Rodney Crowell

Rodney Crowell (born August 7, 1950) is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music.

Crowell was born on August 7, 1950, in Houston, Texas, to James Walter Crowell and Addie Cauzette Willoughby

He came from a musical family, with one grandfather being a church choir leader and the other a bluegrass banjo player.

His grandmother played guitar and his father sang semi-professionally at bars and honky tonks.

At age 11, he started playing drums in his father's band.

In his teen years, he played in various garage rock bands in Houston, performing hits of the day mixed with a few country numbers.

In August 1972 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of a musical career and got a job as a songwriter after being discovered by Jerry Reed.

He later met and befriended fellow songwriter Guy Clark, who became a major influence on his songwriting and vice versa.

While there, he said, "I got a real cold splash in the face of what real songwriting is about. I started filling my mind with as many symbols and images as I could. I started reading. I got real hungry to have something to contribute".

Emmylou Harris had recorded one of Crowell's songs, "Bluebird Wine", on her Pieces of the Sky album and made a request to meet him.

After he sat in with Emmylou at her gig at the Armadillo World Headquarters in early January 1975, she asked him to play rhythm guitar in her backing band, The Hot Band.

He accepted and left the following day to join Emmylou in Los Angeles.

The song was first recorded in 1975 by Emmylou Harris and appeared on Elite Hotel that year.

In 1977 as a side project, he formed a musical group, The Cherry Bombs, together with Vince Gill, Tony Brown and others.

One year later, he signed a solo deal with Warner Bros. Records and in August 1978, released his debut album, Ain't Living Long Like This.

His debut album, as well as his following two albums, But What Will the Neighbors Think and Rodney Crowell, were not commercially successful despite garnering a huge cult following.

Crowell himself criticized his debut album for not translating onto vinyl the same clarity and energy he felt in the studio.

His single "Ashes by Now" from "But What Will the Neighbors Think" reached No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980.

Though he had already several country hits by artists covering his songs (including "I Ain't Living Long Like This" by Waylon Jennings, "Leaving Louisiana..." by the Oak Ridge Boys, and several covers by Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Reed and others), Crowell got his first big taste of pop songwriting success with "Shame on the Moon".

The album Rodney Crowell was released in 1981 (see 1981 in country music) by Warner Bros. Records and was his last album on that label before switching to Columbia.

The first album Crowell produced by himself, it reached No. 47 on the Top Country Albums chart and No. 105 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

The songs "Stars on the Water" and "Victim or a Fool" were released as singles.

"Stars on the Water" reached No. 30 on the Hot Country Songs chart, Crowell's highest charting song up to that point.

It peaked at No. 21 on the Canadian country charts.

"Victim or a Fool" reached No. 34 in the U.S.

In 1981, Crowell put his career on hold to produce several of his wife Rosanne Cash's albums.

"Shame on the Moon" was recorded on the 1982 album The Distance by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

Glenn Frey joined Seger on background harmony on the song.

Appealing to a broad cross-section of listeners, the song spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, topped the adult contemporary chart, and placed in the Top 15 of the country chart in early 1983.

The song's dark, poetic and hypnotic style helped boost Crowell's cult status.

In 1983, Crystal Gayle had a number one country single with his song "'Til I Gain Control Again" from her first Elektra album, True Love.

In 1984, Crowell returned to working on his own music career and recorded what was to be a new album for Warner Bros., Street Language.

That album, a pop-sounding effort co–produced by David Malloy, was rejected by Warner Bros, and was rejected by the label and never released.

Warner Bros. requested a more Nashville-friendly record, but Crowell negotiated a release from his contract and moved to Columbia Records.

After producing Rosanne Cash's Rhythm & Romance, Crowell signed to Columbia Records in 1986.

Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt.

He has also written songs and produced for other artists.

He was influenced by songwriters Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.

Crowell played guitar and sang for three years in Emmylou Harris' Hot Band.

He has won two Grammy Awards in his career, one in 1990 for Best Country Song for the song "After All This Time" and one in 2014 Best Americana Album for his album Old Yellow Moon.