Sheryl Crow balanced entertainment value and politics at Monday night’s Red Rocks show. Photos by .
There’s not much to hide behind at if you can’t perform well. The stage can be desolate and daunting, especially if you’re a virgin to it. When you’re and itap your first time, you just choose to bring down the house instead of showing any sign of intimidation.
Opening for on Monday night with a short but sweet set that ended in a standing ovation, she proved that the connection between the beloved country and western music of the past and contemporary radio-friendly new country hasn’t totally disappeared into the Carrie Underwood-oblivion that exists today.
Swinging between her own ballads like “Same Old You” and “The Story,” and some stellar covers, including a brutal version of the oft-replicated, hardly-ever-justified “Folsom Prison Blues,” Carlile sweetly held the Crow audience in the palm of her hand. A Northwestern girl whose voice drips with southern twanginess, the sorrow in her rendition of “Hallelujah” evoked emotion in me that only Otis Redding and Patsy Cline have ever been able to extract.
Equal parts yodeler and breathy growler, Carlile’s voice simultaneously channeled a gruff Cash and sinewy but heartbroken Wynette with a capella shorts of “I Don’t Wanna Play House” and “I’m Going to Hire a Wino to Decorate our Home.” Finishing her set to a convinced and adoring audience, Brandi Carlile gracefully left the stage to a crowd on its feet, something not often accomplished by an opener.
Less than 30 minutes after Carlile’s finale, a tanned, bra-less, gorgeous Sheryl Crow opened with the solo acoustic “God Bless this Mess” and the Mike’s Hard Lemonade-lubricated soccer mom crowd howled in delight. Crow worked her audience over, moving straight through with “Shine Over Babylon,” “Love is Free” and “A Change Will Do You Good,” flashing her perfect teeth and shaking her tiny hips from behind a consuming guitar.
Breaking from the song streak, Crow looked out into the night and proclaimed, “I love this place. Man, it blows my mind. God knows how to create some art. She’s beautiful.” The cowboy and flip-flops crowd went nuts, and Crow leapt into “Leaving Las Vegas,” weaving props to Crested Butte, Steamboat Springs, Colorado Springs, Boulder and Denver into the tail-end of the song.
After “Favorite Mistake” and a soft, charming version of the Cat Stevens classic “The First Cut is the Deepest,” Crow began her expected speech on ever-rising gas prices, solar energy, and the current situation in Iraq. (I was happy to later learn that Crow’s tour bus runs on bio-diesel, and she is an active-activist, not just a mouthpiece.) In her most powerful performance of the evening, Crow modified parts of her own anti-petrol ballad, “Gasoline” with chants of the Stone’s classic “Gimme Shelter,” back-up vocalists swaying and shouting “War, children, itap just a shout away.”
Breaking the political vibe, Crow brought her audience up to date on her life as if she was sitting around a lunch table with the amphitheater crowd, speaking briefly on a broken engagement, her triumphant battle against breast cancer and the son she adopted and brought into her life.
Crow’s ability to address a crowd of such size with the candor of a woman out with her coffee klatch was admirable; she drew no line between hundreds of fans and friends she had known for years, like her band mates. This is possibly because her fans have been with her since her mid-’90s beginnings as a solo act, when she first released “Tuesday Night Music Club,” and were still there supporting her for the 2008 “Detours” jaunt.
Crow played more favorites including “Strong Enough” and a farewell duet of “If it Makes you Happy” with Brandi Carlile, who was finishing her last night on the tour. For the finale, Crow picked up the bass and sang “Soak up the Sun” and “Everyday is a Winding Road,” satisfying the shoulder-to-shoulder bouncy-and-huggy audience of women with their best girlfriends. Then she slipped into the night, and hovered backstage for a moment before returning for an encore of “Redemption Day” and a feverish “All I Wanna Do.”
While I was more impressed with the sheer power of Carlile’s voice and undeniable stage presence, Crow proved to be much like your high school girlfriend: she’s knows all the old tricks to make you happy, she looks pretty on your arm, and your mom absolutely loves her.
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