REMARKABLE LOST ALBUM FEATURES EMMYLOU HARRIS, GUY CLARK, LYLE LOVETT, BENMONT TENCH, LERA LYNN, AND MORE
Rodney Crowell will release Then Again on June 26, 2026 via New West Records. The 10-track set was produced by Crowell and Steuart Smith with additional production by Dan Knobler.
Pre-order: NEW WEST RECORDS
Largely recorded two decades ago, the previously unreleased album features appearances by Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Benmont Tench, as well as Emmylou Harris and Lera Lynn on the bonus track, “Go Light a Candle.”
Crowell says, “I guess you could call it a lost album. I stumbled upon it in my vault at home. I’d forgotten about it completely.”
Musically, Then Again is as varied and inventive as anything he’s ever done, and a twenty-year wait means it is haunted by ghosts: old songs and old possibilities, as well as old compadres, old heroes, and at the centre of it all an old version of Crowell himself. He says, “I’m glad I put it on the shelf, because now is the time for it. It may not be the time for it for the rest of the world, but it’s time for it for me.”
Then Again has been biding its time, waiting for the moment when its songs would hit hardest. And they hit incredibly hard now, largely because age and experience have granted the legendary Crowell a richer perspective. Upon the album announcement, Variety exclaimed “It might seem odd that anyone could record an album as first-rate as Then Again and then not only shelve it but forget about it. But not everyone is Rodney Crowell…”
Crowell has shared two preview tracks:
First single, “Are You One Of Us?,” a duet, or perhaps more accurately, a musical debate with the late, great Guy Clark alongside a conversation with Crowell. The song is the final recording between the two friends and collaborators and is about fractured communities in America, defining themselves as much by who they exclude as by who they welcome.
Hear, “Are You One Of Us? (ft. Guy Clark)” HERE
Album highlight, “If I Could Speak to Leonard,” a newer song he added to Then Again. Delicate and downcast, with some fine guitarwork and a beautifully grave vocal, it’s a love letter to the late singer-songwriter-poet Leonard Cohen, with Crowell imagining a meeting with his own hero. Crowell wrote the song before Cohen’s death in 2016, but he never got to play it for him. He never got to meet him and say any of the things in the song. Crowell says, ‘I’ve always acknowledged Leonard Cohen’s early work as a songwriter. “Bird on a Wire’ and ‘Chelsea Hotel’ particularly. But once I heard the live version of ‘Waiting for a Miracle’ and the next three albums he’d release, especially Old Ideas and You Want It Darker, I came to believe he was the most important songwriter of our time. I say that with all due respect for Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. Seeing him in concert after coming down from the mountain in California, I was convinced he was the most generous performer I’d ever witnessed. His message was spiritual, his artistic presence a blueprint for how to achieve your most inspired work later in life. Thanks to his breadcrumbs, I have more work to do.”
Listen HERE
Back in 2006, Crowell was coming off a trilogy of albums—The Houston Kid in 2001, Fate’s Right Hand in 2003, The Outsider in 2005—that re-established him as a fearless voice in Americana and attracted new generations of fans drawn to his compassionate storytelling, his detail-laden songwriting, and his eloquent outrage over political injustices.
In 2005, he went into Treasure Isle Studios in Nashville with the same band backing him, including Steuart Smith on guitar and co-producing with Crowell, and Benmont Tench flying in to play organ. But when he heard the masters, something didn’t feel quite right. He struggled to figure out exactly what was wrong or what was missing. “There was much talk of the previous albums as a trilogy, so when I finished this one, I listened to it and thought, Oh shit, I just hear all the same sounds and techniques glaring at me. I needed to have a different experience, so I went out to L.A. to make a record with Joe Henry.”
Twenty years later, when he found the album in his vaults, he couldn’t remember exactly what tripped him up. He decided it was finally time, if only because “I heard a record I wasn’t sick of. I was no longer sick of myself. That’s what 20 years will do for you.” Putting the finishing touches on Then Again was a lot like catching up with old friends. “I just loved what happened once I rediscovered it. I wanted to call these guys up and say, Hey! Let’s make a new record. Then Again is like having one last dance with those guys.”
In addition to “If I Could Speak to Leonard,” also added to the original Then Again sessions is the new “Go Light a Candle,” which features Emmylou Harris and Lera Lynn (which was initially released last year).
Once lost and now found, Then Again, is something Rodney Crowell of the 2000s could never have predicted but something the Rodney Crowell of the 2020s recognizes instinctively: a work of nuance, insight, and sensitivity that considers death but celebrates life. “I’m trying to understand that this spirit of mine is going to leave this body and go off somewhere else. I’ve got a pretty good idea that it’s going to be someplace good, but I still need to perfect some part of my spiritual journey here before I check out. I can see that in these songs now.”
Rodney Crowell is set to launch U.S. tour dates on June 6 at the Grand Mesa Songwriter Festival in support of last year’s Airline Highway. Met with critical acclaim, MusicRow exclaimed, “This singer-songwriter belongs in the Country Music Hall of Fame” while Saving Country Music said “Rodney Crowell has been one of the most inspiring and influential characters in the history of country music in a career that spans well over 50 years.”
Then Again will be available across streaming platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. Limited “Swamp Green” vinyl and compact disc editions, both autographed by Rodney Crowell, will be available at Independent Retailers and are available for pre-order NOW via NEW WEST RECORDS.
Then Again Track Listing:
1.I Won’t Lie
2. Are You One of Us? (feat. Guy Clark)
3. If I Could Speak To Leonard
4. Bring It on Home To Memphis
5. The Ballad of Artemis and Orion
6. Sing Your Heart Out (feat. Kieran Goss & Annie Kinsella)
7. Whatcha Gonna Do Now #2 (feat. Lyle Lovett & Chely Wright)
8. The Has-Been Vents His Spleen
9. 40 Winters
10. Go Light a Candle (feat. Emmylou Harris & Lera Lynn)
Photograph by Claudia Church