Speaking The Same Language: Rodney Crowell, Jeff Tweedy team up for new album

In a career that’s stretched over a half century-plus, Rodney Crowell has worked with a fair share of notable names ranging from former boss Emmylou Harris and ex-Cherry Bombs bandmate Vince Gill to ex-wife Rosanne Cash, her father Johnny Cash and R&B legend Booker T. Jones.

On his latest outing, Crowell teamed up with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to record “The Chicago Sessions,” an 11-cut outing recorded at the latter’s Windy City recording studio. And while the two artists appreciated each other from afar, the collaboration came after the twosome met on the Cayamo Songwriters Cruise and Crowell felt the need to share his love of the younger musician’s 2018 solo album.

“I was driving home listening to NPR and ‘I Know What It’s Like’ came on from his album ‘Warm’ and there was no traffic on the roads — just me and my radio turned up kind of loud listening to it and thinking, ‘Wow, what a great-sounding piece of music,’” Crowell recalls.

“It just spoke to me in a way. Jeff and I happened to be on this boat together and we’d never been introduced. I walked over and said, ‘Man, I heard ‘I Know What It’s Like’ and that whole album. NPR sold me and I wore it out. There is so much about it that I love.’ We had a nice conversation for 15 minutes or so and then he said, ‘Why don’t you come up some time and record at my studio.’ I took that as a very nice, neighborly thing to say at the end of us saying we admired each other’s work.”

And while the Texas native felt the invite was perfunctory, his daughter, Chelsea, chastised her father into taking Tweedy up on his offer

“When (our conversation) came up she said, ‘Dad, Jeff Tweedy invited you to come up and record at his studio. Get on the phone with your management to call his management and make this happen,’” Crowell relates. “I was scolded by my daughter and said OK. Next thing you know it was, ‘Let’s make an album.’”

With Tweedy on board to produce, Crowell grabbed guitarist Jedd Hughes, pianist Catherine Marx and bassist Zachariah Hickman, drove up to Chicago from Nashville and teamed up with Chicago natives John Perrine and Tweedy’s drummer son Spencer for a nine-day recording session that took place in late June/early July 2022. Relieved of production duties, Crowell said it was a free-and-easy experience.

“It was by far the easiest record I’ve ever made,” he says.

“Everything is a live performance by all of us. ‘You’re Supposed to Be Feeling Good’ is an old song from my youth that I was reinventing and that one took a bit of work — honestly it did. We spent the most time finding a way to record that. But the rest of it was mostly from my pandemic days of banging around the house. We recorded those songs in one, two, maybe three takes. As a performer, my best performances are when I have a really good producer and I don’t have to think about anything but playing and singing. If the rest of the work I do with whatever time I have left on Earth is me having the freedom of just focusing on singing and playing, I’ll be happy.”

There was clearly plenty of joy going on in the studio for this collection of songs that include a number of gems ranging from the loping bluesy twang of “Somebody to Love” and irresistible opener “Lucky” and its barrelhouse piano runs to Tweedy joining forces with Crowell on the mid-tempo earworm “Everything at Once.” And in staying true to his Texas roots, Crowell includes a subdued and heartfelt reading of Townes Van Zandt’s “No Place to Fall.” Not surprisingly, the 73-year-old singer-songwriter is itching to bring this latest project to the masses.

“I’m on the road with Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, who come from the bluegrass world — dobro and an acoustic guitar,” Crowell says.

“They’re bluegrass musicians, but they’re jazzers who play anything and love to play anything. They open the shows and then they join me on stage. I utilize their brilliance and they play with me. That’s what we’ve been doing. I’ve got a rhythm section — my buddy Eamon McLoughlin, who I’ve worked with for 10 years now — we have sort of an acoustic set-up. But mind you, these guys play like madmen. I just tell them to go out and play and steal the show. I tell them if they steal the show, it just makes me look good, so don’t worry.”

Crowell’s musical roots go back to his father, who he described as, “…a child of the Depression and a disentitled sharecrop farm kid. He didn’t really know how to do anything but dig holes with a shovel and play music to free his soul when he could.”

At the age of 11, the younger Crowell was enlisted by his pop to replace the blind drummer the latter had been employing in his combo. Given a rudimentary kit consisting of a bass drum, snare and cymbal on a Tuesday, by Friday night, the younger Crowell was “…playing in an icehouse honky-tonk with eight drunk people dancing.” A couple of years later, the Fab Four landed on our shores and Crowell switched to guitar, which “became a shortcut and a sexual tool to getting girls.”

A move to Nashville in 1972 led to his crossing paths with his late mentor Guy Clark and a job playing guitar as a member of Harris’ Hot Band. Crowell’s way with a lyric not only found myriad artists ranging from Bob Seger (“Shame on the Moon”) and Waylon Jennings (“I Ain’t Living Long Like This”) to the Oak Ridge Boys (“Leaving Louisiana”) covering his songs but earned Crowell a respected and fruitful solo career.

Crowell saw his share of commercial success in the late ’80s via the 1988 album “Diamonds & Dirt” and a string of five consecutive No. 1 singles that included “I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried,” “She’s Crazy for Leavin,” and the Grammy Award-winning “After All This Time.” But he moved forward by acting on some advice he received from Clark — that he would be better served working on his craft than chasing hits.

“When I was 22, Guy said I was talented but not formed yet,” Crowell reminisces.

“He said I could probably be a star and probably make a lot of money. But if I wanted to be around for a while, that I should probably really think about how to make myself an artist, and that has stuck with me. I realized that I’m not the kind of artist who would thrive at trying to reproduce something that was successful. I had to move on and try to create something new out of whatever inspiration I could earn. Truthfully, as we age, the lightning in the bottle that comes, like Dylan’s early ‘20s, is probably the most iconic, beautiful version of something bigger than anything. It’s later on, whatever inspiration you get — at least for me — that just comes from showing up to work day-in and day-out. I’m grateful for the fact that to this day I make a living, feed a family and put a roof over our heads.”

Rodney Crowell:

The Chicago Sessions Tour

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 10
WHERE: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $39.50
INFO: www.rialtotheatre.com

This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2023.