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Arts & Entertainment

Rodney Crowell's Record Release Celebration - 2 SHOWS - Live at Eddie's Attic!

Grammy Award-winner, RODNEY CROWELL, and New York Times best-selling author, Mary Karr, released KIN, SONGS BY MARY KARR AND RODNEY CROWELL on Vanguard Records June 5, 2012. Produced by Joe Henry, KIN marks the first collaboration between the two writers and is Karr's entry into the world of music.  Rodney Crowell celebrates the release live at Eddie's Attic, and accompanied by an acoustic trio & special guests.

Long known as a poet among songwriters, Crowell is a masterful storyteller and hit generator. He charted five consecutive number-one hits with the album Diamonds and Dirt and has become one of the most critically acclaimed artists in country music. Crowell’s songs have been recorded by the likes of Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Norah Jones. He was recently inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame between Willie Nelson and Guy Clark. After reading Karr’s memoirs — Cherryand The Liar’s Club — which spent over a year on the New York Times bestsellers list and allegedly kick-started the memoir craze — Crowell name-checked her in “Earthbound,” a track off his critically acclaimed album Fate's Right Hand.

As an artist, RODNEY CROWELL, is all skin and membrane. He wants to feel everything – sucking the world in and filtering it out again through words and music. It's a precarious way to live, but it works for him. You can feel that edge in his latest album, Sex & Gasoline. 

The CD was recorded in quick live sessions with the fabled producer, Joe Henry, a brilliant musician and songwriter in his own right. (I refer to you the attached email dialogue between Rodney and Joe to learn about the genesis of the album and the story of their inspired collaboration.)

Sex & Gasoline is a collection of songs about women –- lovers, daughters, friends, Madonnas and whores -- often told from an imagined female point of view. A Montana blizzard couldn't put Rodney Crowell in any more peril, not in this sexual/political climate. But his craftsmanship is so fine-tuned that he manages to pull off a song like "The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design" that begins: "If I could have just one wish, maybe for an hour, I'd want to be a woman, and feel that phantom power…." 

Rodney says that "Intelligent Design" and the title song, "Sex & Gasoline," wrap up a cycle of what he calls "manifestos" – songs of social commentary that grew out of his struggle to come to terms with the new millennium. But it's the second stanza of "Intelligent Design" that reveals the theme he's been exploring all along: "Maybe I could find out if I'm a half decent man, or if I'm just a joke…" In the end, by adopting a woman's point of view, he tackles what it means to be a father, a husband, a friend. A man. It's no accident that the album lands on the simple, wry and beautiful song, "Closer to Heaven." It starts out as a rant by a grumpy imaginary narrator and breaks into a heartfelt catalogue of the things that matter most to Rodney Crowell: "I love my friends, I love my wife. Four little babies, are the light of my life…" 

Here are some things you probably already know about Rodney Crowell. In 1977, he formed his own group, The Cherry Bombs, and in 1978 released his first album, Ain't Living Long Like This. 

In 1988 he released Diamonds and Dirt, which generated an unprecedented five number-one singles, including "It's Such a Small World," with Rosanne Cash, his wife and partner at the time. They split up in 1992, but they are still friends. 

His acclaimed autobiographical album, The Houston Kid, in 2001 marked his break from the constraints of mainstream record labels. 

There have been some awards along the way: Rodney won a Grammy in 1989 for the Best Country Song: "After all This Time." He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. After he re-formed The Notorious Cherry Bombs in 2004 with his old pal Vince Gill, the band was nominated for a CMA Top Vocal Group award.

Hundreds of versions of his songs have been recorded over the years.

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