Crow Row

The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream are among the first groups that come to mind when discussing classic power trios. Ireland's Taste, led by guitarist Rory Gallagher, were also there at the beginning. They were raw, rocked hard, and were more devoted to the blues. Gallagher kept the trio format long after going solo, and became a fine songwriter as well. Crow Black Chicken are his countrymen. Christy O'Hanlon (vocals, guitar), Stephen McGrath (bass), and Gev Barrett (drums, backing vocals) have soaked up his and his contemporaries' influences, as well other loud and proud trios: ZZ Top, Mountain, Gov't Mule, etc. Electric Soup is their debut long-player. It's an excellent showcase for CBC's stunning playing and excellent songwriting – the latter is something many of their contemporaries never learned. These are not mere riff-heavy stoner rock jams, but songs. While they keep things basic, CBC understand the place of melody and dynamics; they've soaked up their share of folk and country in addition to blues and guitar rock.

Since her dense, varied, postmodernist eponymous second album illustrated that Sheryl Crow was no one-album wonder, she wasn't left with as much to prove the third time around. Having created an original variation on roots rock with Sheryl Crow, she was left with the dilemma of how to remain loyal to that sound without repeating herself on her third album, The Globe Sessions. To her credit, she never plays lazy, not when she's turning out Stonesy rockers ("There Goes the Neighborhood") or when she's covering Dylan (the remarkable "Mississippi," an outtake from Time Out of Mind).

Sheryl Crow was one of the key artists of the '90s, if the yardstick is capturing the sound and spirit of the time. A former backing vocalist for Michael Jackson – an association that led to dubious tabloid headlines romantically linking her with the singer long before she was a star in her own right – she rode the first great wave of Women in Rock hysteria of the alt-rock explosion to fame with her first album, Tuesday Night Music Club, in 1994, settling into the weary aftermath of the post-grunge years with her brilliant eponymous second album in 1996, riding out the end years of the Clinton administration with the measured, mature Globe Sessions in 1998, and then defying the gloom of the W years by soaking up the sun on 2002's C'mon C'mon.

Since her dense, varied, postmodernist eponymous second album illustrated that Sheryl Crow was no one-album wonder, she wasn't left with as much to prove the third time around. Having created an original variation on roots rock with Sheryl Crow, she was left with the dilemma of how to remain loyal to that sound without repeating herself on her third album, The Globe Sessions. To her credit, she never plays lazy, not when she's turning out Stonesy rockers ("There Goes the Neighborhood") or when she's covering Dylan (the remarkable "Mississippi," an outtake from Time Out of Mind).

It's hard to call The Globe Sessions a stumble, but its stripped-down, straightforwardness paled in comparison to the dark pop-culture kaleidoscope of Sheryl Crow's eponymous second album. That's why C'mon, C'mon, Crow's long-delayed fourth album, is such a delight – it's the sunny flip side of that masterpiece, a skillful synthesis of classic rock and modern sensibilities that's pretty irresistible. Crow has turned into the professional she always acted she was – she not only crafts songs impeccably, she knows how to record them, filling the record with interesting sonic details, whether it's the Steve Miller-styled "woo hoo"s on "Steve McQueen" or subtle Mellotrons on "Over You."

It's hard to call The Globe Sessions a stumble, but its stripped-down, straightforwardness paled in comparison to the dark pop-culture kaleidoscope of Sheryl Crow's eponymous second album. That's why C'mon, C'mon, Crow's long-delayed fourth album, is such a delight – it's the sunny flip side of that masterpiece, a skillful synthesis of classic rock and modern sensibilities that's pretty irresistible. Crow has turned into the professional she always acted she was – she not only crafts songs impeccably, she knows how to record them, filling the record with interesting sonic details, whether it's the Steve Miller-styled "woo hoo"s on "Steve McQueen" or subtle Mellotrons on "Over You."

Sheryl Crow has defined the essential place of a woman in Rock since releasing her 7X PLATINUM-certified TUESDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB and self-titled Best Rock Album Grammy-winning follow-up. Rock & Roll is at its best live and at a time when concerts suspended, Crow delivers LIVE FROM THE RYMAN AND MORE, a 27-song set captured live in 2019 at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, Los Angeles’ cutting edge Ace Theatre and the legendary Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.