b. 11 February 1962, Kennett, Missouri, USA. Sheryl Crow’s asymmetric and abrasive songwriting is not the stuff for lazy listeners. She tackles difficult subjects head-on, wrapping the spare lyrics in angular melodies which stick in the mind.
Raised in small town Missouri, Crow’s father was a ‘driven’ lawyer who prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan for ballot-rigging, and defended civil rights in many cases. Both he and Crow’s mother played in swing bands, she as vocalist, he as a trumpeter with his close friend Leo. After Leo’s sudden death, Wendell put away his trumpet and did not play again until his daughter recorded the tribute song, ‘We Do What We Can’. The Crow household also echoed to the sound of an ancient Magnavox record player, belting out her parents’ recordings of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and the Rolling Stones.
Crow arrived in Los Angeles from St Louis in 1986 with $10, 000 savings, having broken up with her boyfriend, and determined to be a musician. A classical music degree from Missouri State University and singing with college band Kashmir provided the credentials, but with her savings gone Crow branched out into session work. She soon became one of the most respected and sought-after support artists in LA, working with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, George Harrison, Don Henley, John Hiatt, Joe Cocker and Sinéad O’Connor. Bette Midler and Wynonna also recorded her songs. It had taken Crow over five years to achieve this status, pulling herself back from the brink of despair and over-indulgence at the end of the eighties. This crisis in her life was a consequence of her first big break, an 18-month stint hacking round the world as a backing vocalist on Michael Jackson’s Bad tour. Three nights a week Jackson, all leather and buckles, stroked the thigh of Shirley (sic) Crow, all leather and lace, as they performed ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’. However, Crow’s vocal ability impressed enough rock luminaries that many doors were open to her when she eventually returned to LA. Unfortunately, all the doors led into rooms of Jackson-style pop, and Crow was sufficiently strong-willed to resist, even as the doors slammed shut, one after another, leaving her isolated and at rock-bottom. After some six month’s of retreat (much of it spent in bed, lacking the will to get up) and a little help, she ventured back into the session world.
Crow’s recording career has an unusual history. Producer Bill Bottrell ran a Pasadena studio called Toad Hall, where Crow and various other musicians used to meet and play informally every week. They adopted Tuesday Night Music Club as a sobriquet, and the experience provided the impetus for her debut album. The inspiration was fortuitous and sorely-needed; she had already spent over $250, 000 recording a previous debut, only to decide that it was far too polished and unrepresentative to be released. A&M Records had signed her at the behest of Sting’s producer Hugh Padgham after she had done some session work for him. Padgham produced her first attempt, but although the relationship worked at a personal level, it failed to ignite the musical spark they sought.
Fortunately, the record company thought enough of her talent that they agreed to stand by her and wait for the replacement. The resulting Tuesday Night Music Club, recorded with many of the musicians from the Toad Hall sessions, was something of a sleeper when first issued in 1993. The album took almost a year to make an impact, despite being plugged by a succession of marginally successful singles, including ‘Run, Baby, Run’ and ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ (US Top 50). Believing that the album was sliding irrevocably into the commercial shadow lands, Crow was about to begin recording its follow-up when A&M suggested releasing ‘All I Wanna Do’ on a ‘what do we have to lose?’ basis. The track subsequently became one of the major singles of 1994, reaching number 2 in the USA and number 4 in the UK, and pushing the album into multi-platinum status. Crow also triumphed at the 1995 Grammy Awards, taking home honours for Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal, and Record Of The Year.
‘All I Wanna Do’ is a surprising hit. The subject matter relates to a couple of frustrated no-hopers, pouring time down the drain as they indulge in an ‘early-morning beer buzz’ and hoping in vain to ‘have some fun/Before the sun goes down/Over Santa Monica Boulevard’. It was inspired by (previously) obscure poet Wyn Cooper, writing coincidentally about a bar near Crow’s Santa Monica home. The idiosyncratic meter and conversational verse structure defy the imposition of an accessible melody. Instead, their memorable phrasing and imagery are contrasted with the catchy and ironically up-beat refrain, and it was this which tripped lightly from the lips of the record-buying public. The remaining tracks were as good as or better than the hit single. ‘Strong Enough’ dealt with the strains placed on relationships by PMS (‘God, I feel like hell tonight … / … Are you strong enough to be my man?’). Her earlier experience of manoeuvring around rock’s casting couches inspired ‘What Can I Do For You’ and ‘The Na-Na Song’.
Finding time to record a follow-up to Tuesday Night Music Club proved difficult, with the singer opening for the Eagles at their massive 1995 comeback concerts, as well as touring extensively both on her own account and with Cocker. A new album was eventually released at the end of 1996. Retaining just enough of the spontaneity, courage and flair of its predecessor, Sheryl Crow won a Grammy for Best Rock Album at the February 1997 awards. ‘If It Makes You Happy’ (also a Grammy success) and ‘Everyday Is A Winding Road’ rapidly became staples on US rock stations, which had the unfortunate effect of rather trivializing Crow’s songs. Later in 1997, Crow wrote and performed the title theme to the James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies.
Both 1998’s The Globe Sessions and the following year’s live collection (documenting a star-studded free concert in New York’s Central Park) provided a welcome antidote to the AOR slickness of Crow’s second album, with the artist receiving her best reviews since her debut. The former release won another Grammy for Best Rock Album and became Crow’s third platinum-selling release, but the latter was a relative commercial failure. The artist bounced back with her fourth studio album, 2002’s C’Mon C’Mon, which quickly went platinum and spawned the transatlantic hit single ‘Soak Up The Sun’. The following year’s compilation set featured a pedestrian cover version of Cat Stevens’ classic composition ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’. P.P. Arnold was not amused.
In 2005, Crow announced her engagement to superstar cyclist Lance Armstrong (the couple later split up) and completed work on the introspective Wildflower. The following year her press office announced that she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
