On this day, 20 August, in 1977, country singer Aaron Watson was born in Amarillo, Texas. He went on to build a career on the Texas honky tonk circuit, deliberately staying independent of major record labels, a stance he says began as a necessity but has since become a matter of principle, even as his commercial success would have made a label deal easy to secure.

Watson released his debut album, Singers and Songwriters, in 1999, followed by a run of records including The Honky Tonk Kid (2004), featuring Willie Nelson, and a string of chart entries through the 2000s and 2010s. His biggest milestone came in 2015, when The Underdog debuted at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, making him the first independent male artist to top that chart; his 2017 follow-up, Vaquero, reached No. 2. His latest album, Horse Named Texas, was released earlier this year, and he remains independent by choice.