MUMBAI: Aaron Watson’s Live at the World’s Biggest Rodeo Show, the pioneering independent’s 14th album and his first live album in nearly a decade, is now available. Friday’s release marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, the Category 4 storm that caused $125 billion in damage, impacting 13 million people in 41 Texas counties. $1.41 from each album sold will benefit the Rebuild Texas Fund, in recognition of the widespread devastation across Watson’s beloved home state. The project, which “captures Watson in full-fledged rockstar mode,” was recorded live in front of 65,000 fans on the opening night of the 2017 Rodeo Houston.

The collection contains 13 songs from Aaron’s 18-year career and includes the emotional acoustic bonus track, Higher Ground. The stirring song, written by Watson as Hurricane Harvey was devastating his home state of Texas, was named one of the week’s 10 Best Songs by Rolling Stone Country, declaring it swoons and swells on the back of a small string section, with Watson delivering lines like ‘I pray you will always be strong’ as though they were Sunday-morning benedictions.

On release date, the native Texan visited radio, appeared live on Houston’s ABC (KTRK) and NBC (KPRC) midday TV shows, and performed for a capacity crowd at the Smart Financial Centre (Sugar Land). The following day he headed to Wal-Mart in Waco, TX to meet and greet friends, family, and fans and sign copies of the new album for over three hours. That evening, Watson took his show over to the Margarita & Salsa Festival, co-headlining the Waco event in front of 6,000 fans bearing the triple-digit heat to see their favourite Lone Star Cowboy.

Watson’s new single from Vaquero, Run Wild Horses, is currently Top 40 and climbing on the Media base national radio charts. The video for the self-penned homage to his wife “turns the heat way up” (Taste of Country), premiered with CMT Music last month.

Aaron Watson wrapped 2017 with a Top 10 on the national radio charts with his self-penned Outta Style. At 50 weeks, the hit single shattered a Billboard record, marking the longest trek to the coveted spot in the history of their Country Airplay Chart. The Texas troubadour ended his banner year with his album Vaquero earning one of the 10 biggest album debuts of the year in country music and a number of best album of 2017 nods, including Whiskey Riff and the No. 1 spot on Taste of Country’s year-end list, proclaiming the project 'a rich collection of cowboy poetry.'