Dirt Reynolds is the musical monicker of Nashville singer, songwriter, and guitarist Chris Watts. A former troublemaker raised in central Louisiana, Watts was stabbed in a bar and shot in the New Orleans Super Dome while on Hurricane Katrina duty for the Louisiana National Guard. Surprisingly, neither incident was a reaction to his music. 

Reynolds independently released his debut album Scalawag in the wake of a deadly East Nashville tornado and global pandemic on July 26, 2020. The album combines raucous rock ’n’ roll with broke-but-not-broken characters to illustrate the truth and the lies the American South tells to itself and others. 

Scalawag was called “a rousing slice of air-punching alt-country” by folking.com and “a new southern revolution” by Disciples of Sound. Country Standard Time said “Watts comes out firing relentlessly”. 

Dirt Reynolds has reinvented himself post-pandemic as a power trio with a blend of alternative rock and power pop a la Cheap Trick, The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, and Dinosaur Jr.  The power trio’s first show was at a Nashville Bowling Alley and attended by Reynolds's girlfriend and two lesbian neighbors.