Rodney Crowell
Album: Tarpaper Sky
Label: North West
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.rodneycrowell.com

Rodney's long and illustrious career takes another step forward with the release of his latest self-produced solo album, which follows fast on the heels of his award-winning collaboration with Emmylou Harris, 2013's Old Yellow Moon. It's a classic-sounding collection of contemporary country.

Work on this album was started back in 2010, when Rodney gathered in the studio a trusty band of musicians comprising three of those who'd played with him on his 1988 breakthrough album Diamonds And Dirt - guitarist Stuart Smith, bass player Michael Rhodes and drummer Eddie Bayers - a creative reunion indeed, and one which provides a rich continuity with Rodney's earlier work. He also brings in guest contributions from vocalists Vince Gill, Shannon McNally, John Cowan and Ronnie McCoury and instrumentalists Jerry Douglas, Fats Kaplin and Will Kimbrough, so you can expect quality shot through from the word go.

Although the songs themselves are new, there's a feeling of warm familiarity to this record, which moves companionably from the timeless wanderlust of The Long Journey Home and the delicate, plaintive God, I'm Missing You to the fiery Jerry-Lee rock'n'roll of Frankie Please, the rockabilly gospel of Jesus Talk To Mama and the straight-up lonesome passion of the country waltzer I Wouldn't Be Me Without You, while the measured, rock-steady cajun choogle of Fever On The Bayou neatly sidesteps cliché and the catchy tribute of The Flyboy And The Kid alludes to Rodney's kinship (relationship) with Guy Clark, in whose company (the early 70s Nashville community) he spent some of his formative years as a songwriter.

The easy-rolling troubadour vibe of Oh What A Beautiful World (complete with Country Roads-soundalike harmonica solo) makes for a useful closer to the project. Maybe only the R&B vibe of Somebody's Shadow doesn't quite score for me, but all in all, Tarpaper Sky is a predictably honourable record that celebrates Rodney's sheer consistency as a writer and performer and again demonstrates his oft-proven all-round true-American sensibility.

David Kidman