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Rodney Crowell – Close Ties

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What does it sound like?:

There’s a dapper man who frequents your local, quiet, unassuming, mid-sixties, well-groomed, clean shaven, expensive aftershave, shock of grey hair, chiselled face, still with a twinkle in his steely blue eyes. If you get a chance to talk to him, you will find he is quite the raconteur, with tales of loves loved, loves lost, of roads well-travelled, lessons learnt the hard way, all told with considerable charm and a self-deprecating sense of humour. That man is Rodney Crowell.

Rodney Crowell has been writing songs and performing in bands in Nashville for fifty years. He was a member of Emmylou’s Hot Band for three years, married Roseanne Cash and became close friends with Guy Clark. His songs were covered by Emmylou (Bluebird Wine is on 1975’s Pieces Of The Sky), Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Bob Seger, Crystal Gayle and many others. His biggest selling album is 1988’s Diamonds & Dirt, which spawned five hit singles. His long association with Emmylou Harris was rekindled in 2014 with their duet album, Old Yellow Moon and its follow up, The Travelling Kind. Both are exemplary Americana. Now, he has released another solo album, Close Ties, which looks back on his long, rich career and all the complicated personal relationships intertwined therein.

The album oozes with the calm confidence of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing. He isn’t arrogant, he’s just right, he is very good at this singing and songwriting business. These are his stories and they are as familiar to him as the backs of his hands.

He has gathered around him a very professional group of musicians, who are all very skilled at delivering a song. His own guitar playing is pretty nifty too. He does recruit some old friends to help. It Ain’t Over Yet, a song about survival and longevity, features Roseanne Cash and is the first time Crowell has worked with his ex-wife since their divorce. Young John Paul White’s role on the song seems to be a buffer between the pair of them, like a loveable child, but Mickey Raphael’s gritty harmonica in the lay out brings them back to Earth. There is a duet with Sheryl Crow, I’m Tied To Ya, which articulates the responsibility that comes with long-term commitment. I imagine it would have been too much for all concerned if Roseanne had stepped up to Sheryl’s mic instead.

East Houston Blues recounts his impoverished childhood. The lyrical imaginary is bleak but there isn’t a hint of bitterness in his burnt ochre voice (with the occasional sibilant whistle). Nashville 1972 is frankly autobiographical, listing all the people he encountered when he first arrived on the Nashville music scene. Both Reckless and Forgive Me, Annabelle are confessionals. It seems those twinkling eyes used to rove. However, Forty Miles From Nowhere and I Don’t Care Anymore accept his lot as an elder statesman, less able to be as wild as in his youth. He sounds very comfortable in his own skin.

Sometimes, albums as personally revealing as Close Ties can be toe-curling and too cosy. Mostly, Crowell tip-toes the fine line between personal and universal with aplomb, with just a couple of slips across ten tracks. He may lack the authority and the hint of darkness that Johnny Cash had at the end of his career but he has pop smarts and a seductive romanticism that more than compensate. You can see why Emmylou loves working with him.

Next time you encounter a neatly turned out gent at the bar, with a feather in his hat, see if he’ll tell you about the time he puked in Willie Nelson’s back yard after playing him a song.

What does it all *mean*?

Part of me worries that Close Ties is a swansong, there is so much of it immersed in the past. However, there is enough quality material rooted in the here and now to give me hope that Rodney Crowell isn’t finished yet.

Goes well with…

A pie and a pint.

Release Date:

Might suit people who like…

Americana. Crowell was there at the start, if ever there was a start to Americana. However, if you simply like some good honest music, you’ll enjoy this.

27

Comments

  4. Ooh goodie I’ve been a fan since the Hot Band days and Roseanne’s “King’s Record Shop”. The duet with Emmylou called “When we were beautiful” has caused more than one furtive wipe of the eye.

  5. You’re not quite correct about the duet being the first time since divorce that Rodney has worked with Rosanne.

    On The River And The Thread Rosanne was very proud that the song When The Master Calls The Roll was a co-write between her, her husband John Leventhal and Rodney Crowell.
    She made a comment along the lines of “How’s that for a modern marriage?” at The Barbican in London, on the tour in support of the album.

    I have had this on order for a couple of months and hope to have it on Friday. Your review has whetted my anticipation even further.

  6. He wrote the exquisite and much covered ‘Til I Gain Control Again, the song debuting on Emmylou’s 2nd album. I knew then him a man to watch. He had a trinity of albums in the early noughties, 2001 – 2005 that are well worth a punt: The Houston Kid, Fate’s Right Hand and the Outsider. I think they are now available as a triple set. I like Tiggers description of him as he appears now: unfortunately I also recall a Live from the Cambridge Folk Festival TV show where, despite the songs, he came over as an embarrassing Shaking Stevens I wanna be Elvis type, in a white T and jeans for a man half his (then) age. By the time I caught him live, in 20013, I think, at Tranatlantic Sessions and, later in the year, with Emmylou, he was a whole more comfortable in his jowls.

    • Saw him acoustic with just another acoustic guitar as support- one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Alas since then he has been with EmmyLou and seems to prefer the upbeat stuff.

    • I first saw him as part of Emmylou’s Hot Band in the mid seventies; Wolverhampton I think. He was notable, particularly considering the company he kept.

      Some while later he was at the long lost Breedon Bar in Birmingham with Stueurt Smith on guitar. I was ten feet from the stage – what a night that was.

      • Yikes: the Breedon Bar! Now that was a venue! Wonderful place, loved it. Lost count of how many people I saw there, almost before americana became americana. I am sure I saw Butch Hancock and Jimmy Dale Gilmore of the Flatlanders play a duo gig there. Steve Gibbons Band were the house band there it seemed, Tulane by then a mere memory (and inevitable encore), alongside little remembered cajun rocker(s), (Pierre) LeRue. Best NYE of my life, back in, gulp, 1984.

  8. I struggle with old Rodders. Everybody, including the inestimable Tiggs it seems, rates him. Me, I think “pleasant enough but that’s it, pleasant and if it wasn’t for Emmylou I would file him under ‘interesting, must listen some more but never actually get round to it'”
    I could be Wrong about this.

    • I see where you are coming from but there is no escaping the fact that this is a fine album, well-crafted, well-played. There are a couple of tracks I could live without, but otherwise very fine indeed. Maybe, he just doesn’t float your boat.

      By the way, your sign off, ‘I could be Wrong’, is up there with ‘FISH’.

    • Conversely, I keep trying with Emmylou – concerts, albums but I find her voice lacks personality. Great band, song selection, and yes a real looker, but something about her just misses the spot for me.

      Rodney, on the other hand, talks to me like few others.

      What do you think of this song @lodestone-of-wrongness ?

  9. Has anyone on the Afterword mentioned the new Courtney Marie Andrews album “Honest Life” yet?
    I reckon it could appeal to quite a few fans of Emmylou – indeed to quite a few people who are keen on Americana in general. Ms Andrews is a 26-year-old, based in Seattle. The album has been warmly received by critics and the public alike. And of course, Kaisfatdad has already seen her live, with both members of First Aid Kit also in the Stockholm audience. Hurrah!

  12. I lucky enough to catch Rodney at an impromptu record shop gig on Södermalm and he was just as Tigs describes him: the personification of charm.he was doing requests and there was one rather old song asked for, and as he couldn’t remember them all, he sung from the inner sleeve of the album.

    On that occasion First Aid Kit were not in the audience. They were probably still running round the playground.

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