2014 Highlights


2014 Highlights

Personal:

My daughters Carrie and Hannah were married in 2014, both to young men I respect and love. What more could a proud father hope for?

I lead a mostly spiritual life. However, I’m skeptical of organized religion and blame its dogma for most of the world’s problems. I had the opportunity to meet Bekka Stevens and R.A. Dickey and to hear them speak at an event in early December during which I performed a couple of songs. I was moved by their stories and gratefully reminded that compassion, charity, service to others, mercy, forgiveness, redemption and non-judgmental love are the basis of the true Christian’s faith. Hearing them articulate the nature of their ministries lifted my spirit and set me to thinking I’m conceivably more judgmental of the politicians and fundamentalists who (I believe) purposefully distort religious ideology for personal gain than (I assume) they are the likes of me. Out in the world there are dutiful church-leaders mindfully tending their flocks. Pope Francis and the aged country preacher who presided over the recent burial of my father’s brother are prime examples. It seems I might've let the rotten apples taint the harvest. (It bears mentioning that Claudia and I were gifted with a subscription to the magazine, “The Sun,” whose in-depth interviews with herbalists, cult leaders, anarchists, professors of ancient Chinese poetry, atheists, environmentalists, and oceanographers, like R.A. Dickey and Bekka Stevens, inspired in me the notion that I need to get on with the job of becoming a better human being.)

In December, I was privileged to participate in the Casey Lee Ball Foundation’s charity event benefitting UCLA’s organ transplant research program. Notwithstanding walking my daughters down the matrimonial aisle, performing an acoustic set at the Casey Lee Ball fundraiser was my finest hour.

I’m personally happy for my wife, Claudia Church, who recently completed with Canadian best-selling author, Guy Scholz, her first foray into the world of book writing. Advance e-books and soft cover copies of The Masterpiece Within are available at BalboaPress.com. The official release is February.

Entertainment and such:

Orenda by Joseph Boyden, Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin, The Son by Philipp Meyer, Henry James’ Turn of the Screw and A Tale of Two Cities (finally) are the books I most enjoyed reading. I read a great deal of poetry as well. Wilfred Owen, CK Williams and Carol Ann Duffy were my favorite new discoveries.

Blake Mills’s “Heigh Ho,” “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music” by Sturgill Simpson, “The River and the Thread” by Rosanne Cash and “Houston Might Be Heaven, Rockin’ R&B in Texas 1947-1951” are my favorite records of the year. The duo You+Me sound pretty darn good.

“House of Cards,” “The Johnny Worricker Trilogy” and “The Americans” are television shows I paid attention to. And “Homeland.”

Birdman, The Only Lovers Left Alive, St Vincent and Gone Girl are movies I bought a ticket to see and would recommend. There are three holdovers from 2013 that I watched at home and loved: About Time, A Late Quartet and The Great Beauty.

The sheer beauty of Merle Haggard’s performance at the St. Michelle Winery moved me to tears. Hands down my favorite live music event of the year.

Professional:

Winning the Grammy with Emmylou Harris for best Americana album is the lead story. (Guy Clark's Grammy for best Folk album coming immediately after ours made the moment even sweeter.) Coming in a not-too-distant second were the Americana Awards for best album and vocal collaboration.

More than a few performances during the Tarpaper Sky tour were, I believe, the best I’ve ever been part of as a solo artist. This I attribute partly to the fact that I’m playing and singing better than ever. But more to the point, it’s because collaborators like Steuart Smith, Jedd Hughes, Will Kimbrough, Shannon McNally, Joanne Gardner, Jerry Roe, Keio Stroud, Michael Rinne, Byron House and Pat Buchannan have a knack for lifting the best I have to offer to a higher level.

Working on “I Saw The Light” was a grand adventure. Tom Hiddleston is as dedicated an artist as I’ve ever come across. Ditto director Marc Abraham and the entire ISTL crew.

Fulfilling my role as music director for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s tribute to the Everly Brothers was soul satisfying. Seeing Don Everly happy with the results and hearing him sing again was, for my fellow performers, producers, and me, the ultimate success.

Lastly, I’m hoping the duet album Emmylou and I recorded this past summer, with Joe Henry producing, is as good as I think it is. I can’t speak for Emmy, but for me, it’s a record I’ve always wanted to make. “The Traveling Kind” comes out in the spring.

Happy New Year,
Rodney

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