Rodney Crowell: Airline Highway

The best entries in Rodney Crowell's twenty-plus entry discography emphasize simplicity in material, musicianship and production. As such, Airline Highway has much in common with But What Will the Neighbors Think (Warner Bros., 1980) and The Chicago Sessions (New West, 2023).

Unlike (too) many contemporary country artists, Crowell does not affect a pose. Instead, he proffers himself as an intelligent and discerning soul who has learned much from living life to the fullest (without belaboring the specifics).Layered arrangements such as that of "Sometime Thang" thus match the multi-faceted persona of a man who produced albums for ex-wife Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny) after his membership in Emmylou Harris' Hot Band.

In that track, dobro leavens acoustic guitar picking as much as lyrical images conjure a vivid portrait of the character Crowell is describing. Meanwhile, Conrad Choucroun's drums, fused to Rachel Loy's bass, generate understated propulsion for the performance. Producer/musician Tyler Bryant might've brought in his own band The Shakedown to play here, but camaraderie nonetheless abounds within the corps of accompanists on Airline Highway.

In that context then, the ostensible selling points of appearances by Lukas Nelson ("Rainy Days in California"), Larkin Poe ("Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay") and Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr ("Heaven Can Help You") do not really add a distinctive imprimatur to the tracks on which they appear, at least in comparison to the laconic delivery of Crowell himself.

Electric guitars and Catherine Marx' piano on "Some Kind of Woman" perk up the ears to hear descriptive verse of another acquaintance of the author's: that ( same?) individual's personality traits are as colorful as the instrumentation. While this record is not so deeply autobiographical as some previous works of Crowell's such as Tarpaper Sky (New West, 2014) or Triage (RC1, 2021), it is nonetheless personal and resonates as such emotionally speaking as much as the crisp accompaniment does instrumentally.

Recorded and mixed by Trina Shoemaker—who has worked extensively with the The Wood Brothers in that same capacity—there is, for instance, no sense of the impersonal orchestration that blemished Close Ties (New West Records, 2017). On the contrary, the violin, viols and cello of Eleanor Denig are restrained and economical on "Somewhere Down The Road;" rendering the track as intimate in its own way as the lap steel of Megan Lovell on "Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay" or the flourishes of electric fretboard chording (by David Grissom or Bryant?).

The solemnity with which Rodney Crowell delivers "Simple (You Wouldn't Call It Simple)" rescues the words from cliche as artfully as the upbeat tongue-in-cheek of "The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon)" helps pace the ten songs. And the stalwart attitude with which Crowell presents himself vocally on "Don't Give Up On Me" suits the resolute verbiage: it's not necessary to know the specific source(s) of inspiration for the song to appreciate the wisdom the author gleaned from it.

There is no braggadocio in this man's original material, so the humility that underscores the topical themes of "Heaven Can You Help" is unmistakable. As such, Rodney Crowell is actually no one but himself on Airline Highway, even wearing the accoutrements of an Old West maverick in the front cover image. From start to finish of these forty-some minutes, he comes across with a no-nonsense but good-natured candor.

And, in conjunction with this entire ensemble of versatile collaborators, the Houston, Texas native manages to transcend glib musical categorizations such as 'contemporary country' in a fashion that is equal parts frank, forthright and winning.

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