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Rodney Crowell To Kick Off Sisters Starry Nights Season

Nashville legends
Rodney Crowell
and
Chely Wright
will kick off the eleventh season of the Sisters Starry Nights Benefit Concert Series with a performance at Sisters High School on

Saturday, April 26.

The Grammy Award-winning songwriter, singer and alt-country icon, Rodney Crowell will be joined by an acoustic trio, showcasing the classic ballads, rocking rhythms and brilliant songwriting that have made Rodney Crowell one of the most influential country artists of his time.
Garnering widespread recognition as a leader of the New Traditionalist movement of the mid-80’s, Crowell is renowned for forging ahead into new musical and thematic territory, crisscrossing between rock, country and gospel music. As the Boston Herald describes, he is “the modern embodiment of the cowboy poet.”
Over the course of his career, Crowell has recorded eleven solo albums including 1988’s Diamonds and Dirt, which produced five number one singles; won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song; won the ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award; been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; won the 2004 Americana Award for Song of the Year; and received a 2006 Grammy nomination for Best Country Collaboration for “Shelter from the Storm” with frequent collaborator Emmylou Harris. Last November, he was inducted into Nashville’s Music City Walk of Fame along with Vince Gill, Barbara Mandrell, Bob DiPiero and the late Jimi Hendrix.
Among his songwriting credits are the hits “Shame on the Moon” for Bob Seger, “Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream”) and “Voila, An American Dream” for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, “Ashes By Now” for Lee Ann Womack, “Please Remember Me” for Tim McGraw and “Making Memories of Us” for Keith Urban.
The last few years have been especially prolific for Crowell, who released his autobiographical album The Houston Kid in 2001 to critical praise, followed by its equally acclaimed soul-searching sequel, Fate’s Right Hand in 2003. The following year, he and long-time friend Vince Gill reassembled their old band, “The Notorious Cherry Bombs,” and released their self-titled debut. He and Gill also sing a duet on Gill’s chart-topping 4-CD boxed set, These Days. Rodney’s latest release, The Outsider, earned two 2006 Grammy nominations, and is considered by many to be his finest work.

Country star
Chely Wright
is best known for hits such as “Single White Female” and “Shut Up and Drive,” but is also a top notch songwriter in her own right. Through her songs, Chely feels the freedom to write and record songs that mean something to her and is willing to fully share with us what she is about. Wright wrote eight of the 12 songs on her new CD, her sixth album, The Metropolitan Hotel, including the emotionally moving single, “The Bumper of My S.U.V.” The song spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Country Singles Sales chart and touched the hearts of our deployed military and their families around the world .

Chely’s music has garnered many accolades and awards from both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. She received the Academy of Country Music’s Award for Best new Female Artist in 1995 and she has been featured in People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2001.

"Shut Up And Drive," from her MCA Nashville debut, Let Me In, became her first top-ten hit in 1997. She opened for Vince Gill and became the only female artist chosen for the Crown Royal Tour in 1999. That year came "Single White Female" and Chely's quick ascension to a new career level.

"Getting that first #1 is something I can mark off my list," she says with a smile. "It's a great feeling to do the show every night and to be able to say, 'You guys gave me a #1 record, and I thank you." Given her drive, her most recent triumphs are simply plateaus rather than peaks, starting points for further climbs, which she plans to make with the same combination of talent and verve that have brought her this far.

But her many charitable endeavors are what fills up her heart. In addition to her talents as an artist and performer, Chely is known for her integrity, business savy and personal contributions Her foundation, Reading, Writing & Rhythm, which she founded in 1999 following the Columbine tragedy, raises money to benefit music education in public schools across America and has approached the one million dollar mark in funds raised for this cause.

In 2003, she was named “Woman of the Year” by the American Legion Auxiliary and “Kansan of the Year” for her career achievements, her charity work and her support of the U.S. armed forces. She was recognized by MENC in 2001 with its “Stand Up For Music Award” and in 2002, she was presented with their “Fame Award” for her with with her Reading, Writing and Rhythm Foundation.

Coming from a military family, Chely’s lifelong support of the troops began with performances at Veteran’s Hospitals and military funerals during her childhood and in the last 10 years has taken her all over the world to entertain our deployed troops including performances in Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Germany, two trips to Iraq and most recently a trip to remote military outposts in Afghanistan.