Sex and Gasoline
- zimmerman
- 2008
- Buy the CD
Reviewed by Lee Zimmerman
Happily, Crowell scored a comeback of sorts earlier this decade when he released the first of three highly lauded solo efforts, the autobiographical The Houston Kid, followed by Fate’s Right Hand in 2003 and The Outsider two years after that. Sex and Gasoline comes right on cue, and while it veers from the tell-all trilogy that preceded it, it nevertheless manages to focus on themes that remain equally as urgent – from the angry riposte given to America’s current administration in the cynical “The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design” to his arched remarks on pursuing priorities in the decidedly Dylanesque title track.
Mostly, though, Crowell limits his commentary to matters of the heart. The reflective “Moving Work of Art” and “Forty Winters” rank among his loveliest ballads, while “Truth Decay” and “I’ve Done Everything I Can” adhere to the same mellow vibe, albeit tempered with a furrowed brow. Indeed, a confessional tone has always been infused into Crowell’s musical makeup, famously nurtured by the break-up of his marriage to Cash in 1991. The snippy “I Want You” returns him to that cynical stance, while the rootsy ramble of “Who Do You Trust” and “Funky and the Farm Boy” allow him to indulge in typical good-old-boy posturing.
Crowell pulls it all off his typical aplomb, aided and abetted by producer Joe Henry, whose most recent album, Civilians, found him exploring similarly stark terrain. Star session players – guitarist Doyle Bramhall II and multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz, among them – help keep the arrangements rich but unobtrusive.
Chalk up Sex and Gasoline as another triumph for a man who remains a singular force in roots music. “I don’t want to be famous / Who gives a damn / I just want to be happy wherever I am,” Crowell professes on the album’s final track, “Closer to Heaven.” An apt summation of his unassuming precepts, it serves as an irrefutable anthem about affirmation, and certainly a most convincing coda as well.
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