The Houston Kid (2001)

After decades of scoring number-one mainstream country hits, Rodney Crowell stepped back to deliver this unvarnished autobiographical masterpiece. The Houston Kid confronts Crowell's rough childhood in depression-era east Houston, addressing domestic violence, brotherly love and the AIDS epidemic on 'Wandering Boy'. Blending country-rock punch with novelistic recall, Crowell demonstrates that mature Americana can look backwards without nostalgia, finding grace in difficult family reckonings.