With his resonant baritone voice and gift for story songs, informed by years of work in journalism and documentary films, Christopher Lockett's first albums quickly caught the attention of roots music media in the U.S and Europe. No Depression played his self-titled debut (2009) continually, finding “great lines in just about every song”, while American Songwriter praised the follow-up, Road Songs for the Restless (2012), describing Lockett as “a substantial and soulful songwriter... that keeps you going even through the toughest of times.” Lonesome Highway, in turn, summed up Between The Dark And The Light (2018) as “an impressive late-night listen from a talented storyteller.”

Now, Lockett is releasing his fourth studio album, At The Station. Although he's worked on five continents and witnessed many facets of humanity as an award-winning cinematographer, the lyric themes on At The Station revolve around a much smaller personal world as Lockett focuses on the mortality of his parents. “Loss is a big theme, but so is anger and love for this life, come what may,” he says. “The title cut is a goodbye letter to my Mom, who's 87 and has end-stage Alzheimer's. My Dad died in 2020 — actually on the morning of his and Mom's 60th anniversary. On the first vocal day of recording, I sang this song first so I could get through it emotionally. I don't look forward to being alone on that station platform, but trying to say goodbye the best way you know how is time well spent.”  

At The Station also features lighthearted celebrations of being alive, like “Whiskey for Everything” and “Wet a Line”; love songs to independent women like “Bring Your Love On Home To Me,” and protest songs like “E Pluribus Unum” and “The Reckoning.” 

Used to performing solo in Los Angeles clubs like Hotel Cafe and The Echo on their Americana nights, Lockett often plays stripped down versions of his songs on guitar, kalimba, blues harp and Appalachian dulcimer. But joining forces with producer Fernando Perdomo inspired him to expand his sonic concept on At The Station. “My first two home-studio albums didn't venture very far from the singer-songwriter thing,” Lockett says. “Fernando has me dream songs and albums bigger.” Besides playing electric guitar and slide guitar on record for the first time, Lockett had a full band backing him up, including violinist Scarlet Rivera (Bob Dylan), mandolinist Chad Watson (Bonnie Raitt), vocalist Kitten Kuroi (Elvis Costello), and a number of other singers and instrumentalists on pedal steel, fiddle, dobro, keyboards, bass, guitar and drums.

As for most performers of roots music, the pandemic had put the pause button on live shows, but now Lockett hopes to tour more with At The Station. “Films, photos, songs, they're all stories,” he says. “The important part is how well we tell them.” 

At The Station will be released May 13 on Gritbiscuit Records.