual agreement!»
We told goodbye to each other with a hug, as friends of the same neighbourhood do going out from a bar after the last round of beer at the end of a merrymaking joyful night. «God bless you Aaron!» I told him. And from the sparkle of his eyes I understood once more that he won’t forget that easily this first (let’s hope not the only) trip to Italy, either.

Massimo Annibale
©2011 CountryStateLine
All Rights Reserved

Thanks to Simone Amaduzzi for the pictures of this article
Please see his website at http://www.simoneamaduzzi.com/

List of the Songs:
1. Walls
2. Love Makin’ Song
3. Heyday Tonight
4. Hearts Are Breaking Across Texas
5. The Road
6. Rollercoaster Ride
7. Shut Up & Dance
8. Honky Tonkin’ Around Texas
9. Fast Cars Slow Kisses
10. Silver Wings
11. 3rd Gear And 17
12. Wake Up & Smell The Coffee
13. Barbed Wire Halo
14. Diesel Driving Daddy / Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
15. Off The Record
16. I Don’t Want You To Go (But I Need You To Leave)
17. Reckless
Encore:
18. East Bound & Down