Sheryl Crow Rocks Wolf Trap: Review and Photo Gallery

By: Rick Landers
Photos By: Mike Davis

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow and her talented crew rocked the grounds at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Vienna, Virginia , June 17, 2010, with a robust show filled with hit after major hit. And the crowd loved it, offering Crow standing ovations, fist pumping affirmations and a back up vocal section in the thousands. The multi-instrumentalist Crow pumped up the audience on piano, six-string and bass guitar, as well as with her catchy phrasing and that California “soak up the sun” sound – not that she wasn’t in great form to load up with a little R&B.

Before Crow hit the stage, Californian Colbie Caillat warmed things up with set of her songs, including her No. 1 hit, “Bubbly”. The double Grammy award winner offered up enough stage panache and loose rhythms to give the Wolf Trap fans a perfect road to the Sheryl Crow show that followed, that included a nice cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1976 track, “Go Your Own Way”.

Sheryl and her seven piece band sauntered on stage with some Sly and the Family Stone wafting around the open air amphitheater, with Sly bellowing “Dance to the Music”, and I swear one of her new tunes was reminiscent of Sly’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime”.

Sheryl Crow with her Signature Gibson acoustic.

Decked out some embroidered patchwork jeans and white fringed vest, the stylish Sheryl Crow looked hip and lean and was definitely on top of her game. Starting out on keyboards at center stage, she opened the show with “Everyday Is A Winding Road” and the crowd roared and started to sing and didn’t’ stop until she waved and left the stage for good.

The show was an extravaganza with her group made up of some superb musicians and backup vocalists. And the staging for the show is one of the best we’ve seen in ages. Other than a few moments of the kliegs blinding the audience, the lights flickered, rippled and danced adding to the excitement, as well as splashing the three long backdrop banners, that looked like crushed velvet, in a rainbow of colors.

Crow was in charge of the night, leading the crowd in song and friendly attitude – she connects. Sheryl kept herself armed with a number of guitars including her Gibson Signature Acoustic Guitar, while her band covered the rest with back up vocals, guitars, drums, and keyboards that included an old Hammond B3. She followed up with a slow paced thumping “Leaving Las Vegas”, then filled the pace with a series of her hits like, “Strong Enough” with some sweet tear drop slide from he guitarist and an aside by Sheryl, “I’m just looking for a man who’s got a job!”

We know Sheryl can rock, but she brought some soulful R&B with her to Wolf Trap on “Love is Free”, before heading into “100 Miles from Memphis” from her new album of the same name. “My Favorite Mistake,” “The First Cut is the Deepest,” and another new great tune, “Summer Day” that had a bit of Sly Stone to it were offered up to the audience – and they love ‘em. She carried on with another new track, “Weather Channel” that led into her hit “All I Wanna Do”, “If It Makes You Happy”, “Steve McQueen”, and “Soak Up the Sun”.

Crow knows how to please a crowd, as well as how to pump up the energy before an encore and left her fans rattling and rolling with a bit of Led Zeppelin when she rolled into the group’s ‘classic 1971 track, “Rock ‘n’ Roll”.