“I love Colorado,” shouted to a sold-out, 5,000-strong crowd at the Chatfield venue on Wednesday night. “I grew up skiing at Sunlight; do you know where that is?”
Crow and her band worked the crowd like pros, chasing away the chill in the air and perhaps even keeping away the weather, as the threatening rainstorm never rose past the occasional steady drizzle, and eventually passed without turning the venue into a mudbath.
While Crow released a new album, “Feels Like Home,” in 2013 and played a few songs from it, much of the set consisted of her familiar older material. She opened with the first two songs from her second album, “Maybe Angels” and “A Change Would Do You Good,” before launching into her first huge hit, “All I Wanna Do” from her debut CD “Tuesday Night Music Club.” During “Change,” she gave her first shoutout to Colorado, saying, “The coolest people live in Colorado.”
Many of the songs were played straight up, including the country-tinged hit “Easy.” Others got new arrangements. “Strong Enough” started out quiet and tender, with Crow’s acoustic fingerpicking carrying out clearly over the packed venue.
Crow introduced “Redemption Day” by talking about how Johnny Cash covered it on a posthumous record, and during her performance, Cash’s recorded vocals sang the second verse, making the dark, death-centered lyrics seem even more eerie.
While the country stylings of songs like “Shotgun” and “Picture” mesh very well with Crow’s singing, she can also belt out the classic rock anthems. She and her band jammed seamlessly into Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough” out of “Nobody’s Business,” with Crow effortlessly singing a verse and chorus.
Crow’s band also frequently shone. On “If It Makes You Happy,” guitarist Peter Stroud riffed a twangy Telecaster line to great effect in between verses around Joshua Grange’s pedal steel playing, while Stroud and Audley Freed traded riffs during the bouncy “Soak Up the Sun.”
Crow ended with a classic rock double encore, first with a raring version of her hit “Steve McQueen,” then a fiery cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.”
Setlist
Maybe Angels, A Change Would Do You Good, All I Wanna Do, My Favorite Mistake, Easy, Leaving Las Vegas, Strong Enough, Redemption Day, Best of Times, Nobody’s Business-> Can’t Get Enough, The First Cut is the Deepest, Shotgun, Picture, If It Makes You Happy, Soak Up the Sun, Everyday is a Winding Road, E: Steve McQueen, Rock and Roll
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is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band .
