Failed bull-rider turned seminal songwriter, Rodney Crowell is regarded as a Texas troubadour, trailblazing icon, and songwriter that good songwriters reverently admire.

Alongside his well-decorated career as a performing artist, one that has awarded him multiple Grammy’s and fifteen number-one hits, Crowell has written songs covered by artists ranging from Johnny Cash to the Grateful Dead. The gravity of his talent and prolific body of work is made all the more interesting in the context of life-long friendships that shaped the path of his songs and career. Waylon Jennings, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Etta James, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Jeff Tweedy, Foghat, Vince Gill, Jimmy Buffet, Bob Seger, and John Denver are a few examples of the ever-expanding list of friends and artists he has worked with or who have taken one of his songs and made it their own.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, he made his way to Nashville and fell in with the rough and sensitive songwriting scene of the 70s comprised of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle… you get the picture. Forty years on, Crowell is now cited as one of the chief architects of Americana music.

Beyond his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and his magnate status among his songwriting peers, Crowell has branched into the literary world during his career. First with his acclaimed memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks, and next with his album KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell, he has found his way around the review section of the New York Times. Karr, the New York Times best-selling author and titan of haunting colloquialism said of working with her cohort; “Like Hank Williams or Townes Van Zandt or Miss Lucinda, he writes and croons with a poet’s economy and a well digger’s deep heart.”

Crowell was honored with ASCAP’s prestigious Founder’s Award in 2017. That same year released the album Close Ties, which spawned another Grammy nomination for “It Ain’t Over Yet” with Rosanne Cash and John Paul White in the category of Best Americana Song. 2019’s Texas was a collection of Lone Star-centric collaborations with Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, Ronnie Dunn, Steve Earle and more.

In 2023 Crowell released the Jeff Tweedy produced record The Chicago Sessions which added to the running tally of Grammy nominations.

Crowell lives in Tennessee with his wife Claudia, has four daughters, and laments a long list of beloved dogs who left him too soon. He grows squash, tomatoes, green beans, and sunflowers in the summer, tunes in when the Olympics come around, writes every day, has material for a hundred years worth of records, and prefers his technology uncomplicated.