pplpod Episode 121 traces Rodney Crowell’s journey from Houston honky-tonks to Nashville rooms where the best lyric wins. We follow the Emmylou Harris Hot Band apprenticeship, the sharp early solo cuts, and the Diamonds & Dirt run that spun off five No. 1 country singles and a Grammy for “After All This Time.” Then the deeper work: story-forward albums like The Houston Kid, Fate’s Right Hand, Tarpaper Sky, and Close Ties; the waltz between memoir (Chinaberry Sidewalks) and music; and a late-career groove that pairs wisdom with swing (The Traveling Kind with Emmylou, Texas, and The Chicago Sessions with Jeff Tweedy). We unpack the writer’s bench—songs everybody sings because they fit like truths (“’Til I Gain Control Again,” “Ain’t Living Long Like This,” “Shame o ...