Rodney Crowell Plays Riotous Rockabilly at Newport's Depot Days

by Julian Spivey
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell brought his fantastic Americana/country sound to the 21st annual Depot Days Festival in downtown Newport, Ark. on Saturday, Sept. 29.
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The fantastic country music songwriter who’s one of the leading figures in the Americana genre and community performed quite the surprising rockabilly show at Newport, on the famed Rock ‘N’ Roll Highway 67 in northeastern Arkansas named for the rockabilly shows that took place in the night clubs of the area back in the day combining rock ‘n’ roll, blues and country music.

Crowell began his performance with his 1983 song “Stars on the Water,” which is one of my favorites in his repertoire and one that’s notably been covered by both Jimmy Buffett and George Strait.

The rockabilly flavor of the show was off and running almost right away with “Telephone Road,” the opening track from his critically-acclaimed 2001 release The Houston Kid. That sound would pop back up bigtime toward the end of Crowell’s set, but one of the early highlights was his cover of Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore’s Blues,” an outlaw country classic with a bit of R&B flavor thrown in.

Crowell was able to mix his rocking performance with his sometimes wordy songwriting on “Dancin’ Circles ‘Round the Sun (Epictetus Speaks).” It was very early on in the evening when I realized just how talented of guitarists Crowell had performing with him in two young Aussies Joe Robinson and Jedd Hughes, who just lit the stage ablaze with their fantastic guitar playing.
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Crowell, who was at one point Johnny Cash’s son-in-law (when married to Rosanne Cash) and remained a close friend until Johnny’s death, wasn’t going to come to the area (just over an hour west of Cash’s hometown) without covering his dear friend. I’m thrilled that Crowell chose the heartbreaking “I Still Miss Someone” as his choice as it’s one of Cash’s most underrated classics and one of my favorites from the Arkansas legend. It would be one of the few slower songs Crowell would play during the evening.

The cover of “I Still Miss Someone” would lead into one of my favorite sections of Crowell’s Depot Days set with the rocking “Frankie Please” and “She’s Crazy for Leaving,” one of his five straight No. 1 singles off his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt, which was a record for most No. 1 singles off one country album. Crowell would slow things down once again with “After All This Time,” another one of those five No. 1 hits off his 1988 release. It would be the last slow song of his main set as he, Hughes and Robinson would embark on a rockabilly riot from that point out that really got us toward the front of the crowd grooving.

To start this segment of his show off Crowell broke out “Old Pipeliner,” from his 1981 self-titled album. The song was originally released by Red Sovine in 1967. Crowell’s jam session on the song would last seven minutes. Crowell and band would then rip through a cover of the much covered “Tobacco Road,” originally released in 1960 by John D. Loudermilk. The one-two-three punch with which Crowell would end his set was outrageously good with a cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis classic “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” his own country-rock jam “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” (which was ultimately my favorite performance from his excellent set) and the incredibly surprising and thrilling cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” which Rolling Stone magazine called the greatest song of all-time.

Crowell received uproarious applause from the Depot Days crowd and played a one-song encore consisting of “Song for the Life,” from his 1978 debut album Ain’t Living Long Like This. It was almost a shock to the system with Crowell going slow for his encore after such a rocking finish to his show, but it was a truly touching performance that left the crowd awestruck right before packing up to head home.

I’d always wanted to see Crowell in concert, as he’s one of my favorite songwriters, and he certainly did not disappoint in Newport on Saturday night. 

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