Sheryl Crow & Friends: "Live from Central Park"

Sheryl Crow's first live album may be one of the first in the oft-maligned genre to be better than the actual concert. If you were among the 25,000 gathered in Central Park on Sept. 14 for the show, you had to put up with rain, obtrusive American Express corporate sponsorship and long breaks necessitated by the live TV feed. And, as great as many of the performances were, there was an air of excessive show-off name-dropping to the whole special guest thing, as though Crow were saying, "Look who else is in my Rolodex!" On album though, you've just got fourteen great songs by a great rock & roll band that just happens to be heavy on big name talent. It works on one level as a solid greatest hits set -- every one of the Crow originals already sounds like classic rock -- and there's a real kick and fire behind the performances (particularly the extended "Leaving Las Vegas" and "A Change Would Do You Good") that clearly conveys Crow having the time of her life. Keith Richards sounds like he's having a blast himself on his gloriously ragged run through "Happy," though the Eric Clapton-led "White Room" sounds a bit phoned-in. Ditto Steve Nicks' turn on "Gold Dust Woman" -- she sings it exactly like the original off of Rumours, and Crow seems too reverent to add her own stamp. She gets better results from Chrissie Hynde, who brings extra grit and muscle to "If It Makes You Happy," and from the Dixie Chicks. Instrumentalists Emily Robison and Martie Seidel are a little under-used, but singer Natalie Maines steals Crow's best song out from under her nose and makes it her own. But it's all just gravy next to the closing raveup on Bob Dylan's "Tombstone Blues," which sounds like the world's sloppiest Rock & Roll Hall of Fame all-star jam, but mighty fine all the same.

Reviewer: Richard Skanse

from Rolling Stone