Sheryl Crow
“C’Mon America 2003”
A&M Records and W Management
A Parallel 28 Equipe Production
Directed by Martyn Atkins
This is my first in a series of many Concert DVD reviews. I will be finishing this review soon and will begin another one shortly! Stay Tuned!
1. Sheryl opens the concert with the track “Steve McQueen” from her fourth studio album, C’mon C’mon, released in 2002, playing the bass guitar dressed in sexy tight blue pants with white stars and red and white stripes, very American. Sporting a leather racing Nascar-inspired jacket, images of speeding cars flying over steep San Francisco streets is an homage to the namesake of the song, Steve McQueen.
“Like Steve…McQueen…. all we need’s a fast machine and we’re gonna make it, alright…”
Peter Stroud, tall and proud, produces the chorus guitar riffs while Sheryl and her drummer provide the kick ass beat. Great warm up to what will be an incredible concert.
2. The up-tempo continues on with “There Goes the Neighborhood” from The Globe Sessions, released in 1998. Sheryl switches bass guitars, and is much more focused on singing her song and rocking that bass. Sheryl did win a Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocals for this song when it was recorded for her live album, Sheryl Crow and Friends Live In Central Park. Crow struts her stuff around the stage during the bridge, and is in full glory as the song builds up to its big finishing chorus. Crow and her band are totally in synch and its clear they love playing on stage together.
3. The concert switches to clips of the arena before anyone has arrived. Images of the stage, roadies fixing the instruments, Sheryl playing with her dog, Scout fill the screen while the studio version of the song “Riverwide” plays. Clips of early rehearsals and Crow on stage with her dog are cinematically juxtaposed brilliantly with the rest of her band and crew preparing. The song is interrupted/overdubbed by a quick snippet of what I believe is an interview with Crow regarding tour across the heartland of America.
4. Sheryl slows it down a bit by playing her hit song “My Favorite Mistake.” Sheryl’s sultry voice memorizes the crowd. After the song ends, Tim Smith, one of her guitarists, sips a glass of wine, spilling some… it’s a great candid moment, and Tim knows it, which makes him laugh.
5. The title track to C’mon C’mon is next. “C’mon C’mon C’mon, break my heart again, for old-time sake…” sings Sheryl, with Peter Stroud now on an acoustic guitar, changing the tone from the last four songs to a more country, bluegrass like feel. Fitting for Dayton, Ohio. The accordion makes its debut on stage.
6. Sheryl takes her jacket off, needing help from a crew member to rip the tight leather top off. Sheryl then runs to the mic and amusingly says “you can see how hard it is to get me out of my clothes!” The following performance is “The First Cut is the Deepest.” The tempo of the concert is taking a slowdown; but the song is amazing and Sheryl and her band’s live performance has everyone singing and on their feet.
7. Not surprisingly after this song, “Strong Enough” begins. Sheryl trades in the bass for a 6 string acoustic. Peter Stroud adds the electric, sliding his fingers down the chords to provide that almost ‘bending of a saw’ like sound.
Sheryl is beautiful singing softly, “Are you strong enough…to be my man? Are you strong enough, my man?… Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie to me, I promise, I’ll believe, oh liiiiie to me, but please don’t leave….”
8. What happens now is pure music gold. “Redemption Day,” a song from her second album, is up next. The performance is played in front of the backdrop on the big screens of famous peace quotes from historical figures. The song has a soft but fast tempo at first, then the chorus blasts in with the drummer hitting the bass drum, “There is a train, thats headed straight, for heaven’s gate, to heavens gate, and on the way, child and man, and woman wait, for Redemption Day.” The song goes back to the next verse… and with a shiver sent up my spine the chorus comes back and the drum and bass kick back in. It’s hauntingly beautiful. The song was written in regards to war and especially the struggle in Bosnia back in the mid 1990s.
*On a side note, Sheryl Crow traveled with Hillary Clinton to Bosnia (when this song was inspired). This trip to Bosnia was the same trip Hillary Clinton said she landed under heavy gunfire.
9. The crowd pleaser, “If It Makes You Happy,” is next. After the first chorus, Sheryl improvise, “are you sad Dayton?” and they cheer…for some reason. Perhaps they didn’t understand her question. As the next verse ends, “Well, alright, I still get stoned,” the crowd applauds and cheers, expectedly.
10. “A Change Would Do You Good”
11. “Home” Sheryl picks up the acoustic guitar and the first notes of “Home” are played. It’s a chilling, beautiful version. Sheryl sings with purpose and emotion; its clear this is a personal, heartfelt composition. At other various concert performances, she will play the piano for this song; I love it when she plays it this way. Peter Stroud on the electric guitar, sounding like Eric Clapton. At the third chorus, Stroud plays his solo and it sounds fantastic. The wind has picked up at the outdoor arena and Sheryls hair moves seemingly to the music. Mike Rowe plays the keyboard so well, and Sean Pellton equally as good on drums. The song is ending and the music breaks down. Sheryl is screaming the final lyrics, the drummer beats frantically, Stroud and his guitar play side by side with Sheryl on acoustic. She is swaying her head up and down with the beat. Now the music is soft, its quieting, slowing down. “This is home… and this is home….” Indeed, this is home.
12. “Weather Channel” Sheryl wrote this song and it deals with depression.
13. “Lets go all the way back,” Sheryl speaks into the mic as “Leaving Las Vegas” begins to play. This performance, in my opinion, is the best track on the concert DVD. Mostly it is due to Sheryl’s ad libbed soliloquy/monologue to the audience during the middle of the song when they slow it down a bit. Perhaps, most likely, its been rehearsed, but it still kicks ass. To paraphrase:
“Do we have any gamblers here tonight, on this fine Dayton, Ohio evening…?… Do we have any drinkers here? Oh my Lordy the bar is very open I can tell already. I can confess I don’t like losing money, but there was time I’d get in my Chevrolet, and drive all the way, to las vegas. Where I’d meet up with my friend Jack, Jack Daniels that is. Jack and I like to belly up to the bar…make friends with black jack dealerrrs… “
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