Die gleiche Mannschaft, die schon die jüngsten beiden Alben des zu neuer Größe gereiften Loudon Wainwright begleiteten, verleiht jetzt auch dem 2008er Song-Werk Crowells das ihm gebührende edle Gewand. Die elf von trefflicher Beobachtungsgabe, tiefer Emotion und begnadeter Wort-Weisheit kündenden Texte werden von Produzent & Instrumentalist Joe Henry, Doyle Bramhall (Gitarren), Greg Leisz (Gitarre, Pedal Steel, Mandoline, Mandocello, Dobro), Patrick Warren (Klavier, Orgel), David Piltch (Kontra- und E-Bass) und Jay Bellerose (Schlagwerk) in ein von Erfahrung und Können geprägtes Instrumental-Netz gesponnen, dass es eine pausenlose, 50-minütige reine Freude ist. Gemeinsam mit Crowell servieren die gestandenen Musik-Recken ein mit allen Stil-Elementen gewürztes Roots-Mahl, das von der weich-warmherzigen, Streich-Quartett-gebetteten Folk-Ballade über Steel-beweinte weite Song-Landschaften, beseelten Gospel-Momenten und elegant-fließenden Bluegrass-Puritäten bis hin zu kraftvoll rollenden Roots-Rock-Saft-Stücken und deftig-verzerrt slidenden Swamp-Eintöpfen alles Gute, Wahre & Schöne bietet. Dazu schneidet und schmeichelt Crowell’s Stimme in einzigartiger Einfühlsamkeit und wenn sich Rodney und Wurzel-Meister Joe Henry in I’ve Done Everything I Can im Gesangs-Duett messen, dann ist auch der Hörer im Singer-Songwriter-Himmel angelangt.

(Glitterhouse)

Americana literati Rodney Crowell continues down the path blazed by his previous three records with Sex & Gasoline. Crowell bounded onto the music landscape in 1988 with the Top 40 crossover album Diamonds and Dirt, which produced an astonishing five number one singles and a Grammy Award for the single 'After All This Time.' As part of Emmylou Harris' original Hot Band, Crowell's musical pedigree is unquestionable, at one time even earning him the right to remake Johnny Cash's singular 'Ring of Fire' with Cash himself singing Rodney's reworked melody. With his new album Sex & Gasoline, he continues to write about contemporary themes. Sex & Gasoline was produced by Joe Henry and contains what Crowell says are, 'some of the best performances I've given to date.'' For the new material Crowell and Henry brought in some of music's most skilled sidemen including Doyle Bramhall II (acoustic and electric guitar), Greg Leisz (acoustic and electric guitar, pedal and lap steel, mandolin, mandocello and dobro), Patrick Warren (piano, pump organ and Chamberlin), David Piltch (upright and electric bass) and Jay Bellerose (drums and percussion).

Sex and Gasoline is Rodney Crowell's first record in three years, where he goes further inside but pulls out accessible and jagged observations on the conflicting poles in what it means to be a conscious human being who struggles with unconscious urges. In these songs he also investigates what it means to be a man who tries — and fails a lot — to empathize with and respect women in a culture that, whether it admits it or not, hates them. Produced by Joe Henry and performed by his own nearly ubiquitous sound-painting crew of drummer Jay Belleros, bassist David Pilch, keyboardist Patrick Warren, pedal steel, mandolin, and dobro master Greg Leisz, and guitar boss Doyle Bramhall III, this is Crowell at his most direct and dense: he channels many other songwriters, but as always he remains completely his own man. The title track opens the set with a mutant acoustic blues; it works with a culture-jamming sense of poetry, with images as angry as Steve Earle's (without the autodidacticism) yet as dense and raggedly elegant as Bob Dylan's. Henry's killer band adorns Crowell's blur of images with a strident yet warm piano, a mandolin, strummed layers of acoustic guitar, and a throbbing upright bassline walking the snare toward his indictment of how we view women, what we expect of them, and an exhortation to admit it. This is underscored on the ballad "Moving Work of Art," where Crowell implicates himself as one who objectifies women despite his intentions — that he can use the language employed here points to his guilt. He tells a story, but uses the most poignant images to offer its truth — he doesn't expect you to take his word for it (even when he flips the coin and shines a light on those who understand this objectification but seek it for personal gain). The fat, warm bassline, fingerpicked guitars, and pedal steel offer an instrumental mix that invokes reverie, a look through the mirrored glass darkly. Rounding out this amazing consecutive trio is "The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design." Pulsing with fingerpicked steel, shuffling chunky acoustics, soft toms, and a blanketed bass drum, we get this: "If I could have just one wish/Maybe for an hour/I'd want to be a woman/And feel that phantom power/Maybe I'd want to stick around for awhile/Until my heart got broke/Maybe then I could find out if I'm a half decent man/Or if I'm just a joke..." There are less topical offerings here as well, the duet with Henry on the stunning "I've Done Everything I Can," populated by two protagonists on complementary sides of a conversation on regret, grief, and the difficulty in starting over after surrendering to loss. Henry's delivery is philosophical and empathic; Crowell's is bewildered and broken, but resilient. Conversely, "Funky and the Farm Boy," is a swaggering, strutting, good-time blues groove about sexual obsession, and the band gets to cut loose a bit, thanks to Bramhall's guitars and backing vocalists Nikki Harris and Sister Jean McLain. Clocking in at just under 50 minutes, Sex and Gasoline is the record Crowell's been striving for since Houston Kid in 2001. The wisdom, humor, and literate, biting world view, is all balanced with the wisdom of tenderness, and a poetic sense of the heart's own aspirations and disappointments. With Sex and Gasoline Crowell makes emotions almost visible — how many songwriters can achieve that?

(by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide)