My name is Rodney Crowell. I am a songwriter and recording artist. (A Grammy, an ASCAP lifetime achievement award, Rolling Stone Magazine announcing me some kind of can't miss star of the future after the release of my first album and induction into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame are few of the laurels that might decorate my calling card were I to carry one.) The place of my birth is Houston Texas. The Crowell / Willoughby blood-lines from which I sprang are of the Scottish, Irish, English and Cherokee blend found in the share-crop farm lands of Western Kentucky and Tennessee. In the late depression era barn dance society of Paris Tennessee and Calloway County Kentucky, my father, his father, my mother's mother and sister were fairly well known for their musical inclinations. The more industrious of this particular gene pool were recognized as the local purveyor's of mirth and merriment. Assorted uncles were equally well known for their hard drinking and fistfights.