Wildflower (Bonus Tracks) (2005)

Bio

Sheryl Crow

Since exploding onto the global pop stage in 1993 with the multi-platinum Tuesday Night Music Club album, the one-time music teacher and studio vocalist has continued working at a breakneck pace. The release of each new album led immediately to the road, and rare time off was filled with collaborations with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Kid Rock to Willie Nelson. After an extensive tour that followed the Best Of> album, Crow made the decision to pull herself out of the fast lane and regroup. "I gave myself the gift of time off to reflect," she says, "to observe life for a little bit, and to get recommitted to the idea of collecting stories and living life before I sat down to write." She packed her bags - and some guitars and a tape recorder - and went to Spain.

The release of Wildflower will be followed by a tour that's reflective of the album's mood. "We're going to do a handful of dates with the band and a string section," says Crow. "We'll do the album in its entirety, and then we'll come back and do the familiar, bigger songs with strings. It's gonna be an evening of music, not a big rock show- more intimate, more theatrical, and for me, a nice departure from going out in a pair of leather jeans to rock the house."

The tone of Wildflower may be bittersweet, but Sheryl Crow's feelings about her new album are pure bliss. "It's the only record I've ever made where when the album was finished, I didn't go back and say "we need this" or "we need that,'" she says. "I stand behind all my work, but my other records I love as redheaded stepchildren-because by the time you've finished them, you have so many different relationships to the experience of recording them. But this one, I can just listen to it and feel proud of the leap that I've made as a songwriter."