"Big Grin",indeed! Ever seen the "songwriters special" on PBS that has Willie Nelson,Lyle Lovette,Emmy Lou,and Rodney Crowell (sp?)? Stuff like that is why you won't be hearing ME calling for PBS to be taken off the air! Crowell has a song with a title something like "I stopped loving her today" that is so deep-rooted in the country blues and so honest that it just tears your heart out and stomps on it. He made the comment that he wrote it after his divorce,and even thought all the people on the stage were his friends and had surely heard him do it before,his rendidition was so powerful they just sat stunned and silent for a moment when he ended. This reminded me of "Dandy Don" Meredith's description of Hank Williams Sr music as being "music to slash your wrists by".
He was an early member of Emmylou's "Hot Band"
(She's never forgot the advice she received from her mentor/lover, Gram Parsons, who said, "Buy the best band you can (or can't) afford".....and she always has)
He is also the greatest C&W songwriter of his generation.
He and Emmylou wrote a song that closes her third album, Luxury Liner, called "Tulsa Queen" that is such a lonesome, heartbreaking, train-song, that even Hank Williams would've cried.
(because he didn't write it)
His first album (which I don't think has surfaced on CD) was called Ain't Living Long Like This and the title song is a "Memphis Sound" rockabilly that positively will make you get up and dance.
Going to go see Lyle with Bonnie Raitt in a couple of weeks. Outdoor amphitheater, seats about 50' from stage center. I can't wait, should be a great show. I've seen them both, seperately, and together ought to be even better. First saw Bonnie in the mid-70's; man!, this aging thing sucks, but I guess it beats the alternative.
There's a rebroadcast ACL with Emmylou and Rodney starting RIGHT NOW on CMT.