Album preview: upcoming Rodney Crowell record Texas highlights songcraft
I don’t think in terms of favorites. Just don’t have ‘em. I haven’t a favorite color; nor a favorite food, beer, drink, vacation spot, tree, book, movie, song, author, play, season, or memory. I do not have a favorite poem, pair of jeans, shirt, or boots. Not even a favorite hat. I have three kids; none of them are my favorites. My favorite songwriter, however, is Rodney Crowell. His new record, TEXAS is phenomenal. A true work of art. The record is due out August 15. Crowell will be performing in support of the record launch on that same day at The Heights Theater in Houston.
In Texas, we are rich with quality songwriters. Any list of the “best” would include Crowell. List the best writers, he writes all the clashes, from the heart, what he knows, what he has lived, but there is something classier in Crowell than in many writers. There is a quality to his writing more brilliant than a thousand suns, and stronger than the sharpest pain ever inflicted by a love. It is like behind those soft pale eyes, is a thousand years of pain, etching itself across our hearts in the most beautiful way possible.
Seldom does a singer/songwriter touch emotion you did not even know existed within your diminished soul, that is the most admirable quality of original music; to move the listener outside of our comfort zone to a place where emotional response takes on new meaning. Crowell does just that to his listeners, repeatedly. He sings with a seeming effortless voice, too pretty to be a gifted craftsman of songs. Like a master, he knows just where to add inflection, where to drop a scratch, how to bend a note at his will, and how to write a phrase that conquers every deep-set feeling you’re too afraid to examine more closely on your own. Heady stuff but it’s all true.
TEXAS, Crowell’s latest offering is no exception to his finely tuned writing. We have eleven songs, some new, some dating back to his earliest days as a songwriter. All with a common theme: Texas. A native Texan, Crowell grew up in Houston and cut his teeth on Americana many people would have felt scared by, yet the singer/songwriter has turned inward to write music reflective of his roots, his dreams, his passion, his present, past, and future in the tradition of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Lyle Lovett (who incidentally appears on this record).
He’s enlisted some more help on this project; Willie Nelson, Ronnie Dunn, Billy Gibbons, Randy Rogers, Vince Gill, Lee Ann Womack, Steve Earle, Ringo Starr and more join him on selected songs. It’s an all-star cast of guests. Beyond the beautify poetry filled songs, and smart production, the record just feels fun. The discriminating listener can tell when the project was challenged, and when the artist truly enjoyed themselves. Here, we have the latter.
Crowell’s deeply personal approach to the craft of songwriting makes his work feel more authentic, something rare in this time of over-produced music that was co-written ad nauseum in some record company office. Music like Crowell’s is refreshing, enjoyable and dependable all at once. For a man who started out as a country songwriter, Crowell’s evolution through the years crosses all the gray areas between southern rock, country, and blues that many now call Americana.
Crowell did not seek out a place in Americana music, but its popularity came about at the same time he reevaluated his work, focusing his efforts into more finely tuned songwriting. The result has been his albums from The Houston Kid to present. This music has elevated him to not only one of the most respected songwriters among singers and songwriters alike, but also as an artist performing at a creative and professional level most never imagine having the potential to reach.
Crowell weaves humor, lust, love, tragedy, anger, and desperation into the most perfectly balanced songs. He co-produced Texas and ensured musicians of top caliber were in the sessions. The more I listened to the album, the more I could not stop listening. It was like old friends calling on me. And while it had been some time since the last record, there were new stories, new revelations, new joys and new lows to discover.
Rodney Crowell could teach a master class in songwriting, singing, and performing. He like no other, has avoided creative and professional complacency and kept achieving greater artistic success than most performers his half his age. It appears he is far from finished.
