Rodney Crowell
World Cafe Live
Philadelphia, Pa
8/24/2018
First of all it is great to see and hear Rodney Crowell out on tour. He sounds great. The show was opened by Joe Robinson. A singer songwriter from Australia who we will probably be hearing a lot about. Man, what a guitar player.
The Rodney Crowell part of the show started with Joe Robinson on guitar and Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle and mandolin. Rodney very quickly got into “Glasgow Girl” one of my favorite Rodney Crowell songs. “Earthbound” from Fate’s Right Hand another favorite was next. Another from Fate’s Right Hand “Ridin’ Out the Storm” was next and it occurred to me that I could hear the influence of Rodney’s friends Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Don’t get me wrong, nothing copied but you can hear the songwriting history and yes, I love it. By the way, there were a couple Guy Clark fans in the audience wearing their Guyote t-shirts. 
Rodney then introduced “It Ain’t Over Yet” saying he realized when writing it that it was a three way conversation between himself at a young age, Guy Clark as an older man, and his friend and Guy’s wife Susanna at middle age. What a great song. Oh yeah, so far did I fail to mention what a really great songwriter Rodney Crowell is….well he is.
Introducing one of the last songs Rodney said it was one of the best songs written and works everywhere except China. He realized after singing the song in Ireland once that having the audience sing the chorus was the only way to sing the song but the Chinese let him down. The Townes Van Zandt song Pancho and Lefty followed with the audience singing the chorus. Honestly, I think Philadelphia let him down.
Eleanore Rigby was the first encore song and it reminded me that he encored once before when I was shooting him with a cover. That time it was “Like a Rolling Stone” and later I mentioned to Rodney that with it he totally blew away the Philly Folk Fest audience. He remembered and said that it was a really tight band that night. Well, Eleanore Rigby at World cafe Live was also a fantastic way to close a concert. But that wasn’t all folks. He closed with “Leaving Louisana In The Broad Daylight” with McLoughlin’s fiddle sounding straight out of the bayou. Fantastic.
Rodney Crowell is one of our great songwriters. He can sing, he can play, and he usually has fantastic musicians on stage supporting him. Catch him if you can.
Mark J. Smith
www.photosmithdigital.com
