02.11.2021
RODNEY CROWELL ENLISTS EMMYLOU HARRIS, ELVIS COSTELLO, KEITH URBAN FOR BENEFIT COMPILATION
Variety: Chris Willman: February 6th 2021.
Rodney Crowell has an excellent e-Rolodex, and it’s on display in a new compilation album, “Songs From Quarantine Vol. 1,” which has an all-star cast of singer-songwriter, country and Americana VIPs sending in tracks from their own splendid isolation.
Six of the 13 artists represented — Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Joe Henry, Ronnie Dunn, John Hiatt and Crowell himself — contribute original songs that have never been released before in any context. The remaining seven offer demos or otherwise stripped-down or alternate versions of numbers they’ve put out in full form before, with Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Keith Urban, Jeff Tweedy, Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle and Taj Mahal rounding out the guest list. (Download the album here.)
The “Quarantine” collection, available digitally on Bandcamp for $13 for the next two weeks, benefits a charity Crowell has rounded up support for for years — the Music Health Alliance, which aids struggling musicians worldwide and which, like most orgs of its kind, has been pressed to offer assistance to those suffering with COVID-19 to its previous lists of medical and psychological aid. “They’re angels in denim over there,” Crowell tells Variety about the cause.