Post by philly on Sept 16, 2012 3:46:10 GMT -5
This Crow flies high with rock 'n' roll
REVIEW
September 10, 2012|By JEFF HARRELL | South Bend Tribune
NEW BUFFALO -- Rock. And roll. Toss all pop out the window. Wrap Sheryl Crow up in a tough little flame-resistant package and plant her firmly in the category of rock’s leading ladies and gents , in the same bin with Chrissy Hynde and Joan Jett, right there next to Mick and Keith, or Linda Ronstadt if you really want to get down to brass comparisons.
Never mind that it took Crow several swings to Uncle Kracker’s one to smash a guitar to open the Four Winds Casino’s Hard Rock Café Friday night. Save the pop queen crown for the Britneys, the Mariahs and the Beyonces of the music sphere.
So what if Crow cut her vocal cords singing backup for the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. That was no pop diva strutting out on the Four Winds’ Silver Creek Event Center stage Friday night in a shiny gray jacket, tight shimmering charcoal jeans and open-toed platform heels with an aura of entitlement that announced her presence with rock star authority before one breathy familiar lyric could escape into the microphone.
Crow wasted no time getting to her hits. Backed by a high-powered five-piece band of heavyweight session and touring players — Black Crowes and Dixie Chicks alum Audley Freed on slide guitar, Peter Stroud on guitar, bassist Robert Kearns, drummer Fred Eltringham, and keyboardist Glenn Patscha — Crow opened the show with her homage to film icon Steve McQueen as if insulted by the shallow pop label that tends to pop up every now and then with her name on it.
“I ain’t taking (bleep) off no one … Baby that was yesterday … I’m an all-American rebel … making my big getaway.”
As if feeling the need to grab the audience by the throat right away and hold on tight for 90 minutes, Crow plowed from “Steve McQueen” into the song that hoisted her name onto marquees everywhere more than 20 years ago.
“I like a good beer buzz early in the mornin’,” she sang from her 1992 mega hit, “All I Wanna Do.” The crowd chimed in with “All I wanna do is have some fun” as if they were singing all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard.
“We’re in Michigan?” Crow asked when she finally took to the microphone to introduce herself and her band. “We’re glad to be here, wherever the hell we are.”
It showed.
It usually does with Crow, one of the reasons why the former Missouri school teacher has worn staying power in a notorious here-today-gone-tonight industry like a full length leather coat. Never great, but consistently good, Crow woos her audience with simple tales of love, desperation and early morning beer buzzes in a voice that you’d love to take home to meet the mom who still digs Ronstadt but also over into Elvis Costello territory back in the day.
Nothing fancy or ground shattering in the ballad “My Favorite Mistake,” just a band of jeans-wearing, long-haired bearded musician dudes showing off simple, tasteful riffs fronted by the show’s pretty hippie-chick star who was too young to take the ’60s by storm but looks like a million bucks singing her catchy songs like a songbird wearing a fed-up bitchy side on her sleeve.
“No one said it would be easy … No one thought we’d come this far.”
Major props to the sound man. Each guitar clearly cut through its own space, never drowning out Crow’s acoustic backdrop or hiding the smoky layers served up by Patscha’s Hammond B-3 organ. The drums were set nicely in the mix with a bass drum you could feel beating against your chest without actually hearing it.
When Crow broke into “A Change” from her self-titled 1996 release, another hit song in a seemingly endless catalog of hits that could end up immortalized in Cleveland before it’s all over, her voice toed the line between cutie-pie sweet and sarcastic rasp.
“God’s little gift is on the rag/Poster girl posing in a fashion mag/Canine, feline, Jekyll and Hyde/Wear your fake fur on the inside … A change would do you good … A change would do you good.”
The sold-out audience agreed, clapping, dancing and singing along. Women in the house exuded the most enthusiasm, jumping to their feet in dancing bunches, singing loud and proud, and enjoying their own little raucous get-together without concerning themselves one bit with their male bystanders.
Crow got the guys’ attention when she asked, “This song’s about gambling, right?” before launching into “Leaving Las Vegas” in a hushed voice that soothed all the high notes without once cracking.
Whether “Strong Enough” was written as a semi-conscious take on a Loretta Lynn ballad is a question that might be taken up at Crow’s next press conference. But when Crow crooned, “Are you strong enough to be my man,” all the beers in the house should have been covered from the flood of country tears the song evoked.
A new song, “Shotgun,” from Crow’s upcoming CD, had “nothing to do with the gun laws” and everything to do with no frills, snare-drum driving rock ‘n’ roll. Crow belted out, “If you don’t wanna drive, you can ride shotgun,” with the conviction of an old Bad Company record.
Finally, it was time to “Soak up the Sun.” Crow walked up and down the stage singing, “I just wanna soak up the sun,” smiling and playfully slapping hands with audience members while tossing out a few souvenir guitar picks before leaving the stage.
Returning for an encore, Crow put an end to the 90-minute concert with an old Ronstadt song, slamming “You’re no good, you’re no good, you’re no good, baby you’re no good” like a defiant rock star who doesn’t doubt one teeny bit that she belongs right there next to Ronstadt, Hynde or even Mick and Keith, side by side in the bin set aside for good old fashioned rock ’n’ roll.
Pop be damned.
REVIEW
September 10, 2012|By JEFF HARRELL | South Bend Tribune
NEW BUFFALO -- Rock. And roll. Toss all pop out the window. Wrap Sheryl Crow up in a tough little flame-resistant package and plant her firmly in the category of rock’s leading ladies and gents , in the same bin with Chrissy Hynde and Joan Jett, right there next to Mick and Keith, or Linda Ronstadt if you really want to get down to brass comparisons.
Never mind that it took Crow several swings to Uncle Kracker’s one to smash a guitar to open the Four Winds Casino’s Hard Rock Café Friday night. Save the pop queen crown for the Britneys, the Mariahs and the Beyonces of the music sphere.
So what if Crow cut her vocal cords singing backup for the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. That was no pop diva strutting out on the Four Winds’ Silver Creek Event Center stage Friday night in a shiny gray jacket, tight shimmering charcoal jeans and open-toed platform heels with an aura of entitlement that announced her presence with rock star authority before one breathy familiar lyric could escape into the microphone.
Crow wasted no time getting to her hits. Backed by a high-powered five-piece band of heavyweight session and touring players — Black Crowes and Dixie Chicks alum Audley Freed on slide guitar, Peter Stroud on guitar, bassist Robert Kearns, drummer Fred Eltringham, and keyboardist Glenn Patscha — Crow opened the show with her homage to film icon Steve McQueen as if insulted by the shallow pop label that tends to pop up every now and then with her name on it.
“I ain’t taking (bleep) off no one … Baby that was yesterday … I’m an all-American rebel … making my big getaway.”
As if feeling the need to grab the audience by the throat right away and hold on tight for 90 minutes, Crow plowed from “Steve McQueen” into the song that hoisted her name onto marquees everywhere more than 20 years ago.
“I like a good beer buzz early in the mornin’,” she sang from her 1992 mega hit, “All I Wanna Do.” The crowd chimed in with “All I wanna do is have some fun” as if they were singing all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard.
“We’re in Michigan?” Crow asked when she finally took to the microphone to introduce herself and her band. “We’re glad to be here, wherever the hell we are.”
It showed.
It usually does with Crow, one of the reasons why the former Missouri school teacher has worn staying power in a notorious here-today-gone-tonight industry like a full length leather coat. Never great, but consistently good, Crow woos her audience with simple tales of love, desperation and early morning beer buzzes in a voice that you’d love to take home to meet the mom who still digs Ronstadt but also over into Elvis Costello territory back in the day.
Nothing fancy or ground shattering in the ballad “My Favorite Mistake,” just a band of jeans-wearing, long-haired bearded musician dudes showing off simple, tasteful riffs fronted by the show’s pretty hippie-chick star who was too young to take the ’60s by storm but looks like a million bucks singing her catchy songs like a songbird wearing a fed-up bitchy side on her sleeve.
“No one said it would be easy … No one thought we’d come this far.”
Major props to the sound man. Each guitar clearly cut through its own space, never drowning out Crow’s acoustic backdrop or hiding the smoky layers served up by Patscha’s Hammond B-3 organ. The drums were set nicely in the mix with a bass drum you could feel beating against your chest without actually hearing it.
When Crow broke into “A Change” from her self-titled 1996 release, another hit song in a seemingly endless catalog of hits that could end up immortalized in Cleveland before it’s all over, her voice toed the line between cutie-pie sweet and sarcastic rasp.
“God’s little gift is on the rag/Poster girl posing in a fashion mag/Canine, feline, Jekyll and Hyde/Wear your fake fur on the inside … A change would do you good … A change would do you good.”
The sold-out audience agreed, clapping, dancing and singing along. Women in the house exuded the most enthusiasm, jumping to their feet in dancing bunches, singing loud and proud, and enjoying their own little raucous get-together without concerning themselves one bit with their male bystanders.
Crow got the guys’ attention when she asked, “This song’s about gambling, right?” before launching into “Leaving Las Vegas” in a hushed voice that soothed all the high notes without once cracking.
Whether “Strong Enough” was written as a semi-conscious take on a Loretta Lynn ballad is a question that might be taken up at Crow’s next press conference. But when Crow crooned, “Are you strong enough to be my man,” all the beers in the house should have been covered from the flood of country tears the song evoked.
A new song, “Shotgun,” from Crow’s upcoming CD, had “nothing to do with the gun laws” and everything to do with no frills, snare-drum driving rock ‘n’ roll. Crow belted out, “If you don’t wanna drive, you can ride shotgun,” with the conviction of an old Bad Company record.
Finally, it was time to “Soak up the Sun.” Crow walked up and down the stage singing, “I just wanna soak up the sun,” smiling and playfully slapping hands with audience members while tossing out a few souvenir guitar picks before leaving the stage.
Returning for an encore, Crow put an end to the 90-minute concert with an old Ronstadt song, slamming “You’re no good, you’re no good, you’re no good, baby you’re no good” like a defiant rock star who doesn’t doubt one teeny bit that she belongs right there next to Ronstadt, Hynde or even Mick and Keith, side by side in the bin set aside for good old fashioned rock ’n’ roll.
Pop be damned.