Rodney Crowell

Rodney Crowell
Crowell onstage at Whelan's, Dublin, January 2009
Background information
Born	(1950-08-07) August 7, 1950 (age 66) Crosby, Texas, United States
Genres	Country, Americana, Country Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, record producer, performer, music director
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1972–present
Labels	Warner Bros., Columbia, MCA, Sugar Hill, Epic, Yep Roc, New West
Associated acts	Rosanne Cash, Steuart Smith, Emmylou Harris, the Cicadas, The Notorious Cherry Bombs, Los Super Seven
Website	Official Site

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

Crowell was born on August 7, 1950 in Crosby, Texas, to James Walter Crowell and Addie Cauzette Willoughby (Chinaberry Sidewalks, New York: Knopf, 2011). He had come 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 starting 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.