Before and After Top Ten: After All This Time (#8)

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It's time for another one of the songs on my list of favorites with "before" or "after" in the title. I've had two "before" songs thus far, so it's time to shift gears and let "after" get in on the action! Here's today's song. #8: After All This Time - Rodney Crowell Johnny Cash's ex-son-in-law (Cash had two former sons-in-law in music...the other is Marty Stuart) is a terrific songwriter. His career goes back to 1972, when Jerry Reed discovered him and recorded one of his songs. From those beginnings Crowell has moved on to a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame career, writing such hits as "Shame On the Moon," "Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight," "'Til I Gain Control Again," and "Ain't Livin' Long Like This." His own career as a singer was "cult-figure" status (releasing a number of good but rather weak-selling albums in the late 70s and early 80s) turned around with the album Diamonds and Dirt, making him the first country singer to ever have five #1 singles from the same album. This pain-filled song about break-up, written before he and Rosanne Cash divorced, is one of the highlights of that album, and of Crowell's career. It earned him a Grammy for "country song of the year" in 1989. It's stunning, painful, and beautiful...everything you expect out of a great country song by a great country songwriter. After All This Time Written by Rodney Crowell Recorded by Rodney Crowell From Diamonds and Dirt, 1988 There were days when I could have killed you: