Rodney Crowell’s Book ‘Word For Word’ Looks At His Musical Journey Through The Lyrics Of His Songs

After more than four decades in music and a vast collection of songs he’s written for himself, and artists like Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Keith Urban, and many others, Rodney Crowell decided it was time to compile a book showcasing some of his work.

“It was about a year ago,” he says, “it just popped into my head that I should have a lyric book. And I did it rather selfishly, honestly. I put the songs I wanted up front, not necessarily the more popular or recognized ones because of exposure to the radio or whatever. I went with what I’m proud of having written from my standard as a songwriter.”

The end result is a beautifully illustrated coffee table type book featuring the lyrics to many of his songs, some in his own handwriting, along with the notes he made while writing them.

“Most of the lyrics for my songs for the last many years are on computer and the ones before that were printed in these folded books I have. But I also still have more than 30 notebooks with quite a few pages of scribbling and first and second drafts.”

In the book, he shares the backstory behind some of the songs and much of his early days in music. And there are many, many personal photos.

A multi-GRAMMY winning artist and songwriter, Crowell has written 15 No. 1 hits and is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. ‘Word for Word’ looks at some of his best-known songs like “I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried” “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight,” “Somewhere Tonight,” and others.

He also wrote “Shame on the Moon” recorded by Bob Seger, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Long Hard Road,” and “Making Memories of Us” by Keith Urban.

The book highlights his many songwriting collaborations with artists like Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, Rosanne Cash, and others.

“Emmylou’s my sister by another mother,” Crowell says. “We have a brother/sister relationship that goes back to when we were in our 20s. We’re good friends.”

The two met in the 1970s and Harris later hired Crowell as a guitarist, harmony singer, and arranger for her band.

He’s written and recorded a number of songs with Rosanne Cash, both before and after they were married. The two share four grown daughters and a continued connection through music. She wrote a piece for the book.

“Something I say in public a lot about Rosanne is we had a successful marriage that just came to an end. We parted very amicably. As a matter of fact, I introduced her to her husband and to this day, I’m proud of the fact I did. He’s a good man. My wife and I were talking the other day and she said, ‘You know, I love Rosanne.’ That’s just a very truthful thing.”

Crowell also had a close relationship with Rosanne’s dad, Johnny Cash.

“I came into his orbit as a young man trying to prove myself and I think he was bemused by me. I wanted to be respected as my own man and sometimes I did stupid things. He would just smile or put me in my place, he knew what I was doing. But I think he recognized the level of work I was producing, and we had a good friendship.”

After more than forty years as a singer/songwriter, Crowell is still hard at work making music. He’s also sharing what he knows. He recently wrapped up his third songwriting camp that brings aspiring songwriters from around the world to Nashville to learn the craft from some of its masters. (He’ll hold the camp again next summer.)

He hopes his book might also inspire those with an interest to write songs. He just launched a book tour that will take him around the country to promote ‘Word for Word.’

He’s also working on a new album that should be out sometime next year. At 72, Crowell has no plans to slow down, and may even be picking up the pace a little bit.

“I work more now than I did when I was young,” he says. “I jokingly tell my wife that I goofed off a lot when I was younger, and I don’t do that anymore. She just laughs. But I’ve reached an age where time is finite, and I don’t have much time to goof off unless I can reframe it as being part of the creative process. So, I’m still doing it, still doing it all, maybe less in the public eye, but still doing it, and enjoying it more.”

Rodney CrowellRodney Crowell