Rodney Crowell · @RodneyJCrowell
29th Nov 2014 from TwitLonger
November, 2014
On the evening of November 6, 2014, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Terry Allen, Robert Earl Keen and yours truly gathered, guitars and piano in hand, at Jim McGuire’s photography studio in Nashville. The purpose of the get-together was to celebrate, by way of song and story, Guy’s 73rd birthday. As it happened, a documentary film crew was on hand to record the occasion. Guy performed for the first time in a long while and I was given a chance to acknowledge just how much of a muse Guy’s late wife, Susannah, had been to so many songwriters. The rest of the goings-on made for what somebody in the crew referred to as “outside-the-box entertainment.”
The very next morning I arrived in Shreveport, Louisiana where I made my way onto the set of I Saw The Light. I was happy to find Tom Hiddleston looking Hank Williams gaunt and sounding eerily like some kind of hillbilly poet laureate. Lizzie Olson, Cherry Jones, Bradley Whitford and Maddie Hasson were there and in character and the cameras were rolling. I soon realized that my job as music producer was temporarily done and happily settled into watching these skilled actors bring writer/director Marc Abraham’s screenplay to life.
Before long, I was given a chance to try my own hand at acting. Harshly made-up, a slicked-down haircut reminiscent of my own father’s, and ill-fitted in a drab, brown suit, I spent a day playing (opposite Tom) Lon Williams - Hank Williams’s estranged (some say deadbeat) father. At long last I was able to put the dreaded Crowell/ Willoughby sense of shame and disentitlement to proper use. Thanks to the wardrobe department, genetic memory, the film’s director and lead actor, my portrayal of Lon, I’m told, rang true.
At month’s end I found myself voluntarily at home alone on Thanksgiving Day---which morning broke windy and grey and eventually easing itself into an afternoon tailor made for contemplation. Reflecting on my place in the outer world, one of my favorite passages from the Essene Gospels of Peace, Book II sprang to mind---which I paraphrase out of respect for the female gender: “A man (or woman) who has found their life’s work needs ask for no other blessing.” Pondering these words, I decided to risk in this month’s-end dispatch, the possibility of coming across as cloying or, even worse, calculating. And so, here goes. It is time I officially express a measure of gratitude to the souls out there who keep track of what I say and do via the social media. I, like most middle-class artists these days, recognize that the future of the music business lies in the hands of folks such as you. I feel good about that. Thanks.
Rodney
By the way, across the street from Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium, home of the long-running country music radio show The Louisiana Hayride, stands the James Burton Recording Studio and Museum. You’ve got to love a city that loves James Burton.