Sheryl Crow – Feels Like Home

Sheryl Crow’s new country album probably seems like the least hip album for Catchgroove to review, but hey I got some history with Sheryl.  I have been a fan since her brilliant debut, 1993’s Tuesday Night Music Club.  She followed that up with the pop masterpiece Sheryl Crow which was produced by the very hip Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake.  I was officially hooked.  At this point she was commercially and critically successful enough for Bob Dylan to personally gift her a song (Mississippi) for the equally good The Globe Sessions.

Then Sheryl had a monster hit – the kind of monster hit that can ruin your career by turning you into a celebrity – a real star – (2002 “Soak Up the Sun”).   My daughter was a tweener and we were both huge fans – we loved that song: it was a cruising, roll down the windows sing-along anthem.  Crow crowned her celebrity with a tabloid romance with (then) America’s hero Lance Armstrong (the pre–douche bag years for Lance).  She was no longer hip – she was practically Cher – she even survived a celebrity disease – breast cancer.

There is a fine line between being a star and being a self-parody and cliche. Sheryl was teetering.   She stumbled.  Since the mid-2000s Crow’s music career has been floundering – highlighted by three not bad (worse – they were unremarkable – isn’t it better to out right suck?) releases.

So it was with some suspicion that I came to Sheryl’s COUNTRY album.  Genre jumping to country is often a calculated career-stretching move (Darius “Hootie” Rucker), mockery (Rolling Stones), or irony (Elvis Costello).  In most cases it is not that much of a stretch even if it seems like hanging on for dear life (Bon Jovi).

I think Crow comes to country music honestly – all I ask from a musician is some basic authenticity.  She has always had a touch of country, roots rock and folk in her pop stew.  And let’s face it, today’s county is more inspired by The Eagles than Hank.  And for years she has lived on a farm outside Nashville for goodness sake.  What is a 51-year-old pop diva to do?  Make a fool out of yourself trying to compete with Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus?  Or make a dignified mature county-pop album?  The choice seems obvious.

So how does she do?  Well pretty damn good.  There are some conventional country songs about drinking, cheating, disappointment.  There is Midwestern/Southern sentimentality regarding family and home.  She plays it with a sob, but also with a wink and grin – which are country staples.  She also sprinkles in songs that would not have been out-of-place on her mid-90s masterpieces.

So she did exactly what I would hope: she made a credible Sheryl Crow album, that just happens to be more country than rock.  It positions her to take back her career and gives her a mature platform to play out the next 20 years.  This is not a daring album and it is not a classic album, but it gives me reason to stay interested in Sheryl for another few albums and concert tour or two. All I ask for, as a career long fan of an aging pop star, is to keep me interested and don’t turn into an oldies act (all I ask for from my baseball team is give me hope through the end of August – see I don’t ask for much).  Thanks Sheryl, I am still with you!