For more than four decades, Crowell has shaped American roots music, blending country, rock, folk, and Americana.

A multiple Grammy winner and member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he is known for classics like “Ain’t Living Long Like This,” “After All This Time,” and “I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried,” and has collaborated with icons from Emmylou Harris to Rosanne Cash.

Today, Crowell released his latest album, Airline Highway, produced by Tyler Bryant. At today’s Free At Noon, he performed a solo acoustic set of songs from the album — roughly in the sequence you hear the songs on the record, he noted a couple times — and told lengthy stories about the song’s origins.

Crowell set up “Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay” with ruminations on growing up down south, and being able to buy beer at age 15 “if you knew the right gas station.” The humourous “Sometime Thang” is about “overachieving in the marriage department” and was packed with punchlines that set the crowd laughing. On the album, “Taking Flight” is a duet with singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde, and he talked about working in the studio with her.

Crowell also ventured into his back catalog for 2014’s “The Flyboy and The Kid” and 2001’s “Banks of the Old Bandera,” two songs covered by Willie Nelson on his 2025 album Oh What A Beautiful World, a covers collection saluting Crowell. After wrapping his main set with “Lucky,” Crowell performed two off-air encore songs for the sold out crowd: “She’s Crazy For Leaving” and “Glasgow Girl.”

Next month, Rodney Crowell plays Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on September 3rd for the venue’s 100th Anniversary concert, and he plays AMERICANAFEST on September 13th. He kicks off his tour in support of Airline Highway in San Francisco in early October, and returns to the Philly area to headline The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville on October 22nd. Find his full tour dates here.