Latest news with #AirlineHighway
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rodney Crowell Duets With Ashley McBryde, Lukas Nelson on New ‘Airline Highway' Album
'The next time hell starts freezing over/be sure to give a call,' Rodney Crowell sings with Ashley McBryde on the new duet 'Taking Flight,' a soaring blues-rock ballad about the miles and years separating former lovers. Ending with an electrifying solo by Tyler Bryant, 'Taking Flight' appears on the songwriter's upcoming studio album, Airline Highway. Produced by Bryant, a Nashville guitar hero and solo artist, Airline Highway features cameos by McBryde, Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr, Lukas Nelson, and the country-rock sibling duo Larkin Poe — making for a particularly high-octane album. More from Rolling Stone Willie Nelson to Reinterpret the Songs of Rodney Crowell on New Album Ringo Starr Teams With Jack White, Sheryl Crow for Country-Themed Concert Special Ashley McBryde Sings Kris Kristofferson's 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' at 2024 CMA Awards 'Ashley McBryde came over to the house to take a swing at writing a song together. 'Flight' is a fictional account of a discussion we had about stardom and driving at night in the south,' Crowell says of the collaboration with McBryde, who appears with the songwriter in the music video too. 'With the exception of the Allman Brothers, I can't say I was ever a fan of 'Southern Rock.' Tyler Bryant's off the cuff solo at the end of the song made me reconsider.' 'Simply sitting across from Rodney is magical,' McBryde says. 'Writing a song with an icon is such an honor and being able to call him my friend is one of the great joys of my life. 'Taking Flight' explored heartache on a plane I hadn't been on before. For Rodney to choose me as a cowriter and a singer is something that only existed in my dreams. This record speaks for itself and I am so happy I get to be part of its journey.' Airline Highway, due Aug. 29 on New West Records, is the follow-up to Crowell's 2023 album with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, The Chicago Sessions. He says the idea for this record came during recording that album. 'A chance presented itself to make a record with Jeff Tweedy at his place in Chicago, something I'd always wanted to do. While we were recording, I got to thinking about the first time I sang into a microphone at JD Miller's Studio in Crowley, Louisiana,' Crowell says. 'The record is long forgotten, but not the experience. Producer Tyler Bryant, recording engineer Trina Shoemaker, and I were talking about what comes after The Chicago Sessions. I said, 'How about Louisiana?' Trina cried out, 'I know the perfect plac e —Dockside Studios on the Vermillion River in Maurice. If we don't get eaten by alligators,' she said, 'We'll make a damn fine record.' 'Game on,' Tyler and I shot back, and off we went. A chance to redeem myself after the pitiful drivel we'd put on tape back in Louisiana in '72. Airline Highway will take you there.' Along with McBryde on 'Taking Flight,' Nelson appears on 'Rainy Days in California,' Starr sings on 'Heaven Can You Help,' and Larkin Poe add their signature playing and harmonies on various tracks. Crowell, 74, will support the album with a tour kicking off May 30 in Arkansas and appearances at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville in September. Track Listing: 1. 'Rainy Days in California' (Feat. Lukas Nelson)2. 'Louisiana Sunshine Feeling Okay' (Feat. Larkin Poe)3. 'Sometime Thang'4. 'Some Kind of Woman'5. 'Taking Flight' (Feat. Ashley McBryde)6. 'Simple (You Wouldn't Call It Simple)'7. 'The Twenty-One Song Salute (Owed to G.G. Shinn and Cléoma Falcon)' (Feat. Tyler Bryant)8. 'Don't Give Up on Me'9. 'Heaven Can You Help' (Feat. Charlie Starr)10. 'Maybe Somewhere Down the Road' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Chicago Tribune
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
In ‘Fool for Love' at Steppenwolf, Caroline Neff takes on an iconic role
Caroline Neff, a native Texan, first came to Chicago in 2004 to study acting at Columbia College. After graduation, she became one of the city's most intense and respected actors, serving as a busy ensemble member at Chicago's acclaimed Steep Theatre and appearing in shows at theater companies like Victory Gardens, Griffin, Northlight and Jackalope. In 2010, Neff became an ensemble member with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she worked on such productions as 'Airline Highway' and 'The Minutes,' both of which transferred to Broadway. On Saturday, Neff opens at Steppenwolf in an iconic and very on-brand role: as May in Sam Shepard's intense 1983 drama of warring lovers in the Mojave Desert, 'Fool for Love.' She plays opposite Nick Gehlfuss (known for TV work including 'Chicago Med') as Eddie. Steppenwolf previously staged the play in 1984 with Terry Kinney directing Rondi Reed and William Petersen in the leading roles. May is now widely associated with the actress Kim Basinger, who appeared in the 1985 film version. Neff, who moved to New York in 2020 after 15 years of living and working in Chicago, spoke during a break in rehearsals; our conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Q: It's been a while since I saw you on stage after seeing you so often for so many years. A: 2024 was a very bleak year. Q: But now here we are. An iconic role. A: Here we are. I love our board of directors, I say that unironically, but their memories are way too good. After I was cast, I got two text messages saying they'll never forget Rondi's performance in this role in 1984. Cool! This will be different! That cannot be replicated! This is the first Sam Shepard play I have ever done. Maybe even the first in the American canon, given that I have done so much new work and British work. Q: You must have read the play in college. A: I don't think I've picked up the play since then. And the difference between reading the play and feeling those characters at 20, versus now doing it at 39? The risks are so much bigger for these two people. And the reward is much more necessary. It makes me nervous. This conversation is going to make me cry. When I read the play in college, my inroads to the irrational emotional choices these character made were much clearer because I don't think I was using a lot of logic at that time in my life. But now as a person who really thinks about the impact of the choices that I make, how that impacts other people, my partner, my community, my self, my sweet, sweet underpaid therapist, it's much more complex. I have the question 'why?' a lot more frequently now than when I experienced a lot of Shepard's work when I was younger. His characters are driven by their needs; they're not driven by rational thinking. I believe the biggest gift we have as actors is to rationalize the emotional choices people make. Including ourselves. So to strip away all of that stuff and just do, takes a lot of unlearning. We talk a lot in rehearsal about how the way we talk about mental health now is really different. And we can't approach these characters like they had kind of access to mental health treatment in any way. It's both fun and scary to play a character driven by her base impulses. Q: Do you think this is still a shocking play? A: I think it is more shocking now because you have to accept that there were two people with knowledge who continued to act on their impulses. The idea of consent is so prominent now in how we talk about intimacy. I believe there was more than one version of the play. We are working from several texts including Sam's own text with lines added in the margins. We're not speaking them but they are very informative. Q: Your background must help with Shepard. A: Yes. I was born in New Mexico. It's like my siren song. The way my body feels there. Look at Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. When she painted New York, it was like she was observing it. When she painted New Mexico, it was like an extension of her arm. I'm like that. I'm so at home in this play. Unfortunately. People will say to me, 'you're great for this role and I will say, what exactly do you mean by that?' Q: Perhaps that you are right for a play about wide-open American spaces? There's danger in the desert and it's not like anywhere else. It's built of survivors. The plants, the insects and the human beings that live there must be survivors. It's baked into your bones. You know, I'm always surprised it's only 40 pages long. It says it should be performed relentlessly. Without a break. If these characters were thinking, they would not be doing what they are doing.
