![]() ![]() And a backstory leading up to the song, which is probably my most successful - not the most recorded, but probably, you know, it was No. With "Shame on the Moon," I draw attention to three different versions of it, because I wasn't happy with the last verse, and I explain why that happened. Certainly, when I was younger and inexperienced, I would tap into the inspiration that would hit me, you know, sort of like the lightning bolt or, you know, catching it in a bottle or whatever. Going through your own work a song at a time like this, does it give you any new perspective on the different eras of your own career? Not dismissive, but you don't seem to relish or have a real pridefulness about a lot of your own work, because you're still revising so much of it. You've been famously critical of your own work. If that's what you want to know about me, you might get frustrated with me in the beginning, because I'm gonna make you sit through what I want you to sit through to get to the better-known songs. That was the beginning, and of course, I needed to steer the narrative toward the well-known songs. So, I started with songs that I'm proud of, and things that I think that I succeeded in saying in my own unique way. I certainly didn't want to lead with that, because I don't think that's really my modus operandi. I have a section in there called "Chart Toppers," which is the more well-known songs, the hit songs that I've written. ![]() But I just went with the ones that I like, and I started. I can't seem to get past the first three in order to count them up on my fingers. Depending on who you talk to, I may have 20 albums, and maybe have been part of 22 or 24. I don't know how many songs I have recorded. How many total songs do you have that you've had recorded? And how do you winnow down to the ones that are in the book? I'm working all the time, but I never pat myself on the back for having some focused intentionality about my work. I had a lot of raw material, and I've found that once I start one of these projects, they seem to take on a life of their own and get themselves made despite my lack of any really admirable work ethic, although I do enjoy working. I did manage to hang onto those, for no good reason other than they just made it from one house to the next. But I have notebooks going back to the early 1970s. And so, I set about, and you know, I've never been a really careful archivist of my own work. I enjoy that." Strangely, I like the singular experience of sitting down, trying to put sentences together that actually work. I immediately said, "I could try to write a little prose to go with it, too, which would be fun for me. "You can do it," you know, is what I said to myself. It was like a weather pattern that just formed, but sometime last fall, for no reason that I can really point to, it just popped into my head to document this 45 years of writing lyrics. Having written a memoir that took me 10 years to write, this happened really quickly. Rodney Crowell: Strangely, not that long. ![]() How did you conceive this project? And how long has it been in the works? ![]() Taste of Country: This is a very, very ambitious project. The songwriting icon called back about ten minutes after we left a voice mail message about his scheduled interview, sheepishly admitting that while the conversation was on his schedule, "somehow it came across the desk I wasn't sitting at. The book is illustrated with a series of candid photos, pro shots, handwritten lyrics and more, featuring a cover shot from Marty Stuart.Ĭrowell comes across much the same way in conversation as he does in print his easygoing manner and self-deprecating humor have a way of making an interviewer forget they're talking to a musical legend and relax into a conversation that does not feel like an advertisement for whatever new project he's promoting. He shares the lyrics to many of his best-known songs, some lesser-known works and even some unreleased songs that fans have not heard, providing a fascinating look inside the work process of one of the most meticulous and revered songwriters in Nashville history. His story of Walker's attempted canine theft is one of a series of anecdotes that share glimpses into Crowell's personal journey through his early struggles, the peak of his Nashville stardom and his later decision to focus exclusively on his own tastes at the expense of larger commercial success. ![]()
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