from the Wichita Falls Times Record News on timesrecordnews.com

Without the support of a major label or heavyweight Nashville-style management, Aaron Watson has been carving a place for himself in Texas-style country music for the past decade, and he says he doesn’t see any need to change that.

Watson, who will be in concert 10:30 tonight at the Crazy Horse Saloon, was born and raised in Amarillo. He first dreamed about a career in baseball. But his father’s extensive country record collection, along with his mother’s insistence that he sing in church when he was growing up, eventually led him to realize his future might include stadiums, though not as the shortstop for the Houston Astros.

With 10 albums to his credit, and hit singles and CDs on the Texas and national charts, Watson said in a recent phone interview from his home in Abilene that his grass-roots approach to the music business gives him more control over his life than anything he could have expected from baseball.

"We’ve got a business model, and it’s been working for 10 years," he said. "You just learn as you go along. You learn from your mistakes. And it helps when you marry a gal that’s an accountant. That was probably the best move I’ve ever made was marrying her; the best business and best personal decision I’ve ever made."

Watson began playing music gigs as a biology major at Abilene Christian University. He realized while his future might include the then expanding new sound of Red Dirt music, his personal direction was more traditional.

(read full story on timesrecordnews.com)