Rodney Crowell

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Wednesday night I went to see Rodney Crowell perform at the Mucky Duck.

Rodney played two sold-out shows. I was able to make the late show (which was packed) with the standing-room only crowd spilling out the back door onto the patio.

Rodney was joined on stage by Will Kimbrough. Will expertly accompanied Rodney on guitar and added some strong harmony vocals as well. He was even called on to channel Johnny Cash on Crowell's hit song "Walk the Line (Revisited)". Kimbrough really shone, however, when he offered up a few of his own songs mixed in during the set. His new song "Hill Country Girl" is definitely a keeper.

The "Houston Kid" and "Brother Kimbrough" played a great set that featured a number of hard-driving and rocking tunes as well as some intimate and introspective songs.

Highlights from their set included: "Telephone Road" (preceded by a humorous introduction from Rodney detailing his childhood memories of attic fans, Houston heat, mosquitoes and DDT fumes), "I ain't living long like this", "What Kind of Love" (a song Rodney completed from a fragment left by the late Roy Orbison), "I Walk the Line-Revisited", "Fate's Right Hand", "It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chew your ass out all day long" (a song that Rodney co-wrote with Vince Gill...while it may not be "the perfect country and western song" it certainly has some of the funniest lyrics), "Preaching to the Choir", and a rocking version of "Wandering Boy".

All in all a great show. I'm looking forward to the next time that the "Houston Kid" comes back to town.