Sheryl Crow isn’t quite done making albums
Sheryl Crow is well aware that she said her 2019 album, “Threads,” was likely her last.
Not that she was quitting writing and recording, but that the album format wasn’t really meaningful to a current listening audience used to cherry-picking songs for playlists.
With a resume boasting more than 50 million albums sold since 1993’s breakthrough “Tuesday Night Music Club,” nine Grammy Awards and 19 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including Top 10 smashes “All I Wanna Do,” “Strong Enough,” and “If It Makes You Happy,” no one would dispute that Crow earned the right to step onto the sidelines.
But here she is, ready for the release of “Evolution,” her 12th studio album that opens with “Alarm Clock,” a blast of fuzzy funk-pop that sounds like vintage Crow.
“Now, I get up at 6 a.m. I used to get home at 6 a.m.,” she jokes.
From the chugging “Do It Again” to the confessional piano ballad “Don’t Walk Away” to the slow-burn title track that breaks its moody introspection for a whizzing guitar solo courtesy of Tom Morello, the 62-year-old Crow clearly has plenty still to say and play.
Chatting on video from the cozy recording studio in her Nashville, Tennessee, home, Crow touched on the reasons artificial intelligence in music terrifies her, how her sons felt about her recent induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and why Willie Nelson is “an amazing human.”
Question: You really were the MVP of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November, playing with everyone from Olivia Rodrigo to Stevie Nicks to Willie Nelson. Were you exhausted by the end of the night?
Answer: I feel this way a lot about getting on stage. When I’m there, I can relax. No one needs an answer to something and there were so many machinations that went into that evening that by the time I got on stage, I was like, “Thank God I’m here and no one can get hold of me.”
I imagine any time you play with Stevie it’s still a bit surreal?
Not to downplay the award, but if not for (Stevie), I would not be doing what I’m doing. I’m still a child looking up to this rock star. I feel that way with Olivia. I somewhat see myself in what she’s do