Rodney Crowell
Encyclopedia
Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

.

He is part of both the alternative country
Alternative country
Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...

 and the mainstream country music camps. He was influenced by songwriters Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....

 and Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...

. Crowell played guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and sang for three years in Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...

' "Hot Band".

Early life

Crowell was born August 7, 1950,in Crosby, Texas
Crosby, Texas
Crosby is a census-designated place in Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,714 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Crosby is located at ....

, to James Walter Crowell and Addie Cauzette Willoughby. He had come from a musical family, with one grandfather being a church choir leader and the other a bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 player. His grandmother played guitar and his father sang semi-professionally at bars and honky tonk
Honky tonk
A honky-tonk is a type of bar that provides musical entertainment to its patrons...

s. At age 11, he starting playing drums in his father's band. In his teen years, he played in various garage rock bands in Houston, performing hits of the day mixed with a few country numbers.

1972 - 1986: Early Career

In August 1972 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, in search of a musical career and got a job as a songwriter after being discovered by Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...

. He later met and befriended fellow songwriter Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....

, who became a major influence on his songwriting and vice versa. While there, he said, "I got a real cold splash in the face of what real songwriting is about. I started filling my mind with as many symbols and images as I could. I started reading. I got real hungry to have something to contribute". Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...

 had recorded some of Crowell's songs and made a request to meet him. After he visited Emmylou's home in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, she asked him to play rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

 in her backing band, The Hot Band
The Hot Band
The Hot Band may refer to:* The backing band formed by American soul musician Sylvester James in 1973.* The backing band for Emmylou Harris from 1974 to 1991....

. He accepted and later followed her to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.
In 1977 as a side project, he formed a musical group, The Cherry Bombs, together with Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...

, Tony Brown
Tony Brown (record producer)
Tony Brown is an American country music record producer.He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.Brown played piano for Elvis Presley. He toured with the TCB Band for much of Presley's final two years and was a part of the 1976 "Jungle Room" recording sessions at Graceland...

 and others. One year later, he signed a solo deal with Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 and in late 1978, released his debut album, Ain't Living Long Like This
Ain't Living Long Like This
Ain't Living Long Like This is the title of the first album of American country music artist Rodney Crowell. It was released in 1978 by Warner Bros. Records. It failed to enter the Top Country Albums chart...

.

His debut album, as well his following two albums, But What Will the Neighbors Think
But What Will the Neighbors Think
But What Will the Neighbors Think is the title of the second studio album by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. It was released in 1980 by Warner Bros. Records. It reached #64 on the Top Country Albums chart and #155 on the Billboard 200 albums chart...

and Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell (album)
Rodney Crowell is the title of the third, eponymous studio album by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. It was released in 1981 by Warner Bros. Records and was his last album on that label before switching to Columbia. It was the first album Crowell produced by himself...

, were not commercially successful despite garnering a huge cult following. Crowell himself criticized his debut album for not translating onto vinyl the same clarity and energy he felt in the studio. His single "Ashes by Now" from "But What Will the Neighbors Think" reached #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981.

Though he had already several country hits by artists covering his songs (including "Ain't Living Long Like This" by Waylon Jennings, "Leaving Louisiana..." by the Oak Ridge Boys, and several covers by Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of the late country music singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin....

, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...

 and others), Crowell got his first big taste of pop songwriting success with "Shame on the Moon". "Shame on the Moon" was recorded on the 1982 album "The Distance" by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band. Glenn Frey
Glenn Frey
Glenn Lewis Frey is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Frey formed the Eagles after he met drummer Don Henley in 1970 and the two eventually joined Linda Ronstadt's backup band for her summer tour. The Eagles formed in 1971 and...

 joined Seger on background harmony on the song. Appealing to a broad cross-section of listeners, the song spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, topped the adult contemporary chart, and placed in the Top 15 of the country chart in early 1983. The song's dark, poetic and hypnotic style helped boost Crowell's cult status.

The album Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell (album)
Rodney Crowell is the title of the third, eponymous studio album by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. It was released in 1981 by Warner Bros. Records and was his last album on that label before switching to Columbia. It was the first album Crowell produced by himself...

was released in 1981 (see 1981 in country music) by Warner Bros. Records and was his last album on that label before switching to Columbia. The first album Crowell produced by himself, it reached #47 on the Top Country Albums chart and #105 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The songs "Stars on the Water" and "Victim or a Fool" were released as singles. "Stars on the Water" reached #30 on the Hot Country Songs chart, Crowell's highest charting song up to that point. It peaked at #21 on the Canadian country charts. "Victim or a Fool" reached #34 in the U.S.

In 1981, Rodney left Warner Bros.' roster, putting his career on hold to produce several of his wife Rosanne Cash's albums.

In 1983 Crystal Gayle
Crystal Gayle
Crystal Gayle is an American country music singer best known for her 1977 country-pop hit, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". An award-winning singer, she accumulated 18 number one country hits during the 1970s and 1980s...

 had a number one Country single with his song "'Til I Gain Control Again" from her first Elektra album, "True Love". The song was first recorded in 1975 by Emmylou Harris.

1986 - 1995: Columbia Records and Mainstream Success

After producing Rosanne Cash's Rhythm & Romance
Rhythm & Romance
Rhythm & Romance was the fifth release and second #1 Billboard country album for Rosanne Cash. Her highest honor came when one of its tracks, "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me", won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a female artist. That song and "Never Be You" were both...

, Crowell signed to Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 in 1986. His first album for that label, Street Language
Street Language (album)
Street Language is the title of the fourth studio album released by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. It was released in 1986 by Columbia Records, his first release on that label. It peaked at #38 on the Top Country Albums chart...

, was co-produced with Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...

 and featured a blend of Soul and country music. The album did not chart.

Although best known as a songwriter and alternative country artist, Crowell enjoyed mainstream popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s. His critically acclaimed album 1988's Diamonds & Dirt
Diamonds & Dirt
Diamonds & Dirt is the title of an album released in 1988 by American singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell . His fifth studio album, it was also his second release for the Columbia Records label. The album was also his most successful, achieving RIAA gold certification...

produced five consecutive No. 1 singles during a 17-month span in 1988 and 1989: "It's Such a Small World
It's Such a Small World
"It's Such a Small World" is a duet by American country music artists Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash, released in January 1988. "It's Such a Small World" was the lead-off single to Crowell's Diamonds and Dirt album, which charted five No...

" (a duet with Cash), "I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried
I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried
"I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried" is a 1988 single written and performed by Rodney Crowell. "I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried" was a track of off Rodney Crowell's "Diamonds & Dirt" album and was the first of his four number one country singles...

," "She's Crazy For Leavin'
She's Crazy for Leavin'
"She's Crazy for Leavin" is a 1988 single by Rodney Crowell, who co-wrote the song with Guy Clark. "She's Crazy for Leavin'" was Rodney Crowell's second number one country hit as a solo artist. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the country...

," "After All This Time
After All This Time (Rodney Crowell song)
"After All This Time" is a 1989 song written and recorded by Rodney Crowell. It was Crowell's seventh single to reach the U.S. country music chart and the third of four number ones. "After All This Time" spent one week at the top and fifteen weeks on chart overall.-Chart performance:-References:...

" and "Above and Beyond
Above and Beyond (song)
"Above and Beyond", also known as "Above and Beyond " is the title of a song written by Harlan Howard and recorded by American country music singer Buck Owens. Released in 1960 as a single with "'Til These Dreams Come True" on the b-side, Owens' rendition reached #3 on the Billboard country singles...

" (a cover of Buck Owens
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...

' 1962 hit). His follow-up album, 1989's Keys to the Highway
Keys to the Highway
Keys to the Highway is the title of a studio album by American country music artist, Rodney Crowell. It was released in October 1989 by Columbia Records . Expected by many to be as successful as his previous record-breaking album, Diamonds & Dirt, It was not. It peaked at #15 on the Top Country...

, produced two top 5 hits in 1990, which were "Many a Long and Lonesome Highway
Many a Long and Lonesome Highway
"Many a Long and Lonesome Highway" is a single by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. Released in September 1989, it was the first single from Crowell's album Keys to the Highway. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in January 1990 and #1 on the RPM...

" and "If Looks Could Kill
If Looks Could Kill (Rodney Crowell song)
"If Looks Could Kill" is a single by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. Released in January 1990, it was the second single from Crowell's album Keys to the Highway. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in May 1990 and #4 on the RPM Country Tracks chart...

."

As Crowell's popularity in hit-radio country music faded, he continued his prolific songwriting. After 1992's Life Is Messy
Life Is Messy
Life Is Messy is the title of the seventh studio album released by American country music artist, Rodney Crowell. It was released in May 1992 by Columbia Records. It peaked at #30 on the Top Country Albums chart. The songs, "Lovin' All Night", "What Kind of Love" and "Let's Make Trouble" were...

, he left Columbia Records and signed to MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...

 where he released two more albums.

2001 - Present

In 2001, after a brief hiatus from recording, he released The Houston Kid
The Houston Kid
The Houston Kid is the 10th album by American country music singer Rodney Crowell. It was released through Sugar Hill in 2001. The album includes the single "I Walk the Line Revisited", recorded in collaboration with Johnny Cash, which peaked at number 61 on the Hot Country Songs charts in late...

on Sugar Hill Records, his first studio album since 1995's Jewel of the South
Jewel of the South
Jewel of the South is the title of the ninth studio album released by American country music artist Rodney Crowell. Released in 1995 , It was his second as well as his last album under the MCA Records label. Like its predecessor, It failed to chart on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart...

. Many songs on the album were semi-autobiographical, and the album included a duet with Crowell's ex father-in-law
Father-in-law
A parent-in-law is a person who has a legal affinity with another by being the parent of the other's spouse. Many cultures and legal systems impose duties and responsibilities on persons connected by this relationship...

 Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

 on "I Walk the Line (Revisited)". Initially, Cash was annoyed at Crowell for changing the tune to his song, but he came to like the finished product. Crowell followed up this effort with Fate's Right Hand
Fate's Right Hand
Fate's Right Hand is the eleventh studio album by American country music singer Rodney Crowell. It was released on July 29, 2003 via Epic Records. The album includes Crowell's last charting single, "Earthbound", which spent one week at the number 60 position on Hot Country Songs.-Critical...

in 2003 and The Outsider
The Outsider (Rodney Crowell album)
Fate's Right Hand is the twelfth studio album by American country music singer Rodney Crowell. It was released on August 16, 2005 via Columbia Records...

in 2005, both of which came out on Columbia Nashville, a division of Sony Music. Leading critics and Crowell consider these three albums his finest work as a solo artist.

2004 saw the release of The Notorious Cherry Bombs
The Notorious Cherry Bombs
The Notorious Cherry Bombs, originally called The Cherry Bombs, was an American country music supergroup founded by singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell in 1980. A former member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band, Crowell picked several former Hot Band members as his backing band, which he named The Cherry...

, a reunion of Crowell's 1970s road band, including Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...

 and Tony Brown
Tony Brown (record producer)
Tony Brown is an American country music record producer.He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.Brown played piano for Elvis Presley. He toured with the TCB Band for much of Presley's final two years and was a part of the 1976 "Jungle Room" recording sessions at Graceland...

. The future Keith Urban
Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban is a New Zealand-born Australian, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age...

 hit "Making Memories of Us
Making Memories of Us
"Making Memories of Us" is the title of a song written by American country music artist Rodney Crowell that has been recorded by several artists. The first version was recorded by American country music artist Tracy Byrd on his 2003 album The Truth About Men...

" was included on this disc. In 2005, Crowell served as producer for established Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 singer/songwriter Kieran Goss
Kieran Goss
Kieran Goss is a Northern Irish contemporary singer-songwriter.-Biography:Kieran Goss was born and raised in Mayobridge, County Down, Northern Ireland. He was just nine years old when he got his first guitar...

 on the album "Blue Sky Sunrise".

In 2008 CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...

 announced that Crowell's next album, Sex and Gasoline, would come out on Yep Roc Records
Yep Roc Records
Yep Roc Records is an independent International record label based in Haw River, North Carolina and owned by Redeye Distribution . The label has put out albums by artists like The Go-Betweens, The Fleshtones, Gang of Four, The Reverend Horton Heat, and The Minus 5, as well as the work of important...

, ending his relationship with Sony Music. This marked the first time Crowell did not produce his own CD, turning production over to Joe Henry
Joe Henry
Joseph Lee "Joe" Henry is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Henry's musical style spans several genres, including alt. country, rock, jazz and folk.- Early years :...

. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album. Crowell figures prominently in musician-neuroscientist Daniel Levitin
Daniel Levitin
Professor Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. is a prominent American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, record producer, musician, and writer...

's book The World in Six Songs for which he was interviewed, and three Crowell songs, "Shame On The Moon," "I Know Love Is All I Need" and "I Walk the Line (Revisited)" are featured in the book.

In 2009, Crowell wrote Wynonna Judd
Wynonna Judd
Wynonna Ellen Judd is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds...

's title track to her album Sing: Chapter 1
Sing: Chapter 1
Sing: Chapter 1 is a studio album from country music singer Wynonna Judd, released on February 3, 2009. It is her seventh solo studio album and the follow-up to her 2003 album What the World Needs Now Is Love and her holiday-themed 2006 release A Classic Christmas...

, which also was released in 2009. The song was given several electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...

 remixes, and sent to dance radio as Judd's second release from the album. In August 2009, the single reached #4 on the U.S. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

In 2010, Chely Wright
Chely Wright
Richell Rene "Chely" Wright is an American country music artist and, starting in 2010, gay rights activist. On the strength of her debut album in 1994, the Academy of Country Music named her Top New Female Vocalist in 1995. Wright's first Top 40 country hit came in 1997 with "Shut Up and Drive"...

 will release her seventh studio album on Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...

. The album titled Lifted Off the Ground is produced by Crowell. Wright also made a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 in Crowell's 2008 music video Sex and Gasoline.

A memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks, was published in 2011.

Personal life

He was married to Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of the late country music singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin....

 (daughter of Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

), from 1979 to 1992 and they had an influence on each other's careers, with Rodney producing most of her albums during that period and her success influencing his songwriting. They collaborated on a number of duets, including 1988's "It's Such a Small World." Although Crowell and Cash are now divorced, they remain on friendly terms, performing together occasionally. Crowell and Cash have three daughters, Caitlin, Chelsea, and Carrie, and together raised Hannah, Rodney's daughter from a previous marriage. He married Claudia Church
Claudia Church
Claudia Church is an American country singer whose hits include "What's the Matter With You Baby" and "Home in My Heart ".-Biography:...

 in 1998.

External links

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