Chad Cromwell
Encyclopedia
Chad Cromwell is an American drummer
, best known for his work with Neil Young
and with Mark Knopfler
.
, and three years later moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee
. In 1990, he moved to Nashville, got married and started a family, and built his recording career.
in 1986, appearing on two albums, Got Any Gum?
and Ordinary Average Guy
.
In 1987, Cromwell began a collaboration with songwriter Neil Young
. The initial sessions became Neil Young & The Bluenotes. Since then he has recorded and toured with Young on several occasions, and appears on albums such as Freedom
(1989), Prairie Wind (2005) Living with War
(2006) and Chrome Dreams II
(2007). He has also appeared in Heart of Gold
, a documentary capturing the debut of Neil Young's album, Prairie Wind (along with other Young classics). This was filmed at the Ryman auditorium and directed by Jonathan Demme
.
Cromwell is also known for his contributions to Mark Knopfler
's solo albums Golden Heart
(1996), Sailing to Philadelphia
(2000), The Ragpicker's Dream
(2002) and Shangri-La
(2004). He was also part of Knopfler's band during the tours of his first solo albums.
Cromwell toured with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the summer of 2006.
He has also worked with many other artists including Vince Gill
, Amy Grant
,Lady Antebellum, Diana Krall
, Willie Nelson
, Jackson Browne
, Boz Scaggs
, Wynonna, Trisha Yearwood
, Miranda Lambert
, Bonnie Raitt
, Peter Frampton
, Allison Moorer
, Chris Knight
,, Joss Stone
, Rodney Crowell, and Marty Stuart
.
In the mid-2000s, he formed the band Fortunate Sons along with Michael Rhodes, Gary Nicholson, Kenny Greenberg, and Reese Wynans
. They released a self-titled album in 2004. He is also a member of the occasional touring band Big Al Anderson and The Balls, led by former NRBQ guitarist Al Anderson.
Chad endorses Craviotto drums, Zildjian Cymbals, DW Hardware, Vic Firth sticks,Universal Audio, Focusrite and QuikLoc..
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, best known for his work with Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
and with Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
.
Personal life
Cromwell was born in Paducah, KentuckyPaducah, Kentucky
Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...
, and three years later moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. In 1990, he moved to Nashville, got married and started a family, and built his recording career.
Career
Cromwell started recording and touring with Joe WalshJoe Walsh
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...
in 1986, appearing on two albums, Got Any Gum?
Got Any Gum?
Got Any Gum? is the eighth studio album by Joe Walsh, released in 1987. This album features a 1983 song, "In My Car", co-written with Ringo Starr .-Reception:...
and Ordinary Average Guy
Ordinary Average Guy
Ordinary Average Guy is the ninth studio album by Joe Walsh, released in 1991 .-Reception:Writing for Allmusic, critic Vincent Jeffries wrote of the album "This collection of nostalgia, decent balladry, and quirky anthems probably reinforced any notions of Joe Walsh's creative decline.....
.
In 1987, Cromwell began a collaboration with songwriter Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. The initial sessions became Neil Young & The Bluenotes. Since then he has recorded and toured with Young on several occasions, and appears on albums such as Freedom
Freedom (Neil Young album)
Freedom has received mainly positive reviews. Allmusic's William Ruhlmann rated the album four-and-a-half out of five stars, explaining that it "was the album Neil Young fans knew he was capable of making, but feared he would never make again." He also stated that "there were tracks that harked...
(1989), Prairie Wind (2005) Living with War
Living With War
Living with War is the twenty-ninth Grammy and Juno Award-nominated studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 2006. The album's lyrics, titles, and conceptual style are highly critical of the policies of the George W. Bush administration; the CTV website defined it as "a musical...
(2006) and Chrome Dreams II
Chrome Dreams II
Chrome Dreams II is the thirty-first studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. The album was released on October 23, 2007. The album is a sequel to Chrome Dreams, a legendary Neil Young album from 1977 that had originally been scheduled for release but was shelved in favor of American Stars 'N...
(2007). He has also appeared in Heart of Gold
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
Neil Young: Heart of Gold is a 2006 documentary and concert film by Jonathan Demme, featuring Neil Young. The film was made in the summer of 2005 in Nashville, Tennessee, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and was released to theaters on February 10, 2006...
, a documentary capturing the debut of Neil Young's album, Prairie Wind (along with other Young classics). This was filmed at the Ryman auditorium and directed by Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
.
Cromwell is also known for his contributions to Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
's solo albums Golden Heart
Golden Heart
Golden Heart is the debut solo album by Mark Knopfler, following a successful career leading the British rock band Dire Straits and composing a string of critically acclaimed film soundtrack albums. The album was released on 26 March 1996...
(1996), Sailing to Philadelphia
Sailing to Philadelphia
Sailing to Philadelphia is the second solo album by Mark Knopfler, released on 26 September 2000. The title track is drawn from Thomas Pynchon's novel about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the two English surveyors who established the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Delaware and...
(2000), The Ragpicker's Dream
The Ragpicker's Dream
The Ragpicker's Dream is the third solo album by Mark Knopfler. Released on 30 September 2002, the album is a collection of songs written from the point of view of poor but dignified itinerant men, struggling to get by in life, often enjoying small triumphs. Knopfler gives a folk imprint to the...
(2002) and Shangri-La
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
(2004). He was also part of Knopfler's band during the tours of his first solo albums.
Cromwell toured with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the summer of 2006.
He has also worked with many other artists including Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
, Amy Grant
Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, media personality and actress, best known for her Christian music. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christian Pop"...
,Lady Antebellum, Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
, Boz Scaggs
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1970s with several Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.-Early life and career:Scaggs was born in Canton,...
, Wynonna, Trisha Yearwood
Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood , is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA...
, Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
, Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer is an American alternative country singer and the younger sister of Shelby Lynne. She signed to MCA Nashville in 1998 and made her debut on the U.S...
, Chris Knight
Chris Knight (musician)
Chris Knight is a singer and songwriter from Kentucky. He only recently came to national attention, but has written songs for Confederate Railroad, John Anderson, and Randy Travis among others...
,, Joss Stone
Joss Stone
Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...
, Rodney Crowell, and Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
.
In the mid-2000s, he formed the band Fortunate Sons along with Michael Rhodes, Gary Nicholson, Kenny Greenberg, and Reese Wynans
Reese Wynans
Reese Wynans is a keyboard player who has done session work and has been a member of Double Trouble and progressive rock band Captain Beyond.- Personal life :Reese Wynans grew up in Sarasota, Florida during the 1950s...
. They released a self-titled album in 2004. He is also a member of the occasional touring band Big Al Anderson and The Balls, led by former NRBQ guitarist Al Anderson.
Chad endorses Craviotto drums, Zildjian Cymbals, DW Hardware, Vic Firth sticks,Universal Audio, Focusrite and QuikLoc..