Consumer Guide Album

Rodney Crowell: The Chicago Sessions [New West, 2023]
Ten love songs so varied and intermittently challenged I was surprised to learn that having been married to Rosanne Cash between 1979 and 1992, this rocking but basically country singer-songwriter had been married to the less renowned Claudia Church since 1998, with the committed "Oh Miss Claudia" and the one-two punch of "Lucky" and "Somebody Loves You" not all there is to show for it. True, tracks seven and eight flatten out the way 10-track albums do, and Jeff Tweedy's production is no more inspired than you'd figure. But then comes "Making Lovers Out of Friends," which advises against this option, adding a great love song that is also anything but to what is already a consistently intelligent and decent exploration of the most universal theme of pop and country both. A-