Next month, Marshall Crenshaw will mark his 30th anniversary as arecording artist with a pair of shows at New York's City Winery. Ateach show, the power-pop singer-songwriter will perform his 1981debut single, "Something's Gonna Happen," as well as his 1982eponymous full-length debut in its entirety.
"I kind of got scammed on this: I thought I was only going to bedoing the album the first night, but they advertised both nights,"says Crenshaw. "But I'm pretty pleased about it."
Crenshaw's current solo acoustic tour, which stops tonight inMemphis for a show at the Hi-Tone Caf, could easily have been anextension of the anniversary shows. In the mode of a retrospective,the Detroit-born artist says he plans to cover material fromthroughout his career, from Marshall Crenshaw to his latest release,2009's Jaggedland .
But the real reason for the tour is more personal and impromptuthan nostalgic.
"I'm on my way to Santa Fe to visit a friend for a couple ofdays," says Crenshaw, driving alone somewhere along the Arizona-NewMexico border. "This whole thing is like a cross-country road tripwith some gigs thrown in along the way."
It's not that Crenshaw is dismissive of the past. Indeed, eversince his debut, when Crenshaw was hailed as a sort of Americananswer to Elvis Costello, he has shown an abiding respect for it.His musical knowledge is deep and encyclopedic, expressed in suchnonperforming projects as his book on rock-and-roll movies and anacclaimed 1986 compilation of golden-era country called HillbillyMusic ... Thank God, Vol. 1.
In his own work, Crenshaw seems to encapsulate the whole ofAmerican song. There is no better example of this than "Someday,Someway," a Buddy Holly-channeled rocker that remains his biggestsolo hit and a staple of rock radio . On the same record, alongsideother finely constructed Crenshaw tunes that showed the influence ofeveryone from Burt Bacharach to the Beach Boys, he covers theobscure Arthur Alexander country-soul number "Soldier Of Love (LayDown Your Arms)."
In fact, it can be argued that Crenshaw's devotion to old-fashioned song craft held back his career. After his debut smash -"Someday, Someway" went Top 40 - he followed up in 1983 with themore divisive Field Day , a record whose more commercial productionsignaled the growing creep of flashier MTV-style acts .
Though he never again reached the commercial heights of thatfirst record , Crenshaw has continued to record, though withincreasingly longer breaks between appearances, and his songs havebecome favored material by a host of artists, including RonnieSpector, the Gin Blossoms, Freedy Johnston and Kelly Willis.
Meanwhile, Crenshaw has found new outlets for his music. With hisappearance as Holly in 1987's "La Bamba," Crenshaw began a longrelationship with the film industry.
More recently, he penned the theme song to the John C. Reillymock music biopic "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story." And just lastyear he was in Memphis serving as executive music producer on theupcoming indie film "Losers Take All," a job that brought him intocontact with such local players as Scott Bomar, Steve Selvidge, JackOblivian and John Paul Keith, a player whose roots devotion mirrorshis own.
"I've got his CD right here in my car, called Spills and Thrills," says Crenshaw. "I loved the way everybody played and the spiritthey put into the thing."
The "Losers Take All" soundtrack is part of new spurt of activitythat started with Jaggedland and includes an upcoming series ofvinyl and Internet-only singles he has planned. Before Jaggedland ,Crenshaw had gone six years without much activity .
"Some of the time I was just living my life and didn't realizeit," says Crenshaw, who lives in upstate New York with this family."All of a sudden I looked up and the usual cycle had kind of passed,and I was still no way near interested in making a record."
It took the gentle prodding of his friend, producer StewartLerman, to get Crenshaw back to work. Several years in the making,Jaggedland became a uniquely personal record, a collection of songsabout love and mortality in which Crenshaw cast a number of hisfavorite musicians, including legendary drummer Jim Keltner, fellowDetroit native Wayne Kramer of the MC5, and vibraphonist EmilRichards, to make his most sonically diverse record ever.
"I decided to really make sure that I loved everything that I wascoming up with and that I believed everything I was saying and thatI was saying it in the best possible way and that the music wasinteresting," says Crenshaw, who plans to follow the album with aseries of vinyl and Internet-only singles. "I just decided to go forit wholeheartedly and hold myself to a high standard. And that'swhat I did. It just took awhile."
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Marshall Crenshaw with Richard James & The Special Riders
Tonight at the Hi-Tone Caf, 1913 Poplar. Doors open at 9 p.m.Tickets: $15, available at the door and online at hitonememphis.com.For more information, call 278-8663.
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