''Street Language'' is the fourth studio album by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
artist
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell (born August 7, 1950) is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album '' Diamonds & Dirt''. ...
. It was released in 1986 (see
1986 in country music) by
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
, his first release on that label. It peaked at #38 on the
Top Country Albums
Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...
chart. The songs, "Let Freedom Ring", "When I'm Free Again", "She Loves the Jerk" and "Looking for You" were released as singles but they all failed to chart within the top 20. This album was co-produced by
R & B
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
artist
Booker T. Jones
Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...
and features a blend of soul and country music.
In 1984, Crowell recorded what was to be a new album for
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, ''Street Language''.
[Bill DeYoung]
The Ballad of Rodney Crowell"
at About the Arts. May 27, 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2018. That album, a pop-sounding effort co–produced by David Malloy, was rejected by Warner Bros, and was never released. The label requested a more
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
-friendly record, but Crowell negotiated a release from his contract and moved to
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
.
He then he brought in Booker T. Jones as co-producer and re-recorded a more rock and roll/electric-sounding ''Street Language'' in 1986.
The song "Looking for You" was co-written with Crowell's then wife,
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country art ...
. "She Loves the Jerk" was written and first recorded by
John Hiatt
John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including new wave, blues, and country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has been awarded ...
in 1983 and was included on his album, ''Riding with the King''. It would later be covered by
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
.
Crowell's version of "I Don't Have to Crawl" was recorded for the Warner Bros. release, but did not make it onto the final Columbia album.
That track was released in 1989 on ''
the Rodney Crowell Collection''.
Track listing
Personnel
*
Mike Baird
Michael Bruce Baird (born 1 April 1968) is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Western Sydney, and the Leader of the New South W ...
- drums
*
Eddie Bayers
Eddie Bayers (born January 28, 1949) is an American session drummer who has played on 300 gold and platinum albums. He received the Academy of Country Music 'Drummer of the Year Award' for fourteen years, has three times won the Nashville Music ...
- drums
*
Richard Bennett - acoustic guitar
*
Ben Cauley - horn
*Bobby Clark -
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
*
Anthony Crawford - background vocals
*Quitman Dennis - horn
*
Hank DeVito
Henry M. "Hank" DeVito is an American musician and photographer known primarily for his pedal steel guitar work and songwriting.
Biography
After high school, DeVito attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He studied graphic arts and ...
-
steel guitar
A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
*Rick DiFonzo - guitar
*
Anton Fig
Anton Fig (born 8 August 1952 in Cape Town, South Africa), known as "The Thunder from Down Under", is a South African session drummer, perhaps best known as the drummer and second-in-command for Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Ba ...
- drums
*
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist b ...
- acoustic guitar, background vocals
*
Bob Glaub
Bob Glaub (born May 10, 1952)Hageman, William (April 29, 2005)."The aces of bass: Five giants of an overshadowed instrument", Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. is an American bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists an ...
- bass guitar
*
Kenny Greenberg
Kenneth S. "Kenny" Greenberg is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and session musician. He is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions.
Biography
Greenberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio but attend ...
- electric guitar
*
Jim Horn
James Ronald Horn (born November 20, 1940) is an American saxophonist, woodwind player, and session musician.
Biography
Horn was born in Los Angeles, and after replacing saxophonist Steve Douglas in 1959, he toured with member Duane Eddy for f ...
- horn, saxophone
*
Wayne Jackson - horn
*
Eric Johnson Eric Johnson may refer to:
Music
*Eric Johnson (guitarist) (born 1954) an American guitarist and recording artist
* Eric D. Johnson (born 1976), member of multiple indie-rock bands including Fruit Bats, The Shins and Califone
Politics
* Eric Joh ...
- guitar
*
Booker T. Jones
Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...
- organ, synthesizer, piano, background vocals
*Mary Ann Kennedy - background vocals
*
David Lindley - guitar
*
Dave Loggins
David Allen Loggins (born November 10, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.
Musical career
Loggins is best known for his 1974 song composition "Please Come to Boston", which was a No. 5 popular music success (No. 1 Easy Listen ...
- background vocals
*Randy McCormick - synthesizer
*Joann Neal - background vocals
*
Dean Parks
Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas.
Albums
Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher ...
- guitar
*Mike Porter - percussion
*
Michael Rhodes - upright bass, bass guitar
*
Robert Sabino
Robert Sabino is an American rock keyboardist.(14 July 1996)Star Turns From a Home in the Firehouse ''The New York Times'' ("Mr. Sabino, a well-known keyboardist, attracted a record producer, Nile Rodgers, who lived in Fairfield County, to some o ...
- synthesizer
*
Ralph Schuckett
Ralph Schuckett (March 2, 1948 – April 4, 2021) was an American keyboardist, composer and songwriter known as one of the founding members of Todd Rundgren's band Utopia. He composed for film and television, including Pokémon, Sonic X, and A ...
- keyboards
*
Steuart Smith
Steuart Smith (born 24 June 1952) is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, writer and producer from Arlington, Virginia, United States. He is a touring member of the American rock band Eagles, where he has performed as one of ...
- electric guitar
*Keith Sykes - background vocals
*
Billy Joe Walker Jr.
Billy Joe Walker Jr. (February 29, 1952 – July 25, 2017) was an American songwriter, record producer and recording artist. He composed singles for Eddie Rabbitt, including " I Wanna Dance with You", " That's Why I Fell in Love with You" and " ...
- electric guitar
*Roger "Rock" Williams - horn
*Peter Wood - organ, programming
*Pete Wosner - background vocals
Choir performed by 'Catch a Rising Choir' and brass ensemble is 'Uptown Horns'
Chart performance
Album
Singles
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Street Language (Album)
1986 albums
Rodney Crowell albums
Columbia Records albums
Albums produced by Rodney Crowell
Albums produced by Booker T. Jones