That's correct Kevin. The great ones usually work in a variety of ways. With just an acoustic and vocal it can be a stunning moment. then with production,it can be a different animal. Then when it is covered by others, it also can shinte. I have seen Rodney at the Frank Brown festival about eight years ago and he is very good. He writes dynamics into the song.
That is another thing far too many people miss. Dynamics. When they play live or record, they just have everything going from start to end and there is no breakdown, no tweaks or peaks and valleys. The great ones factor that in from the beginning of the writing of the song.
Are you still recoding with big track set ups or do you do simple guitar vocal versions? You might try to simplify and get away from the Band in a box type things that don't allow for any kind of layering. Might help you to build some dynamics into your own songs. I might suggest learning to play this one and see how you can take it live yourself. Not to play out but to bring some different techniques into your overall writing.
MAB