Rodney Crowell on new album ‘Airline Highway’ – and the song he’s been trying to finish for 30 years

After 50-odd years in the music business, the award-winning Rodney Crowell has a new album out called “Airline Highway.”

The Houston-born singer-songwriter stopped by our studios last week and talked about how, the way the music business is going, there’s almost a disincentive for established artists to record new material these days – but his fans keep coming back for more.

Inevitably, our conversation turned to how he got his start in the country music scene much different from what it is now: a scene that allowed talented young upstarts like Crowell to rub shoulders with legends like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. 

“Guy Clark was very instrumental. First of all, my father was very inspirational for me because he knew countless songs, so I heard them growing up,” Crowell said. “So when I got to Nashville and I fell into a songwriting salon where – you mentioned Townes Van Zandt and Guy; Mickey Newbury was around from time to time; Steve Earle came through there – it was all, you know, 11 p.m. till 4 a.m., or to dawn.

“And Guy is the best self-editor I’ve ever come across. And by that I mean Guy would elbow out lines that other songwriters would give their arm to come up with. And I said, ‘Guy, why’d you throw that away?’ He said, ‘Because it doesn’t fit the narrative.’ I learned a lot about that.

“But at the same time, I witnessed Townes tapping into … wherever inspiration comes from. Townes was mystical in that way, and Guy was more practical.”

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Crowell said both rubbed off on him.

“There are times I have awakened and written a song nearly in full form, recorded it on a little recorder beside the bed and gone back to sleep and woke up and found it – that has happened,” he said. “And at the same time, I’ve spent 30 years trying to finish a song.”

That’s been the case with one of his biggest songs, “Shame on the Moon,” released in 1981.

“I’m still working on it; honestly, I am,” he said. “Someday I’m gonna solve that last verse.”

“Airline Highway” is a note to the state of Louisiana, Crowell said.

“Considering that I’ve written ‘Stars on the Water,’ ‘Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight,’ ‘Fever on the Bayou,’ I’ve put Louisiana on the map, and they owe me some love,” he laughed. “So now I’ve gone down and made a whole album there.”

It was while recording his last album, “The Chicago Sessions” with Jeff Tweedy, that Crowell met with producer Tyler Bryant and engineer Trina Shoemaker and told them he wanted to record in Louisiana.

“Trina held up her hand, she said, ‘I know the perfect studio down there; it’s called Dockside. If we don’t get eaten by alligators, we’ll make a good record,'” he said. “We were driving down with a van full of gear; it was like we were a teenage band or something. I saw this sign that said Airline Highway, which is a stretch from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. And where I grew up in Houston, there was an Airline Drive.

“I said to Tyler, ‘hey, the Airline Highway, this reminds me of my childhood. I think we’re gonna call the album Airline Highway.’ And it stuck, it never got away from me.

“But I did Google ‘Airline Highway.’ I thought it had something to do with aeronautical engineering or something, but it’s not. It’s just a straight line from one destination to another – but it is the last leg of Highway 61, the southernmost leg of Highway 61. So I slid into Dylan territory without having to steal anything from him.”

Crowell will be back out on the road next month, with tour dates in Houston and Dallas in early November. Check out the full conversation with him, plus musical performances, in the video above.

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