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Saturday night, September 9, Sheryl Crow performed at the Midwest Bank
Amphitheatre, formerly the Tweeter Center, on a bill that featured John
Mayer as headliner, and Matt Kearney of Nashville, TN as an opening
act. John Mayer’s position as headliner on this tour is due to his
current popularity that is evidenced by his soaring record sales.
Watching Sheryl Crow perform with her rockin’ band kickin’ it out on a
big stage playing and dancing in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd I
was captivated as much by the extraordinary songs as by the committed
performance that Sheryl and her band delivered. Since her emergence on
the scene in the early nineties she has reached a level of skill both as
a songwriter and a performer that is achieved by only a rare few. Since
her first album she released in 1993, Tuesday Night Music Club and
continuing on through ‘Wildflower’, she has steadily grown as a
songwriter, while if you look at pictures of her through the years she
has developed a very stylish persona unique to women on the rock scene;
a confident, dignified, yet sexy style.
She
opened up the show with ‘Change’ and followed it up with ‘If it makes
you happy’ then kicked in to ‘Hard to make a stand’. By the time she
finished the fourth song and finally said something she was firmly in
control of the evening. Looking up to the private suites that have
become such a fixture of the recent corporate owned venues such as the
Midwestern Bank Amphitheatre, her first words of the night were, ‘you
guy’s up in those boxes…you must be the rich guys’. Stated
matter-of-factly without the usual accusatorial tone it had the effect
of capturing in the real spirit of the day. While the audience was
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remarks the band kicked into Dylan’s, ‘Stayed in Mississippi a day too
long’. The band took their playing seriously on this song. On stage
left, next to the drummer, an orchestral string ensemble – cello and
three violins - provided a contrast to the bombastic drums and soaring
electric guitars.
As I
watched her singing with such conviction I felt goose bumps rising up on
my neck. I thought about how she had recently spent time going through
surgery for breast cancer and then the torturous course of chemotherapy.
I was amazed and not just a little humbled by the strength of will this
woman showed. At the same time she was fighting cancer she and her
famous husband Lance Armstrong divorced. It was early 2006 when she was
dealing with the cancer and divorce. She completed her treatment
successfully at which time her doctor gave her an ‘excellent prognoses’.
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Mayer joined Sheryl on stage for a high energy yet introspective take on
Sheryl’s hit, ‘Favorite Mistake’. The music pulsed with energy as the
audience fed on the intensity of the band and this in turn pushed the
band to new heights. Peter Stroud on lead electric played masterfully,
using a slide occasionally as well as painting some trippy psychedelic
sounds that is the province of this particular style of rock and roll.
The rhythm section was solid, Tim Smith holding down the bass chair when
Sheryl was playing guitar and versa vice. Jeremy Stacy is playing drums
on this tour and looked like he was having great fun with this music and
this band.
The
rest of Sheryl Crow’s set was spent playing hit’s she has written
through the years: ‘Home’, ‘Cars’, ‘Soak up the sun’. To end her set
the band kicked into a powerful, driving version of Led Zeppelin’s
tribute to what started it all, ‘Rock and Roll’. It was apparent that
rock and roll is one of the great loves of Sheryl Crow’s life.
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