Americana legend Rodney Crowell will release his 21st studio album, “Airline Highway”, on 29th August 2025 via New West Records. The 10-song set was produced by Tyler Bryant and recorded & mixed by Trina Shoemaker in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The album follows his 2023 Grammy Award-nominated “The Chicago Sessions”. “Airline Highway” features contributions from young blues and country artists, all of whom count Crowell as a foundational influence. Ashley McBryde is co-writer and sings on ‘Taking Flight’; Lukas Nelson co-wrote and sings the opener ‘Rainy Days in California’; Blackberry Smoke guitarist Charlie Starr sings on ‘Heaven Can You Help’ while Rebecca & Megan Lovell from Larkin Poe add harmonies and slide guitar throughout.
“Airline Highway” began when Crowell met Bryant, a young guitarist and producer. Crowell says, “He’s one of the most impressive young men I’ve met in a long time. As soon as I met him, I thought, ‘let’s go!’ We immediately started going back and forth between my home studio and his, making demos and talking about what we wanted to do.” A few months later, they packed up a truckload of gear to make the journey down to his old friend Trina Shoemaker’s remote Dockside Studio, in Maurice, Louisiana.
The band worked fast and loose, rarely doing more than two or three takes of any particular song. The lively music and the humid surroundings unlocked old memories and complicated feelings for Crowell, and the players made sure the music reflected all that joy and loss and regret and wonder. “There’s a romance to the swamp, the semi-tropical climate. We put it to good use, even if it was just me romanticizing my connection to Louisiana.”
“Airline Highway” will be available across digital platforms, and in the now customary bewildering array of physical recorded variants. Pre-orders can be made via New West Records at this link. Note that the New West webstore ships from the US which can be expensive for anyone based outside North America.
Crowell has put out the video for the album’s first single ‘Taking Flight’, a duet with Ashley McBryde about the distance between old lovers. Crowell says, “Ashley came over to the house to take a swing at writing a song together. ‘Flight’ is a fictional account of a discussion we had about stardom and driving at night in the south. With the exception of the Allman Brothers, I can’t say I was ever a fan of ‘Southern Rock.’ Tyler Bryant’s off-the-cuff solo at the end of the song made me reconsider.”
