from The Baton Rouge Advocate on 2theadvocate.com

Bucking the Nashville herd as always, Dale Watson just released one of the best records of his career.  Carryin' On features the Austin, Texas-based country singer-songwriter with a crew of studio aces whose work figures the classic 1960s and '70s recordings of Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Johnny Cash and many more.

Producing the Carryin' On sessions himself, Watson spared no expense.

"Usually," he said from Austin, "I'd be forced to cut corners, go in a studio that's not exactly the best studio, maybe not put the piano on every song.  And you can hear the difference.  But this time I said, 'All right.  I'm not gonna cut corners.  Matter of fact, I'm gonna make them corners sharp.'"

The sharp corners include the Carol Lee Singers performing silky background vocals of the kind that graced the Nashville sound of the '60s.

"Because they're like another instrument," Watson explained, "I used them on every song, even if they just did a ooh here or ooh there.  And I booked the best studio and the best engineer.  Snake Reynolds engineered this thing.  He actually produced

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