| Product Summary | | Label: Sugar Hill | | UPC: 00015891106526 | | Release Date: 2/13/2001 | | Buy.com Sku: 60453870 | | Item#: MTRY2G | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Telephone Road ~ Rodney Crowell |  | | 2. Rock Of My Soul, The ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 3. Why Don't We Talk About It ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 4. I Wish It Would Rain ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 5. Wandering Boy ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 6. I Walk The Line (Revisted) - (featuring Johnny Cash) ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 7. Highway 17 ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 8. U Don't Know How Much I Hate U ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 9. Banks Of The Old Bandera ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 10. Topsy Turvy ~ Rodney Crowell | | | 11. I Know Love Is All I Need ~ Rodney Crowell | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel includes: Rodney Crowell (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, percussion); Pat Buchanan (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar); Johnny Cash, John Cowan (vocals); Steuart Smith (electric guitar, mandolin, autoharp, harmonium, harmonica); Robbie Turner (steel guitar, dobro); Benmont Tench (electric piano); John Hobbs (organ); Michael Rhodes (bass); Paul Leim (drums, percussion); Greg Morrow (drums). | | Engineers: Peter Coleman, JIm Dineen, Donivan Cowart. | | Recorded at Treasure Isle, Berry Hill, Tennessee; The Sound Kitchen, Franklin, Tennessee; The Tree House, Forest Hills, Tennessee; Deepfield, West Nashville, Tennessee. | | Personnel: Rodney Crowell (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion); Pat Buchanan (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); John Cowan, Johnny Cash, Vince Santoro (vocals); Steuart Smith (electric guitar, autoharp, mandolin, harmonica, harmonium); John Jorgenson, Kenny Greenberg (electric guitar); Robby Turner (steel guitar, dobro); Kenny Vaughn (flamenco guitar); Hunter Lee (pipe); Charlie McCoy (harmonica); John Hobbs (electric piano, organ, keyboards, sampler); Benmont Tench (electric piano); Steve Conn (organ); Tim Lauer (keyboards); Paul Leim (drums, percussion); Greg Morrow, Ian Wallace, Chad Cromwell (drums). | | Audio Mixers: David Thoener; Peter Coleman. | | At least impressionistically, this is a soundtrack to a documentary about the life of Rodney Crowell, who grew up in East Houston (the same neighborhood as the Ghetto Boys, but 25 years earlier), a rough and rumble neighborhood lying in the shadows of downtown Houston. It also happens to be the finest record Crowell has recorded since Diamonds & Dirt, and it's better than that one by a mile. After being tossed off by the major labels, it took a big-time indie like Sugar Hill -- a label founded to showcase bluegrass artists (but also home to many fine singer/songwriters including Crowell's running mate and inspiration Guy Clark) -- to release The Houston Kid. The album comes off as a song cycle; first, in "Telephone Road," the atmosphere is painted onto a backdrop. Showcasing the dark underbelly's finest sights, smells, sounds, and tastes, it's a country shuffle that moves ahead straightforwardly offering the stage for the creation of a rounder. On "The Rock of My Soul," Crowell tells all about the boy growing up in such circumstances. Fact and fiction are interwoven in a moving narrative that has plenty of twang and punch. Steel guitars and acoustic Fenders carry the melody along until the story reaches its nadir. "Why Don't We Talk About It" is Crowell's "accept me as I am because this is the real me" narrative. The band sounds like Rockpile playing country music. Truly, the backing vocals and the mix could be pure Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. Crowell has always hidden his brashness under a sheen of Nashville style, which is why his songs always sounded truer coming out of other people's mouths. But that's not the case here. It feels raw and immediate, full of something he's never revealed before. "I Wish It Would Rain" is a folk/country song so down and out that it could have been written by deceased writers Townes Van Zandt or Blaze Foley (both Texans and both friends of Crowell). It's a confessional. There is no braggadocio, no posturing. It's a song of regret but not remorse. The guitars are spare, just enough of a skeleton to hang the lyric on, and as he spills his tale of woe, the listener becomes as haunted as the protagonist is hunted. The craziest moment is Crowell's rewiring of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." With an electric country-blues shuffle (? la Merle Haggard), Crowell tells the story of how he first heard the song, and then Cash himself comes in on a completely rewritten narrative and chorus! Cash reportedly told Crowell he had a lot of nerve to rewrite his classic song, to which Crowell brazenly replied, "Yes sir." Though the record closes two songs later, "Banks of the Old Bandera" is where it could have -- and maybe should have -- the first song Crowell ever wrote. Author Tom Robbins told him he should write a bunch more songs and tour them in art galleries! Thank God he didn't. The Houston Kid offers listeners Rodney Crowell the performer in a way they've never heard before; the songwriter who has been been missing in Nashville for quite some time is back. ~ Thom Jurek |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 02/13/2001 | | Original Release Date : 2001 | | Catalog ID : 1065 | | Label : Sugar Hill Records | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00015891106526 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (3/29/01, p.60)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A successful attempt to get a little realer...than the Nashville norm....With Crowell's uncommonly light and easy vocals negotiating the reality riddles with something like grace, HOUSTON KID has the aura of an old pro meditatin gon his past..."Entertainment Weekly (2/9/01, p.79)
- "...A song cycle based on [his] childhood, it rocks hard and is deeply moving - maybe the best album ever from the gifted singer-songwriter." - Rating: A- Q (4/01, p.98)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "...Quite possibly his best work yet....this is personal material but with almost universal appeal..." Dirty Linen (4-5/01, p.81)
- "...Another testament to his staying power as a compelling musical storyteller..." Mojo (Publisher)
(4/01, p.93)
- "...Dark at times, [this album] never disappears beneath the gloom. There are flashes of humor, touches of tenderness..." |
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