Imagine you are an artist, right. You’ve just poured absolutely everything, I mean every ounce of your sweat, your creative energy, your lived experience into a brand new album. So you take those master tapes into the executive boardroom at your massive record label, Warner Bros in this case. You’re sitting there, you’re waiting for the applause.

That synthesis set the stage for his dual identity. He was the solitary, intellectual writer who was simultaneously a seasoned, crowd -pleasing performer. And that elevated approach to the craft inevitably catches the attention of country music royalty. He is pulled right into the spotlight in the mid -1970s.

• Welcome to this deep dive into the life, the career and the incredible multi -decade evolution of Rodney Crowell
• Crowell was born on August 7, 1950, in Houston, Texas
• His father was a construction worker who played honky tonk guitar on the weekends
• He joins Emmylou Harris’s legendary Hot Band in 1975
• Diamonds and Dirt produced five consecutive number one singles, a record that still stands