Since her 1993 debut, 'Tuesday Night Music Club,' Sheryl Crow has become one of pop music's most recognizable voices. Which makes sense: Anyone talented enough to start her career as a backup singer for Michael Jackson and subsequently work with Stevie Wonder and Don Henley probably owns a good set of pipes. Earlier this year, Crow returned with '100 Miles From Memphis,' her seventh studio album -- an homage to vintage soul, which infuses Crow's voice within her own nostalgic memories. Recently, Crow stopped by Popeater HQ to record an AOL Sessions performance, and in this in-depth interview she talks about the origins of her most recent record, the lure of nostalgia and her thoughts about burping onstage.
'100 Miles to Memphis' pays homage to the great '60s soul and Stax Records sound. Growing up, did you take trips to Memphis?
Memphis was like the big city when I was growing up. I grew up about an hour from there. We would go about twice a year; people just didn't travel like they do now. We would go to buy school clothes and we'd go to see Santa Claus, and the big department store was there. So it was like an outing, it was like going to the big city. I remember going to Beale Street and at the time: It was very rundown, but there was just such a lore about it. Now it's been brought back to its glory and it's very commercial and stuff.
What is it about that period of the American music canon that's so attractive to you?
I think that music kind of represents the way people live, the way people view their god, the way people are connected to the earth there. When I grew up, all the families grew up in churches, you raise your kids in churches, you grew up with them singing church music. The music that came out of Memphis and I think a lot of those singers -- Sam & Dave, Al Green, Otis Redding -- when they delivered a song, you believed it. You know whether it was a song about vulnerability or pain or wounding or injustice or just a cool, uplifting sort of dance song, you just believed it, you went there all the way fully committed. And I think about where I'm from and what I feel is that people who are from there are very connected to that part of America.
Nowadays, if some people talk about religion or church in their music they might be chastised. But it seems like people making music back then and infusing those ideas, they did it and didn't have to worry with any of those critiques; it just seemed very natural.
A lot of the songwriters who were writing from a gospel standpoint were also some of the people who were writing the great civil-rights songs ever to be written, and a lot of that stuff was getting on the radio and it was very different then, obviously. Popular music seemed to sort of cross the barriers of music that was talking about something but also was relatable and had a great beat or great melody.
Watch Sheryl Crow's live AOL Sessions video of 'Peaceful Feeling' here.
At heart, are you a nostalgic person?
I am a nostalgic person. You know, I don't like to cling to the past, but I appreciate where we've been. I definitely appreciate in my life where I've been because it directly points me to where I am now, and I've learned a lot. I definitely don't live in the past, but a lot of the music that I listen to happens to be from people who lived back then and were sort of the architects to the music that I love.
A lot of songs from that era we love have this very upbeat aspect to it and these very sad words and very sad emotions or lyrics that invade the tempos.
We just try to fool the listener all the time; don't get too happy. It's funny because 'All I Wanna Do' is that way. 'All I Wanna Do' is a very cynical take on the '90s in Los Angeles, and people kind of latched on to 'All I Wanna Do,' but that's great. Some of the best songs ever written were like that, and I think it is an interesting juxtaposition and it is kind of indicative of what living is, you have the bittersweet with the euphoric.
When did the idea to explore these sounds and arrangements on '100 Miles From Memphis' come to you?
I've always had a certain amount of direct influences on all my records. Even 'All I Wanna Do' was taken from a Marvin Gaye song, 'Got to Give It Up.' Every record has music that is very implied and I just felt like that it was time to really fully commit to that style of music and to go back to what it originally was that I was trying to do in 1990 when I came off the Michael Jackson tour. I tried to get a record deal, and every single record label turned me down for the very reason they didn't know what to do with a blue-eyed soul singer. And I got into songwriting, I got into listening to Bob Dylan and I got into writing in a more literary, narrative fashion kind of implied in some ways a kind of a Southern folk rock, and I just felt like this was the record that felt natural for me to do after coming off [2008's] 'Detours' record.
Your voice has become one of the more recognizable in pop in the past 20 years. What are some of the different ways you've learned over the years to use and control and harness it?
Well, my guitar player Doyle [Bramhall II] just thinks it's fascinating that I can sing through a burp if that means anything to you. I can be onstage and, you know, I can sustain a burp until I'm done with a phrase. You know part of it is just doing it, part of it is singing, it's like any other sort of craft of muscle. The more you do it, hopefully, the better you get at it, the more you understand it and the better you are able to control. But also in songwriting and playing instruments and production, I'm a fan of learning, I love learning and I love not staying still, not just resting on my laurels. So it's fun when I feel like I'm getting better and I'm learning things; I'm learning from other people and that's what keeps me going.
You mentioned Bob Dylan earlier. He's an interesting example as far as when he first started out to where he sounds now.
Bob Dylan's a great example of someone who didn't want to stay static and he wound up making 'Nashville Skyline' and he actually sounds like Bobby Goldsboro on it. And then later on he did a very big event in Tokyo with Joni Mitchell and took voice lessons for it. So I think good singers and singers who are very alive in their art continue to work at it.
Do you still get nervous when an album comes out?
I get excited; I don't get so nervous. You know, the record business is a lot different than when I started. When my first record came out, it was out for a year before we ever had a hit and the record label really stuck with it and we put out four singles. Now it's like One-Shot Annie or maybe two shots, and it's very quick and can be equally very fleeting.
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
No comments:
Post a Comment