After 10 years of her eluding me, I finally got a chance to see Sheryl Crow in concert last night at the Arizona State Fair! But first the back-story:
Sheryl had once come to Livingston, Montana on July 4, 2002 for a free concert of which some of the concert was televised on ABC. That was a free concert. But for a person like me living 25 miles south of town and the local newspaper saying they couldn't announce when or where these free tickets would be handed out, basically meant you are out of luck if you don't want to wander the streets of Livingston at 5:30 in the morning of June 22 in hopes of scoring tickets somewhere. Many people went to the concert on July 4 who didn't even know who Sheryl was--which I think is personally a waste of ticket space. But I digress...
This year, my chances of seeing Sheryl almost didn't happen as I never saw a mention on the Sheryl Crow website and by happenstance I heard about it on a local radio station while driving home from work in mid-September! Apparently, reserved seating tickets had been available since early September!! Augh! But all went well and we ordered the tickets and had great seats off to the side of the stage in Sect. 215 at the ol' Veterans Memorial Coliseum!
Sheryl came out wearing jeans and an awesome white jacket with a huge blue skull on the back. Appearing solo on stage with an acoustic guitar, she opened with "God Bless This Mess" the first song from her new album, Detours. She followed with the band for "Shine Over Babylon" and "Love Is Free."
She continued on with lots of old favorites like "A Change will do you Good," "Strong Enough" and "Can't Cry Anymore." During "Can't Cry" she interspersed "I Can See Clearly Now (the rain has gone)." She followed that with Cat Stevens' "First Cut is the Deepest" segueing perfectly into "My Favorite Mistake." "Gasoline" had a sample of the Stones "Gimme Shelter" which was awesome!
She enjoyed talking to the crowd, jamming with her awesome band, and dancing saying that Tuesday nights are her dancing nights.
More poignantly, she talked about the detours her life had faced in the past 2 years and followed with the title track from her new album. It is one of my favorites and it worked perfectly being followed by another favorite "Home."
Sheryl ended the set with "If It Makes You Happy," "Out of our Heads," "Soak up the Sun," and "Everyday is a Winding Road."
For Sheryl's encores she did 2 songs, "All I Wanna Do" and Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." "Higher Ground" was most excellent (to borrow a phrase from Bill and Ted) as the arrangement was a blend of Mr. Wonder's and the Red Hot Chili Peppers version of the song. An added bonus in this song was Sheryl, a former backup singer herself, spotlighted her two wonderfully talented backup singers to sing verses in the song. Wow!
Sheryl and her great band gave a long time fan exactly what I had waited for all these years and it was most definitely worth the wait! Thanks Guys! But please don't elude me for another 10 years!!!
