Since blazing a country trail through Nashville in the early 70s, firstly as member of Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band and then as a revered solo artist, Texan veteran Rodney Crowell has become roots-rock royalty. His fabulous new record Airline Highway, his twentieth studio album, was recorded in Louisiana with a host of young admirers, among them Lukas Nelson, Ashley McBryde, Larkin Poe, Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr and producer Tyler Bryant.
Why did you record Airline Highway in Louisiana?
I’ve always felt a real connection with the Western Louisiana swamps. When I was growing up on the east side of Houston, we used to drive across the border to hear the Boogie Kings, a bunch of crazy Cajun musicians who played Motown blue-eyed soul. It was funky and down dirty over there. Also, I’ve always had this fascination with humidity and sound.
How did Tyler Bryant shape this album?
Tyler’s a rock’n’roll kid and an electric blues fanatic. But I’m more interested in Lightnin’ Hopkins, that school of acoustic blues. So we met somewhere in the crossroads and learned a lot from each other. He does an incredible solo at the end of Taking Flight. Afterwards, I told him: “Y’know, since the Allman Brothers, I thought southern rock was all kind of derivative. But you’ve revived my interest.”
There’s a great line in Sometime Thang: ‘She’s a wildwood flower in a red Corvette, Tanya Tucker meets Cate Blanchett’. Where did that come from?
Ha! It just came to me one day and I thought: “Fuck me, that’s a good one!” The song is actually kind of a true story. Many years ago, when I first got together with my wife Claudia [Church, fellow singer-songwriter], a famous actor was trying to make a move [on her] during a gig in Texas. Of course, I was jealous, but I got the idea for the song watching him work her. I won’t say who it was, but he’s a Texas boy. It wasn’t Matthew McConaughey, but maybe that ought to be part of the mythology.
Willie Nelson recently released an album of your songs, titled Oh What A Beautiful World. How did that come about?
I got a message that Willie wanted to do it. His producer said: “Send me twenty-five songs and we’ll take it from there. Think Willie.” It was easy, because in 1965 I was walking in Houston, listening to my transistor radio, and heard Willie’s I Never Cared For You - [sings] ‘The sun is filled with ice and gives no warmth at all’. It altered my sensibilities. Shortly after that I heard [Bob Dylan’s] Subterranean Homesick Blues, then later Merle Haggard’s Sing Me Back Home. I’d first heard [Johnny Cash’s] I Walk The Line at six years old. Those songs changed my life. I do what I do now because of how they affected me back then.
How did you deal with that inner fanboy as Johnny Cash’s son-in-law [Crowell was once married to Rosanne Cash] and recording partner?
Early on I chose bluster as a way to hide my fandom and insecurity. Subconsciously or not, I was trying to establish with him: “I know you’re the man in black, but I’m my own man. I deserve respect”. And it was the right thing to do, because as John and I became close I realised that he was sort of charmed by that. It certainly made him chuckle a lot.
Airline Highway is out now via New West Records.
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