Music Announcement: Rodney Crowell Performs June 1 with Opening Act Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
RODNEY CROWELL needs no introduction. He is the songwriter’s songwriter and an icon among giants. Native Texan, Crowell is a multi-Grammy Award-winning troubadour with fifteen number one hits. Over the course of his career, Crowell has gracefully blended his own mainstream success as an artist with a prolific catalog of songs cut by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Keith Urban and more, making him a master among his peers.
With more than 40 years of American roots music under his belt, Crowell has also been cited as the architect of Americana music, extending his genre reach, but owing to the distinctly universal, literary quality of his writing, he has also penned beloved songs for artists as diverse as Bob Seger, Etta James, the Grateful Dead, John Denver, Jimmy Buffett and countless others. He is the artist behind RIAA gold-certified Diamonds and Dirt, which has 5 singles that reached number one on the Billboard country charts. Crowell has won two Grammy Awards and multiple Americana Music Honors and Awards.
A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Crowell is also the author of the acclaimed memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks, and teamed up with New York Times best-selling author Mary Karr for Kin: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell in 2012, with Karr saying of her collaborator, “Like Hank Williams or Townes Van Zandt or Miss Lucinda, he writes and croons with a poet’s economy and a well digger’s deep heart.” Crowell was honored with ASCAP’s prestigious Founder’s Award in 2017, and that same year released the album Close Ties, which spawned another Grammy nomination for “It Ain’t Over Yet” with Rosanne Cash and John Paul White in the category of Best Americana Song. 2019’s Texas was a collection of Lone Star-centric collaborations with Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, Ronnie Dunn, Steve Earle and more, and Crowell’s most recent album release is the 2021 set, Triage.
Take a 15-time IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Dobro Player of the Year and a Tennessee-born guitar prodigy called “Nashville’s hottest young player” by Acoustic Guitar magazine, and you have ROB ICKES and TREY HENSLEY, a powerhouse acoustic duo that has electrified the acoustic music scene around the world. Known for their white-hot picking and world class musicianship, as well as their soulful stone country vocals, the GRAMMY® nominated duo cleverly and uniquely melds bluegrass, country, blues, rock, jamgrass, and string band music of all kinds to create a signature blend of music that defies restrictions of genre. NPR has called Ickes and Hensley “two musical phenoms”; Vintage Guitar raved they’re an “acoustic firestorm” who “are changing the rules”; Acoustic Guitar describes their sound as “steel-string bluegrass with all the intensity of rock ‘n’ roll” and No Depression observed they’re “two of the finest musicians playing today.”
JACOB TOVAR will play at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa’s Promenade Ballroom for the afterparty. A man from a different time, a different era. With a gentleman’s handshake, a booming voice, a contagious smile, and a quick wit, this Tulsa, OK performer effortlessly connects with all walks of life through his sincere songs of roots, folk, Americana, and old school country. Recommended if you like Ernest Tubb, Jamey Johnson or Chris Stapleton.
Register now to join us for this performance as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, and much more. Switchyard will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for festival attendees.