Rodney Crowell Airline Highway
Rodney Crowell's Airline Highway arrives as a road-weary, keenly observed collection that knits Southern geography, nostalgia, and working-class pride into songs both literate and immediate. Critics praise the record's rootsy, swamp-pop influence and Crowell's storyteller's eye, noting that the album's best songs like “Taking Flight” and “Rainy Days In California” exemplify his gift for vivid detail and memorable characters. Across two professional reviews, the consensus score sits at 80/100, signaling a warmly received return to form tempered by reflective aging and wry humor.
Reviewers consistently single out “Taking Flight” as a dreamlike road-trip reverie and “Rainy Days In California” for its electric bite, while “The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon)” and “Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay” register as standout moments that lean into local color and blues-tinged shuffle. Critics note themes of love and regret, literary songwriting, and living in the moment; portraits and duets provide balance between levity and weight. Across the two reviews, professional critics praised Crowell's knack for turning quotidian detail into poetry, calling several tracks the best on Airline Highway.
While not unanimous in declaring it an unqualified classic, the critical consensus suggests Airline Highway is worth attention for listeners seeking articulate country-tinged storytelling and roots-forward arrangements. The record slots comfortably into Crowell's catalog as a reflective, character-driven set that rewards repeat listens and close reading of its lyrical landscapes.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon)
1 mention
"The album highlight is the blues shuffle "The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cleoma Falcon)""— Glide Magazine
Taking Flight
2 mentions
"Another standout is the duet and co-write with Ashley McBryde, "Taking Flight," a bitter account about the distance"— Glide Magazine
Rainy Days In California
2 mentions
"The opening track is "Rainy Days in California,""— Glide Magazine
The album highlight is the blues shuffle "The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cleoma Falcon)"
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Rainy Days In California
Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay
Sometime Thang
Some Kind Of Woman
Taking Flight
Simple (You Wouldn’t Call It Simple)
The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon)
Don’t Give Up On Me
Heaven Can You Help
Maybe Somewhere Down The Road
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Rodney Crowell sounds equal parts roving storyteller and wry observer on Airline Highway, and the best songs - notably “The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon)” and “Taking Flight” - show him at his most inventive and emotionally direct. The reviewer's tone is conversational and knowledgeable, relishing the album’s Louisiana flavor while praising Crowell’s knack for witty couplets and memorable characters. The title track’s road imagery and the blues shuffle salute land as clear highlights, while duets and portraits like “Taking Flight” and “Sometime Thang” balance fun with regret. Overall, this is a fun-filled record with well-earned serious moments that remind you why Crowell remains one of the best singer-songwriters of our time.
Key Points
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The Twenty-One Song Salute stands out as the album’s musical and creative high point because it is called the album highlight and draws on 21 song lines.
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Airline Highway’s core strengths are its Louisiana-rooted arrangements, witty couplets, and Crowell’s mix of fun-roots rock and reflective storytelling.
Themes
Critic's Take
Rodney Crowell continues to mine the past for moments of clarity on Airline Highway, and the best songs - particularly “Taking Flight” and “Rainy Days in California” - show why he remains a master of grit and lyric. The record settles into a knack for turning quotidian detail into poetry, with “Taking Flight” offering a dreamlike road-trip reverie and “Rainy Days in California” kicking off with a nasty electric lick that announces his voice is as vivid as ever. There is pride and edge in these top tracks, a mixture of poverty, memory, and resilience that fuels the album's highlights and cements these songs as the best tracks on Airline Highway.
Key Points
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“Taking Flight” is best for its dreamlike, road-trip lyricism and status as an album highlight.
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The album's core strengths are Crowell's literate songwriting, gritty imagery, and nostalgic Southern roots.