For Crowell, music is a commitment that deepened with time
NEW YORK (AP) — Rodney Crowell's tender lyrics about a woman with "hair two shades of foxtail red" in a song that features ex-wife Rosanne Cash makes it an easy leap to assume that he's singing about her.
[...] Crowell, whose new album "Close Ties" is sure to be one of the year's cornerstone releases in the Americana genre, insists he had others in mind while writing "It Ain't Over Yet."
Susanna Clark was a straight-talking muse for many aspiring Nashville songwriters in the 1970s who figured if she liked one of their songs, they must be on to something, Crowell explained.
Crowell understands why people might think he was talking about Cash, who appears on record with her for only the second time since their 12-year marriage broke up in 1992 (he sang backup on a song on her most recent album).
Crowell recalls pawing through some albums at home and coming upon his own "Diamonds and Dirt" from 1988, which yielded five No. 1 country singles.
After taking five years off at the turn of the century, Crowell returned as a focused writer, digging deep into his heart and leaving few wasted words.
In "I Don't Care Anymore" he sings: "All those party dolls and favors that I savored from day one add up to next to nothing after all is said and done."
Like most people his age, 66, Crowell is affected by loved ones lost — the Clarks, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen — and it's reflected in his music.