In 2020,
Rodney Crowell was booked to appear on the Cayamo Cruise, an upscale roots music festival at sea, and he happened to meet
Jeff Tweedy of
Wilco, another performer on the cruise. A conversation confirmed the pair were a mutual admiration society, and
Tweedy suggested
Crowell should come to Chicago sometime and do some recording at the Loft,
Wilco's Windy City rehearsal space and private studio.
Crowell took him up on the offer and the result was 2023's
The Chicago Sessions. With
Tweedy as producer working on his own turf, some might wonder if he would try to impose his twangy but skewed indie rock sensibility on
Crowell and his songs, and while that might have been an interesting mix, that was not at all the case. Instead,
Tweedy -- smart enough to know
Crowell is a great songwriter who has been making fine records for decades -- let the artist follow his lead, and the result is a gem, one of
Crowell's most purely enjoyable albums, capturing him in excellent form as a writer and a performer.
The Chicago Sessions sounds loose without being the least bit sloppy;
Crowell and his musicians deliver performances that are relaxed but confident, documenting the intimacy of a band connecting in the moment, and it's effective and powerfully satisfying.
Tom Schick's engineering is excellent, catching the organic sound of a band playing together in a good-sounding room, and you can feel the way the guitars and drums fill the space around them. The band features three players
Crowell brought with him from Texas (guitarist
Jedd Hughes, keyboardist
Catherine Marx, and bassist
Zachariah Hickman), two Chicago-based drummers (
John Perrine and
Jeff's son
Spencer Tweedy), and
Tweedy pitching in on guitar, banjo, and a guest vocal on "Everything at Once." It's a genuine pleasure to hear these musicians interact, never forcing one another's hand but consistently bringing out the best in each other. And it's an established fact
Crowell is one of the best songwriters in roots music. Whether he's sounding loose and lively on "Lucky" and "Somebody Loves You," pondering the mysteries of romance in "Making Lovers Out of Friends" and "You're Supposed to Be Feeling Good," or making sense of life's complexities in "Ready to Move On," he sounds wise while knowing how much he doesn't know, and his voice gets his stories across beautifully, hitting the sweet spot between artfulness and plainspoken honesty. The cover of
Townes Van Zandt's "No Place to Fall" is superb, the work of one songwriter recognizing and celebrating the brilliance of a master of the form.
The Chicago Sessions is a splendid example of
Rodney Crowell doing what he does best, with some help from a guy who knows how to get him to play to his strengths; it's
Crowell at his smart and soulful best. ~ Mark Deming
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