The show

• Who: Rodney Crowell
• When: Tonight at 8
• Where: Jefferson Center’s Shaftman Performance Hall
• Cost: $19-$24
• Contact: 345-2550

About Rodney Crowell

• Born: Aug. 7, 1950, in Houston
• Career: Worked with Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band in the 1970s. Released solo debut “Ain’t Living Long Like This” in 1978. 1988 album “Diamonds and Dirt” produced five No. 1 hits. Wrote and produced many of Roseanne Cash’s best-known songs and albums (he and Cash were married from 1979 to 1991). His 2001 autobiographical album “The Houston Kid” earned raves and began a string of personal-tinged albums that include “Fate’s Right Hand” (2003) and “The Outsider” (2005 ).
• Personal: Married to country singer Claudia Church. Has four daughters.
• Best-known songs: “Please Remember Me” (a hit for Tim McGraw); “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” (a hit for the Oak Ridge Boys); “Shame on the Moon” (a hit for Bob Seger); “Heart Broke” (a hit for Ricky Skaggs); “She’s Crazy for Leaving”; “After All This Time”; “Lovin’ All Night” (a hit-to-be for Patty Loveless); “It’s Such a Small World” (a duet with Cash); “I Couldn’t Leave You if I Tried”; “Many a Long and Lonesome Highway”; “If Looks Could Kill”; “What Kind of Love”; “Making Memories of Us” (a hit for Keith Urban ).

Finally, Rodney Crowell likes the sound of his own voice.

That doesn't mean he can hack listening to "Diamonds & Dirt" over and over again.

You remember "Diamonds & Dirt." The platinum album produced five consecutive No. 1 country singles from 1988-89. It made Crowell a superstar. It's his best-known album. It's his most successful album. It is not, however, his favorite album.

"My work as a recording artist then is not close to what I do today," Crowell said.

"Take 'Diamonds & Dirt.' I listened to that not too long ago and I thought five of those recordings were good. It has eight good songs. But that's just half an album."

Plus, he couldn't stand the sound of his voice.

"I listen to those songs and I can tell you there's a singer who doesn't like how he sounds," Crowell said during a telephone interview from his home south of Nashville, where he is working on an album in his home studio. "My voice was thin, reedy. I needed to get older to get a tone I liked."

At 56, Crowell is certainly older, but maybe better than ever, which is saying something for a guy with his music credentials. During his commercial peak in the 1980s and '90s, his albums sold in the millions and he made more money than the NASDAQ writing and producing hits for other artists. He and ex-wife Roseanne Cash were the First Couple of country music and Crowell helped her career by writing some of her early hits.

His last three albums, though, may comprise the best work of his career. Freed from the business constraints of Nashville's current assembly line of bubblegum pop, Crowell signed with Sugar Hill Records, a respected independent label famous for its catalog of roots-country releases, and began making deeply personal, semi-autobiographical records.

In the late '90s, he began writing a memoir of his rough upbringing in the poor neighborhoods of East Houston. Re-opening these long-closed chapters of his early life directly inspired his terrific 2001 album "The Houston Kid." The Texas native struck a new well of creativity that hasn't stopped flowing.

Crowell could care less that these critically acclaimed albums -- "The Houston Kid," "Fate's Right Hand" (2003) and the politically charged "The Outsider" -- did not sell as many combined copies as "Diamond & Dust." He has higher aspirations now.

"This is my legacy for my family," he said. "When I'm dead and gone, I want my kids to say, 'That's what my dad did.' From 'The Houston Kid' on is what I want them to show. The last three are the best work I've done as a recording artist."

That belief should not worry longtime fans who love Crowell's old stuff. He will proudly perform many of his classic hits. He simply believes that his recent albums are more fully conceived and thematic than his earlier records.

"I don't exclude songs I wrote from 1972 on," he said. "I just developed as a songwriter before I developed as a recording artist."

He's also a terrific musician. His parents were from the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky and both were steeped in rich Appalachian musical traditions. Crowell was born in Houston, where he grew up playing honky-tonks with his father's bands in the 1960s. Several good breaks and chance meetings with the likes of Guy Clark and Jerry Reed led to a writing career and a stint with Emmylou Harris and her great Hot Band.

Crowell comes from a long line of acclaimed Texas songwriters that includes Guy and Susanna Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. When asked why Texas has produced so many commendable songwriters, Crowell said it's because of the culture of myth-making and storytelling endemic to the Lone Star State.

"The whole state is founded on a lie," he said. "Andrew Jackson sent Sam Houston down there to start a revolution to take Texas away from Mexico and he didn't care how he did it. ... The whole thing was fought by liars. We come from a tradition of lying ... and I say that proudly. Sometimes you can lie and tell the truth. If you can spin a good story, you can get to the truth of things."

That's Rodney Crowell's story, and he's adding to it. The irony is not lost on him that he is making better albums in an era when catchy singles that can be downloaded for the same price you pay for a Whopper Jr. are all the rage. Then again, Crowell fans aren't exactly ringtone-of-the-week types.

"I'm still out to create a listening experience," he said. "I'm not giving up on that just because popular culture might not be interested. If I were a painter, I'd paint every day then put on a reception to show all my paintings. It doesn't behoove me to try to capitalize on what popular culture is now. The people who buy my records aren't into that. And I do have an audience."