Rodney Crowell – Close Ties
Format: CD – Vinyl – Digital / Label: New West Records
Releasedatum: 31 maart 2017

Tekst: Iain Patience

The latest little wonder from US Americana genius Crowell is instantly familiar in oh so many ways. Rodney Crowell has long had a near un-erring knack of writing delightful vignettes, stories that sparkle with life and life’s burdens while always coated in his rhythmic fretwork and identifiable vocal delivery. Close Ties is yet another success from a guy who moves ahead of much of the US singer-song-writer pack by looking back to his childhood and youth in East Texas.

Like his old buddy, another Texan, the late Guy Clark, Crowell writes visceral songs that simply resonate and always seem to hold the promise of greatness just within grasp. A few of the ten tracks here indeed clearly draw on his near-lifelong friendship and association with Clark and his wife, Suzanne, and another one of the true Texan greats, the legendary Townes Van Zandt. His time with this small coterie of musical giants, proclaims itself loudly at times in both the lyrics and historical attitude presented.

In truth, it’s hard not to like Crowell and his music – this is a guy who once manged to persuade Johnny Cash to guest on an album where he sang shotgun on a reverential but decidedly original take on one of his own, vastly popular numbers. Few, if any, would or could have the balls to try this let alone pull it off in spades. It was the kind of stroke that could easily have destroyed a career in Nashville back in the day. Crowell, then married to one of Cash’s daughters, Roseanne, held his nerve and got away with it, somewhat to his own relief.

With Close Ties, Crowell again reminds us of just how good he is as a writer and musician, leaving a gaping void in the Americana world when he’s between projects. This is an album to enjoy and savour, for sure.

Tracks:
01. East Houston Blues
02. Reckless
03. Life Without Susanna
04. It Ain’t Over Yet (feat. Rosanne Cash and John Paul White)
05. I Don’t Care Anymore
06. I’m Tied To Ya (feat. Sheryl Crow)
07. Forgive Me Annabelle
08. Forty Miles From Nowhere
09. Storm Warning
10. Nashville 1972

Website: Rodney Crowell

 


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