Country Singer Bankrolls Own Album
HOPKINS: And finally, in the late '80s, singer, songwriter, and producer Rodney Crowell topped the country music charts with five number one records in a row. But he soon drifted from the spotlight, falling out of favor with radio big wigs after failing to repeat that success. Now Crowell is staging a comeback. And he's doing it on his own terms this time with a record he bankrolled himself. Steve Young has this story.</s>RODNEY CROWELL, MUSICIAN: Say that again.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daddy comes from the east side.</s>CROWELL: Your daddy comes from the east side? Your daddy is funky.</s>STEVE YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rodney Crowell grew up on the low-income side of Houston's east side where he says his daddy beat up his mom. He sings about that topsy-turvy world on his latest record "The Houston Kid." CROWELL (singing)</s>YOUNG: Crowell had to bankroll the record himself, even though he made a pile of money for the national music establishment with a monster record in the '80s that yielded five number one hits in a row. He wrote, produced, and sang them all. But Nashville wasn't interested in banking a 50-year-old man writing about social problems like AIDS and alcoholism and domestic violence. Crowell hankered to follow his heart.</s>CROWELL: What I did, I just didn't feel like I could make that record over and over and over again and fell out of grace with those who guard the door of the big commercial radio.</s>YOUNG: The result is what Sinatra fans would call a concept album. It's a tender idea that life is full of pain, but also forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption. CROWELL (singing)</s>CROWELL: There were a couple of times when I came in and told my wife, "Hey, I just emptied our bank account making this record." Whether I spend every penny I have making it and no one buys it, at least I can say one time in my career I made a record that I believe in wholeheartedly because sometimes that's all you get. CROWELL (singing)</s>MICHAEL RADLAUER, SONGWRITER: It's not cookie cutter material. It's personal. It has some soul to it, something that's really missing from country music now.</s>YOUNG: Crowell knows he won't get the returns of the record industry's corporate own. This time around there isn't much marketing or distribution muscle. Is there a big appetite for thoughtful music? Other bands, Nashville, and Rodney Crowell's wife are waiting to find out. For BUSINESS UNUSUAL, I'm Steve Young, CNN Financial News, New York.</s>HOPKINS: That's BUSINESS UNUSUAL. If you missed any of today's program, you can catch it on the web. Just go to cnnfn.com/businessunusual. I'm Jan Hopkins. Thanks for joining us. Goodbye from New York.