Filed under: Musical Notes | Tags: Americana, Craig Cummings, Emmylou Harris, live performance, music, Rodney Crowell, songwriting
In the mid-1970s, I was a twenty-something singer-songwriter whose songs were properly categorized as country rock. As I continue to write and perform in the mid-2010s, my music is now called Americana. Same style, different descriptors. And just as country rock was one of the major genres of that time, so is Americana one of the most popular forms of music today. Along the way, I ventured into other musical genres, but I never could really escape the kind of music I was meant to make. I think this is true of many artists who have continued to write and perform over the past 30-odd years.
I was thinking about this as I am preparing to attend a concert tonight featuring Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. They just released a new recording, Old Yellow Moon, to rave reviews. Emmylou featured Rodney’s writing on her debut solo alum, Pieces of the Sky. Rodney then joined her in two subsequent releases, Luxury Liner in 1977, and Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town in 1978. On these latter two albums, Rodney is part of the legendary Hot Band, featuring James Burton, Emory Gordy, Hank DiVito, Albert Lee, and others. I still listen to these recordings on a fairly regular basis because I never tire of listening to their voices together.
Maybe they felt the same way just before they decided to embark on their current musical project. The country rock darlings of the mid-1970s have become the Americana Heroes of today, and my instincts tell me it must be because through all the musical twists and turns they’ve experienced, Emmylou and Rodney realized just how good they are together. And, that the music on Old Yellow Moon is the music they were meant to make.
Back in 2008 or so, I started writing songs without trying to be anything in particular – not country, not folk, not pop. What came out was a sound similar to the sound I began with in the mid-1970s. I realized that this is who I am, because it just comes out that way – effortlessly. Not that songwriting isn’t work…but the feel of what I’m creating doesn’t take effort. It just takes letting go.
Listening to Emmylou and Rodney sing on Old Yellow Moon, I am inclined to think that they sound so good together because they are just letting go. That country rock stuff they wrote and performed a few decades ago is now Americana music. But really…it’s just who they are, and what they were meant to do.
See you at the show – if you’re lucky.
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