POP MUSIC REVIEW : Up-Tempo Set Dilutes Crowell’s Magic

Sometimes things just refuse to add up: The ingredients Sunday at the Celebrity Theatre included the boundlessly talented Rodney Crowell, a tremendous band, nearly two hours of fine songs and a wildly enthusiastic (though half-capacity) audience. But somehow, the magic that had so marked Crowell’s Coach House appearance last year seemed muted.

Of course, the 1989 show took place in a nightclub, instead of the relative vastness of the doughnut-shaped Celebrity. But there also was a marked shift in Crowell’s set material and in the mood that drove it.

The Houston native writes as nimble a country-pop tune as ever there was; his “Heartbroke,” “I Couldn’t Leave You if I Tried” and other songs he played Sunday easily equal the classic tunesmithing of the Everly Brothers’ writers, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.

But it is chiefly in Crowell’s ballads that his talents make their strongest clutch on life, and those were in short supply this time around. The 24-song set relied heavily on his melodic country-rockers, many of those drawn from his early career. Among them: “Baby, Better Start Turnin’ ‘Em Down” and “Song for the Life” from 1978, and 1980’s “Ain’t No Money.”

His delivery on some of the older songs more than justified their resurrection. “Ashes by Now” was given a raging, razor-edge performance by the singer and his excellent quartet, guitarist Steuart Smith, steel guitarist Tommy Spurlock, drummer Vince Santoro and bassist Jim Henson. Throughout the show, the quartet excelled at catching the atmosphere and fullness of Crowell’s studio ensembles.

Smith’s guitar work sparked nearly every song; his mind-boggling mix of speed and skewed fretboard logic mark him as one of the hottest pickers extant. This was particularly evident during his extended solos on the Staple Singer’s “Respect Yourself,” played as an encore.

Along with several rockers from his most recent album, 1989’s “Keys to the Highway,” Crowell did deliver the aching ballad “Many a Long Lonesome Highway.” And again, this man sure does know his aching ballads. The song mixed a large musical helping of Marty Robbins’ romanticism with a cold sober narrative view of the solitary path we all walk:

“My father on his deathbed told me

There’s really nothing here to hold me.

Though I was there, he died alone.”

The death last year of Crowell’s father also was dealt within the show’s central song, “Things I Wish I’d Said.” It is a beautiful, spare song, performed solo, about how Crowell became reconciled with his father in the final years of his life and about the peace the singer found in that when his father passed on:

“I thank the moon and stars

We had a chance to heal our scars.

Now I don’t have to hang my head

Over things I wish I’d said.”

The song is about as real as country gets, and it doubtlessly was a large part of why his Coach House show last year hit such an emotional peak: That performance was on Father’s Day, and his father was only three weeks gone. Even more than a year removed, it was nearly too immediate to bear.

That depth of artistry also revealed itself in “After All This Time” from Crowell’s classic “Diamonds and Dust” album, and his new album’s “Now That We’re Alone,” a song he wrote to patch up a falling out he’d had with his wife, Rosanne Cash.

While no one would want to saddle a performer with singing nothing but yearning tunes, Crowell has such a knack for them that he often recalls the great Roy Orbison. A few more such songs in the show easily could have displaced the nice but non-essential covers of Buck Owens’ “Above and Beyond” and Larry Williams’ “Slow Down.”