“I’m from San Benito, Texas, down a dirty dusty road. There was sugarcane and cotton, how I used to watch it grow.” – Charley Crockett, “The Valley”
By RAY QUIROGA
publisher@sbnewspaper.com
The San Benito Cultural Arts Department (CAD) staff gained a notable addition to its historical collection last week when incoming San Benito Commissioner Victor Manuel Gonzalez donated a guitar signed by up-and-coming country music artist Charley Crockett, who considers the Resaca City his hometown.
Gonzalez gave acoustic guitars he had purchased online to the country music singer before Crockett took the stage for his Hog Waddle performance on Saturday, March 20.
Gonzalez ordered new nylon-and-steel-string acoustic guitars online, describing them as affordable and perfect for having the troubadour autograph them.
Then, last week, Gonzalez, who will officially be the Pl. 3 Commissioner in May after being the sole candidate for the seat in the upcoming May 2 City election, donated one of the signed guitars for posterity, flanked by San Benito Mayor Ricardo “Rick” Guerra, Commissioner Tom Goodman, and CAD staff.
Along with the singer’s signature, an inscription reads: “Son of San Benito.”
“That’s like a walking billboard, for me,” Gonzalez said, adding that the second signed guitar is being raffled by Yo Mama Bubble Tea in San Benito.
The City of San Benito honored Crockett on Saturday, September 7, 2024, during a morning ceremony at the community’s Cultural Heritage Museum on E. Heywood St., the same room where Gonzalez presented the City with the guitar signed by Crockett.
The 2024 event, held just hours before Crockett’s headline concert at Hidalgo’s Payne Arena, saw city officials declare September 7, 2024, as Charley Crockett Day in the Resaca City, and he was awarded the Key to the City.
After remarks from Crockett and City officials, a formal presentation, and his graciously signing autographs and taking photos with fans, Crockett’s caravan, led by his impressive tour bus and a police escort, headed to the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum in San Benito’s historic Robertson Street District, where Crockett took time to tour the facility and pose for more photos.
As previously reported in a 2019 news article, Crockett was born at the now-defunct Dolly Vinsant Memorial Hospital in San Benito as Matthew Charles Crockett. He was raised in a small trailer with his mom and grandmother between Los Fresnos and Bayview until he turned 10, when he relocated to Dallas.
Then, on his 17th birthday, Crockett received a Hohner acoustic guitar from his mother, initially influenced by hip-hop before exploring blues and jazz sounds.
“I picked up the guitar and started experimenting with chord positions, often feeling more comfortable with what I later recognized as jazz chords,” he said in the 2019 interview. “I learned it all on my own. Things didn’t come easily, but I enjoyed figuring it out myself.”
By the time he reached his early 20s, he was living as a vagabond, sleeping on sidewalks and farms across the country, playing music wherever and however he could.
According to his Wikipedia page, he has released 16 studio albums since 2015, with “Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza” reaching number 11 on the US Billboard Blues Albums chart, and “The Man from Waco” entering the US Billboard 200.
In September 2023, Crockett was nominated for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards. He has also been nominated for multiple Grammys.