Dylan@80: An Evening with Rodney Crowell

We will celebrate the close of the first day of Dylan@80 with a special keynote event featuring award-winning songwriter and chart-topping performer Rodney Crowell.  He’ll join journalist Jeff Slate for an hour-long conversation on about what makes Dylan’s work so unique–and so influential.  The event will be free-flowing and offer an insider’s view of Crowell’s own writing process and how it has been shaped by his own deep dives into Dylan’s ever-changing, ever-evolving work.  This will give us all a chance to step back from narrow academic questions in order to better understand how Dylan’s work continues to shape that of other artists to form part of a living, expanding tradition.

Crowell himself will shortly release a new album called Triage–his 18th studio release and third to appear on his own label, RC1 Records.  After moving to Nashville in 1972 and performing with the likes of Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill, he released his first album, Ain’t Living Long Like This.  He has since gone on to become one of our great songwriters, penning hits ranging from “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” to “After All This Time.”  Over the course of an endlessly productive career he has won two Grammy awards, six Americana Music Association awards, and the Poet’s Award from the Academy of Country Music.  He’s stacked up 15 number-one hits and has written songs with and for Etta James, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and the Grateful Dead among many others.

Crowell’s newest album was written during the great political, climate and economic upheaval that has marked recent years. The noise of that chaos encouraged the songwriter to go inside for solace and answers. The result is this series of songs that contend with these themes but approach them from a place of healing love and solution. To get ready for this special event, take a look at the video for the first single, “Something Has to Change.”