A A few years ago, Nashville veteran Rodney Crowell responded with an album (Close Ties) that featured defiant, optimistic numbers like It Ain’t Over Yet. On Triage, his 18th album in a hit career, Crowell is more upbeat, subdued, with songs centered around mortality, sin, and redemption. One number speaks directly to a medical diagnosis of transient global amnesia, another is bluntly titled This Body Isn’t All There Is to Who I Am – quite a bite to squeeze into a chorus, but Crowell manages.
While the mood is sober against the backdrop of the pandemic, it’s not all introspective. Something has to change, opposes those who “darken the world,” and Crowell insists that “universal love” rule the world. In denominational pieces like Don’t Leave Me Now and Girl on the Street, a story song with a slightly too dylanic sound (Bob is mentioned elsewhere), there is no lack of soul exposure. Of course everything is played perfectly semi-acoustically, with Crowell in a fine voice.
They suspect triage isn’t what some fans might want, but at this late stage, that’s what their hero wants to say. A brave, thoughtful album.