Sheryl Crow took the stage with her band members at ShoalsFest and captured audience members of all ages. She opened with songs familiar enough for the audience to sing along—“If It Makes You Happy,” “Santa Monica Boulevard,” and her upbeat classic “All I Want to Do Is Have Some Fun,” encouraging the audience to sing along.
After singing “You’re My Favorite Mistake,” she turned her attention to the residents of the houses perched on the bluff on the Sheffield side of the Tennessee River, acknowledging them as they listened from their picturesque perspective.
In addition to her crowd-pleasing string of hits, Crow also sang from her new CD Threads, which she called “my last album—ostensibly”; she said this album had given her a chance to work with a lot of her favorite singers and heroes. The crowd perked up when she introduced “Prove Me Wrong,” a collaboration with Stevie Nicks and Maren Morris. She admitted, “they’re not here today” and then delivered a strong performance on her own.
She didn’t have to perform the set alone, though. Amanda Shires joined her for “Are You Strong Enough to Be My Man?” trading off verses and adding clear harmony, both sings reveling in the collaboration.
Crow polled the audience to see how many were in their twenties—younger than some of her first hits—then thirties and forties, before landing in the fifties, her decade now. She then launched into “Still the Good Old Days,” another track from her latest album, co-written with Joe Walsh about rocking in your fifties (and beyond). Next Jason Isbell joined her on stage for Bob Dylan’s “Everything Is Broken.”
After announcing, to the delight of Isbell and the crowd, that she intends to come back next year, Crow finished out the set with more of her solid hits, “Soak up the Sun” and “Every Day Is a Winding Road.” With a performance that matches any in her career, Crow may need to rethink the idea of Threads as her last album.
