“Much-loved
singer Sheryl Crow
performs before a live audience,
leaving her admirers spellbound
with her gutsy lyrics and magic
guitar work on the evocative DVD Sheryl Crow Live...” PREPARE FOR A FRONT ROW SEAT at the enigmatic Sheryl Crow's brilliant
performance now on DVD. Sheryl Crow Live has the remarkable effect of
almost being there as the star charms the birds out of the trees and interacts
with her band members and the audience — who support her with fervour.
Wow! This DVD is really pleasing to play as you can't help feeling part of the
action. Sheryl is totally professional and is blessed with the Midas touch —
she is superbly visual, with a terrific stage presence. The golden girl sings
and the watcher is spellbound. Exuding energy and enthusiasm, she delivers each
song with a powerful aura — this girl isn't going to hide her light under
a bushel.
Soul Food and Essential Music are, justifiably, extremely proud to announce
the UK launch of Soundstage, the top quality television show featuring
live performances by world-class artistes. Sheryl Crow is accompanied by her
long-time backing band — Shawn Pelton, Mike Rowe, Tim Smith and Peter Stroud
— and she introduces them proudly to the audience. She seems to have a
great rapport with "her boys".
Sheryl Crow Live captures the nine-time Grammy winner's uncut Soundstage
performance. Sheryl and her band take us through some of her biggest hits, including
All I Wanna Do, If It Makes You Happy, the upbeat and flowing
Every Day Is A Winding Road and My Favorite Mistake.
Sheryl Crow Live is available for the first time on DVD and it's beautifully
filmed in High Definition and mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound. This package also
includes a rare cover version of the Nick Lowe classic (What's So Funny 'Bout)
Peace Love And Understanding: "Those who know me," says Sheryl, "will
know of my anti-war stance." She also wrote Let's Get Free at around
the same time and, disillusioned with the plethora of misinformation around,
Sheryl says it is about getting to the truth.
With her passionate voice and hearty riffs, Sheryl's Soundstage performance
is a look back at the classics that catapulted her career into the limelight,
from the snappy All I Wanna Do to the whispery swansong Strong Enough,
and to one of her earliest releases — Leavin' Las Vegas. All three
hits helped comprise her debut Tuesday Night Music Club that garnered Grammy
honours for Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal and Record of the Year in
1994. Later favourites featured in the set include Safe And Sound, Steve
McQueen and I Shall Believe.
The DVD is very watchable, very enjoyable and the passionate, energetic performance
from Sheryl Crow never lets up. After she gives a creditable rendition of The
First Cut Is The Deepest, she admits: "I wish I would've written it but
alas, Cat Stevens wrote it."
"We're going to travel all the way back now to when I was a wild child," says
Sheryl, belting out Leavin' Las Vegas before turning to Strong Enough,
pushing out all the words with gritty determination as she issues the challenge:
Are you strong enough to be my man?
Only Sheryl could use the word "pontificate" in a song — as she has in
Redemption Day — and make it sound as if it belongs. Every move
appears planned and yet she seems such a natural performer. "I'd just like to
counter-balance my political diatribe with a song about a stripper," she says
of Sweet Rosalyn, a track that is very country and very compelling.
But it is If It Makes You Happy that really does it for us — it
is so full of life and Sheryl seems to be so comfortable with it, loving every
moment. The incredible Steve McQueen is not only a fitting tribute to
the fantastic, late actor, but it is a great note to end on. And you have just
heard pure Sheryl.
• Available now for the first time on DVD,
Soundstage presents Sheryl Crow Live (UK release 8 September,
2008) in High Definition and 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD Running Time: 92 Minutes
| Picture: 16:9 | Catalogue Number: SOUND 001 | Barcode Number: 4046661122596.
DVD Tracklisting
1 My Favorite Mistake | 2 You're An Original | 3 The First
Cut Is The Deepest | 4 Leavin' Las Vegas | 5 Strong Enough
| 6 Redemption Day | 7 Sweet Rosalyn | 8 If It Makes You Happy
| 9 Home | 10 All I Wanna Do | 11 Soak Up The Sun | 12
Everyday Is A Winding Road | 13 I Shall Believe | 14 (What's
So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love And Understanding |
15 Let's Get Free | 16 Safe And Sound | 17 Steve McQueen
"Sheryl is totally professional and is blessed with the Midas touch — she
is superbly visual, with a terrific stage presence. The golden girl sings and
the watcher is spellbound" — MotorBar
Sheryl Crow: Official Biography
Bolder and more free-spirited than ever, Sheryl Crow's latest album — Detours
— is both deeply personal and grandly global. Filled with songs about having
and holding, changing and letting go, about beginnings, endings and the roads
between them, Detours was inspired by "how I feel things are going in
the world and what's happened to me the last couple of years," says the nine-time
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter.
Crow's lyrical signposts range from the demise of a relationship, the adoption
of a child (baby Wyatt, who guests on Lullaby For Wyatt) and a public
bout with breast cancer, to the war in Iraq (Peace Be Upon Us, featuring
Arabic lyrics sung by Ahmed Al Hirmi), environmental disaster (Gasoline,
featuring Ben Harper) and the ravaged New Orleans Of Hurricane Katrina (Love
Is Free).
Marking her reunion with Bill Bottrell, who produced her sensational 1993 debut,
Tuesday Night Music Club, Detours wends its way across the pop musical
landscape from the rockin' Shine Over Babylon and acoustic folk God
Bless This Mess to the plaintive Diamond Ring. An out-of-the-blue
telephone call from Crow brought Bottrell to the studio at her farm near Nashville
to produce her sixth studio album.
Each of her previous studio albums has charted Top 10 and earned at least platinum
certification. The seven-times platinum Tuesday Night Music Cub, featuring Strong
Enough, Can't Cry Anymore and Leavin' Las Vegas, hit number
3 and earned three Grammys: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Best Female
Pop Vocal Performance for the classic All I Wanna Do.
1996's triple-platinum Sheryl Crow (No 6) earned the Grammy for Best
Rock Album and, for If It Makes You Happy, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
1998's platinum The Globe Sessions (Number 5) also garnered the best
Rock Album Grammy, as its Everyday Is A Winding Road and My Favourite
Mistake both reached the Pop Top 20.
The new millennium brought 2002's platinum C'mon, C'mon (Number 2) whose
gold Soak Up The Sun peaked in the Top 20 and Steve McQueen again
got her a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy. The 2003 greatest hits
compilation, the four-times platinum The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow, was
also a Number 2 charted, featuring a new recording, a cover of Cat Stevens'
The First Cut Is The Deepest. 2005's platinum Wildflower (Number
2) featured the duet with Sting, Always On Your Side.
On Detours, the fearlessly outspoken Sheryl Crow continues a journey
of self-discovery that has increasingly appealed to both the head and the heart.
Background to Soundstage
Long before music television filled the airwaves, the PBS series Soundstage
sparked the nation. In an impressive run from 1974 to 1985, this innovative
and prestigious programme achieved widespread critical acclaim and featured
the artistes that defined the era, including such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Aretha
Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Al Green, The Doobie Brothers, Harry Chapin, Dionne
Warwick, Kenny Loggins and also The Temptations.
Soundstage was reborn in 2001 thanks to Joe Thomas, director and founder
of HD Ready. HD Ready specialises in combining high definition television and
cutting edge surround sound. Thomas' vision was to combine the one-hour musical
performances of the original show with state-of-the-art high-definition video
equipment and innovative Dolby 5.1 audio.
Whether it is an American treasure like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers or newer
superstar like Dashboard Confessional, Soundstage provides every viewer with
the best seat in the house. "What I envisioned was bringing the entire audience
to the 10th row and building a stage commensurate with what you would see at
an arena show instead of asking the artists to alter their performance for a
smaller venue," states Thomas. "We are so fortunate to have attracted such a
diverse group of artists for Soundstage. I think more and more musicians
are realising that coming on our show gives them the rare opportunity to solely
perform their best work in an intimate setting, for TV."
The majority of the concerts are filmed before studio audiences at WTTW's Grainger
Studio in Chicago, which is equipped with twelve cameras including a jib and
Steadicam. Soundstage also occasionally hits the road, taping at venues like
Red Rocks, Meyerson Symphony Center, Rialto Square Theatre, Genessee Theater,
Lincoln Center's Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Rosemont Theatre, Tsongas
Arena, Fleet Center, Germain Amphitheater and Madison Square Garden.
Since Soundstage has been reintroduced, performers have included the
Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Robert Plant, Wilco, Sonic Youth,
the All-American Rejects, KT Tunstall, Train, Alison Krauss, Alanis Morissette,
Daughtry, John Fogerty and countless more of today's premiere artistes.
“Much-loved
singer Sheryl Crow