Since the death of Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell has assumed the crown as the King of Country Music, at least the Americana side of the genre. The 75-year-old former son-in-law of the Man in Black has a complete record of accomplishments and achievements as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Earlier this year, Willie Nelson put out a full-length album, Oh What a Beautiful World, which featured 12 songs written or co-written by Crowell over the past 50 years. What could top that? Well, Crowell’s not about to retire. He’s just released his 20th studio record, Airline Highway.
The new record reveals Crowell is still the master of diamonds and dirt, as he labeled his seminal 1988 disc. He sees the world through grease-stained glasses that bring out the shine in the quotidian reality. His music has a gritty edge and a poetic sensibility. That’s clear from the very beginning, with opening lyrics on “Rainy Days in California” that announce, “Days fly by me like dragons, oil well fires, and car tire smoke” sung over a nasty electric guitar lick. He simultaneously lives in a magic world of flying lizards and industrial pollution whose qualities are emphasized by musical accompaniment.
Crowell plays acoustic and electric guitars on the new record and is joined by guitarists Tyler Bryant and David Grissom, pianist Catherine Marx, bassist Rachel Loy, drummer Conrad Choucroun, percussionist Dirk Powell, and accordionist Rebecca Lovell, among others. Tyler Bryant (Lovell’s wife and half of the sister duo Larkin Poe, who also contribute to the album) keeps the music uncluttered so that every instrument and voice can be clearly heard.
Lukas Nelson joins in on vocals on the first track, which rocks hard. Ashley MvBryde provides guest vocals on the co-written “Taking Flight”, which is one of the album’s highlights. The song is based on a conversation the two of them had about fame and nighttime driving in the South. There is a dreamlike quality to the tune that resembles the feeling one has on a long road trip at night, where nothing seems familiar except the unreality of it all.
The album was recorded in Maurice, Louisiana, and several of the tracks concern Crowell’s nostalgic connections to the southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana region where they grew up.As he sings in “Taking Flight”, “We got our education from a backwoods country station / Proof that there’s a world out there came wrapped up in a song.” There’s an edge to the sentimentality based on the poverty, alcoholism, and dangers of the region, but “lower-class” pride is expressed as well.
Other cuts, such as “Maybe Somewhere Down the Road” and “Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay”, focus more on the good times had in the past. Larkin Poe brighten Crowell’s Bayou State memories with sweet background vocals and a slide guitar. The album uses the past as a measure of the present and finds hope for the future. Things may have been better back then, but they were worse, too.
Airline Highway provides evidence of Crowell’s literate craftsmanship as a songwriter. He doesn’t try to sing or play to impress as much as to serve the material. The songs are his master and mistress here.