There’s something wonderfully bold about the approach Rodney Crowell took to his new album “Acoustic Classics,” which came out in July.
Crowell, who’s been writing songs for other people (and for himself) for decades, took a batch of older material, some of which had been successfully recorded by artists like Bob Seger, and decided to tweak a few of the songs a little. It goes to show that a writer has to be willing to revise — sometimes even after the work has been put out into the world.
var parentDoc=parent.document.body,resizeFrame=function(){var e=[],t=”none”;parentDoc.clientWidth<420?(e=document.getElementsByClassName("lat-embed-small"),t="block"):(e=document.getElementsByClassName("lat-embed-small"),t="none");for(var a=0;a=420&&parentDoc.clientWidth<840?(e=document.getElementsByClassName("lat-embed-medium"),t="block"):(e=document.getElementsByClassName("lat-embed-medium"),t="none");for(var a=0;a=840?(e=document.getElementsByClassName(“lat-embed-large”),t=”block”):(e=document.getElementsByClassName(“lat-embed-large”),t=”none”);for(var a=0;a<e.length;a++)e[a].style.display=t};parent.window.addEventListener("resize",resizeFrame,!1);
Crowell released his debut solo album “Ain’t Living Long Like This” 40 years ago, but it was his fifth album, “Diamonds & Dirt” from 1988, that earned him his most commercial success as a solo artist. Country artists like Alan Jackson, Keith Urban and Tim McGraw have all had hits with songs written by Crowell.
Born in Texas, Crowell eventually came to Nashville, but he always had a connection to Lone Star legends like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, and he made another connection to another legend when he married Rosanne Cash, becoming the Man in Black’s son-in-law for a time. He also played in Emmylou Harris’ band for a stretch.
But Crowell’s work as a songwriter has been the constant. Crowell’s parents met at a Roy Acuff concert, so it’s possible that country music was destined to be a feature in his life.
Rodney Crowell plays Infinity Hall, 20 Greenwoods Road W., Norfolk, on Thursday, Aug. 23, at 8 p.m. $44-$64 866-666-6306 and infinityhall.com.
