Rodney Crowell - Airline Highway

Airline Highway finds Rodney Crowell more than five decades into a career defined by other people's biggest hits, still writing with the kind of specificity that made him one of Nashville's most respected songwriters rather than just its most successful one.

Crowell came up in Houston alongside Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark before joining Emmylou Harris's Hot Band in 1975, where he wrote songs like Til I Gain Control Again and Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight that became staples of her catalogue before his own solo career fully took off. Five number one singles off 1988's Diamonds & Dirt and two Grammys later, this 2025 record leans on genuine collaboration, guests drawn from across generations of roots and Americana rather than a single obvious lane.

Rainy Days in California brings in Lukas Nelson for a genuinely easy, lived-in duet. Taking Flight pairs Crowell with Ashley McBryde for one of the record's most direct emotional moments. The Twenty-One Song Salute, dedicated to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon, features Tyler Bryant and carries real weight as a tribute to overlooked figures in Louisiana music history, fitting for a writer who's spent his career pulling from that same regional well.

Still writing songs specific enough to matter, more than fifty years into doing exactly that.