Sex & Gasoline is the thirteenth studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell. Released in 2008 on the independent record label Yep Roc Records, the album is a topical release dealing largely with gender issues in the United States, particularly the treatment of women in American culture. It is made up entirely of original Crowell compositions.
Crowell released the album at a critically acclaimed juncture in his career. As he focused more on artistic merit and lyrically-driven sound, he honed in on a central theme for the tracks. He drew inspiration from his personal life including his wife and four daughters. Joe Henry produced the album using a group of musicians with whom Crowell had not previously worked. Principal recording took place in South Pasadena, California in 2007.
The album received largely favorable reviews though it was seen as a lesser effort than Crowell's previous three releases. It charted on Billboard'''s Top Country Albums and Independent Albums and was nominated for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.
Context
Just ahead of the release of Rodney Crowell's 2005 album The Outsider, Crowell performed a show in Glasgow, Scotland at which he played the song that would become the title track for Sex & Gasoline. David Peschek of The Guardian described it as having a "surprisingly angular guitar motif [that] scythes into lyrics about the sexual exploitation of the young." At the end of the song, someone in the Glasgow crowd yelled "Play some country!" To which, Crowell responded, "It doesn't exist anymore, haven't you heard?"Peschek, David. Rodney Crowell, King Tut's, Glasgow, The Guardian, July 28, 2005. Upon its release, The Outsider received critical acclaim. However, during the tour in support of the album, Crowell was criticized for straying from the lyrically-driven country folk sound he is known for, in favor of "bland roots-rock." During a 2006 show in San Francisco at which Crowell once again performed "Sex and Gasoline", Jim Harrington of the East Bay Times described the song as simplistic and preachy, comparing it unfavorably to the 1980s output of Glenn Frey and Phil Collins, with "pointless guitar leads ... straight out of the arena rock handbook."Harrington, Jim. Rodney Crowell set on rocking – but he’s better with country and folk, East Bay Times, January 20, 2006. Crowell later recounted how friends at a show in Ireland informed him the music was too loud, drowning out his lyrics. With Sex & Gasoline on the horizon, he chose to push his poetry to the forefront, shifting from a "bandleader to communicator."
At this time in his career, Crowell was still in the process of restyling himself as a "mature poet/troubadour"Smith, William Michael. Rodney Crowell: Sex & Gasoline, Houston Press, October 1, 2008. in the vein of Bob Dylan, rather than just a hit-maker. Although he had a recent hit with Keith Urban's 2004 cover of "Making Memories of Us", which spent five weeks at number one on the country charts, Crowell was no longer the same "bona fide hit machine" who charted five number one singles from his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt.Rodney Crowell On Mountain Stage, NPR, November 25, 2008 He was not "happy or fulfilled as a country star"Oksenhorn, Stewart. Rodney Crowell focuses on the art of the song, The Aspen Times, November 13, 2008. and five years ahead of his 2001 autobiographical release The Houston Kid, Crowell took off to focus on his personal life. He learned how to maintain a marriage (to his third wife Claudia Church) and spent time with his four daughters (three of whom were born to second ex wife Rosanne Cash, and one born to his first ex wife). With his return to music, he viewed himself more as an artist and focused on his craft, disregarding commercial appeal. His latest trio of albums, including The Outsider and The Houston Kid as well as the 2003 release Fate's Right Hand were highly regarded and cemented his legacy as an icon among the often artistically-minded outside-the-mainstream alt-country and Americana communities. In fact, Crowell received the Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting at the 2006 Americana Music Honors & Awards at which he debuted "A Moving Work of Art."Gilbert, Calvin. "James McMurty Wins Two Americana Awards, CMT.com, September 25, 2006.
Production Composition Crowell employed the same technique for writing that he used on his previous three releases: "find a core theme, a central driving point, and coax myself into writing much the same way you'd write a book or a film script where it's not just a collection of ten or eleven songs, but a world you enter."
The core theme for the album derived from one of Crowell's daughters who "let herself be led to death's door because she didn't fit society's image." Furthermore, Crowell's wife, a former model and singer, had difficulties in dealing with the aging process in her line of work. From these experiences, Crowell chose "to articulate something about the feminine archetype." He wanted to understand womanhood and immerse himself in it to understand the choices of his loved ones. He wrote "Sex and Gasoline" first and then "Truth Decay" and "I Want You" followed along the same thematic lines. He wrote other songs that he did not include on the album for thematic purposes.
Recording
For the first time in his career, Crowell turned to an outsider to produce one of his albums. He had originally recorded and produced a full album of songs himself but upon listening to the result he decided they were too close to the material he had already released. He scrapped the album entirely and headed to California to recreate it with a group of musicians he did not know.Cooper, Peter. Rodney Crowell: Closer to Heaven, American Songwriter, October 31, 2008. He chose Joe Henry, who, at the time, was known for his work with jazz musicians, to be the producer. Henry was noted for his tendency to approach each project uniquely and to experiment with different styles. In Crowell's words, "Henry produced, and I shut up and sang. The end result is some of the best performances I've given to date. I should have done this sooner."Rodney Crowell’s New Album Coming in September. CMT.com, May 29, 2008. He referred to Henry's production as "liberating."du Lac, J. Freedom. Six (Or So) Questions For ... Rodney Crowell, The Washington Post, October 20, 2008 Crowell described his singing and guitar-playing on the album as the best he ever recorded to that point in his career.
Through Henry's guidance, progressive musicians such as string master Greg Leisz, bassist David Piltch, and percussionist Jay Bellerose were added to the project. Henry used the trio on his previous project, the Loudon Wainwright III album Recovery. Guitarist Doyle Bramhall II also joined. Recording took place in South Pasadena, California in July and October 2007 at the historic Garfield House. Due to his lack of total control over the project, Crowell initially had difficulty with the sessions and remained only for a total of four or five days. He did not stay for the mixing, asking Henry to mail it to him once completed. While recording the track "Truth Decay," Crowell used Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers for inspiration. Crowell wanted Everly to sing harmony on the track but Everly was in Tennessee and could not travel to California. Instead, Crowell imagined how Everly would sound on the track while recording. Everly later recorded overdubs for the track back in Tennessee,Crowell, Rodney. I First Met Don Everly in the Late ..., Rodney Crowell (Official) Facebook, January 4, 2014. which Claudia Church filmed. Crowell called that session a highlight of his career.
Content Theme and styleSex & Gasoline is the fourth and final in a series of albums, starting with The Houston Kid, in which Crowell explores personal themes in a "struggle to come to terms with the new millennium." Women serve as the inspiration for the collection of eleven original songs.Rodney Crowell’s Sex and Gasoline Among New Releases, CMT.com, September 2, 2008. Allmusic describes them as "accessible and jagged observations on the conflicting poles in what it means to be a conscious human being who struggles with unconscious urges" as well as the struggle of being a man who attempts, often unsuccessfully, to respect women in a culture that sometimes expresses hatred toward them.Jurek, Thom. [ Sex and Gasoline], Allmusic. The Rolling Stone called it "not just a celebration of women, but a real attempt at empathy." Blurt felt the emphasis on women from the perspective of men paradoxically offered more insight on the male sex than the female. Referencing the title, County Universe noted the album has very little to do with gasoline, and is focused more on sex, not sexual intercourse but gender. Comparing it to The Houston Kid, the Houston Chronicle suggested the album offered insights rooted in the present day rather than the past.Dansby, Andrew. Rodney Crowell, 'the Houston Kid' Returns, Houston Chronicle, November 9, 2008. Other themes explored include aging, sexual appetite, the consequences of a celebrity-obsessed media, heartache, sadness, regret,Quill, Greg. Rodney Crowell: Sex and Gasoline, Toronto Star, October 7, 2008. a troubled society,McPherson, David. Rodney Crowell/ Sex & Gasoline, Exclaim!, October 26, 2008. and mortality.Cornell, Rick. Rodney Crowell/ Sex & Gasoline, Country Standard Time, accessed December 31, 2019.
Although the album at times boasts an edgy rock style, particularly the title track, others are more poetic and introspective. Overall, it is less rock-infused than The Outsider and The Houston Kid, but less folk-leaning than some of Crowell's other work. The Houston Chronicle places it in a unique category of its own. Texas Monthly compared its sound to Dylan's mid-period.McCord, Jeff. Sex & Gasoline, Texas Monthly, August 31, 2008. PopMatters said it shared the spirit of 1960's Dylan. Blurt observed it had the same "swampy, bluesy feel" as Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind.Klinge, Steve. Rodney Crowell – Sex And Gasoline, Blurt, October 2, 2008. It is largely acoustic. Country Standard Time described it as too atmospheric to be country and too rustic to be rock or pure pop. The tracks range in outlook from fatalistic to idyllic, with a sense of urgency. The tone is markedly more negative than Crowell's previous efforts, but still warm and smoky. Although, comedic elements are present it is often in the vein of dark humor.
Track by track Sex and Gasoline
The opening track "Sex and Gasoline" is a satireFarber, Jim. Rodney Crowell is all about 'Sex & Gasoline', New York Daily News, October 10, 2008. using the voice of society Coyne, Kevin John. Rodney Crowell, Sex & Gasoline, Country Universe, September 7, 2008. to connect to the album's underlying theme of the oversexualization of women in the United States. With what the Los Angeles Times describes as "Dylanesque bite," Crowell rails against society's emphasis on the feminine beauty ideal.Lewis, Randy, et al. They're Hangin' Tough, Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2008. Broadly, he expounds upon what makes this "mean old world run." It features layers of acoustic guitar, a piano with "strident yet warm" notes, mandolin, and a throbbing bassline accompanying the lyrics. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Crowell revealed the song to be "about a young woman very close to me that our culture was just beating to a pulp. And it made me angry." With The Aspen Times, Crowell expanded "If you're not a size zero, or have legs like Paris Hilton, you're sexually irrelevant. If you're 42, you might get traded in for a younger woman. Your intelligence and wisdom is not relevant anymore."
Moving Work of Art