Event officials are calling Saturday’s concert with co-headliners Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and Sheryl Crow at Beaver Dam Amphitheater the single biggest show to come to the region in recent history. Days before releasing her new album and taking the stage at the Ohio County outdoor concert venue, Crow spoke exclusively with Owensboro Times about her appearance in small-town Kentucky and the future of her music career.
Sheryl Crow, whose nine studio albums have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide, has more No. 1 singles than any other female artist. She headlined Bonnaroo Music Festival last year and this weekend she is coming to Beaver Dam, Ky.
“It’s great to go out and play for 175,000 people, but it’s also great to play for small crowds as well,” Crow said. “You feel like you make a bigger connection with a smaller audience because they are all within your eye shot.”
Crow’s newest album, “Threads,” is set to release on Friday, the day before her Beaver Dam appearance. Each track on the project is a collaboration and took the Grammy-award winning artist over three years to complete. Crow said fans will hear music legends like Kris Kristofferson, James Taylor, Stevie Nix and Joe Walsh, but also newer singer-songwriters like Isbell and Maren Morris.
“Because it was so inspiring for me, I just wanted to create more of those situations with artists who I have loved and have been such major inspirations in my life,” Crow said. “These people have just been there not only musically, but personally for me.”
While it is not planned to appear with every artist on her record, Crow said she is looking forward to co-headlining Saturday’s concert with Isbell.
“Through the years I’m really lucky that I have gotten to work with a lot of my inspirations and with a lot of my heroes,” she said. “It is always a treat to work with someone you love and admire and Jason is one of those people for me.”
The two will perform a duet of a Bob Dylan song on Saturday.
While Crow will be promoting her newer work, she said she can guarantee fans will also hear some of their favorites.
“We realize that when people come out to see us play, they want to hear the hits and they want to hear them like they hear them on the radio,” she said. “It brings back memories for people and we really try to honor that.”
“Threads” will be the last album release for Crow, who debuted her first song in 1993. While she will continue to make music, Crow said she will focus on songwriting and releasing individual songs.
“I’ve had a long and really wonderful career of making albums and putting out singles,” she said. “But technology has really usurped that in a lot of ways. It’s given people the opportunity to get their music really fast and also to make their own playlists. It’s almost counterintuitive to make an album anymore.”
Heath Eric of The Eric Group, who booked Crow and Isbill to play at Beaver Dam Amphitheater, said Saturday’s concert is not just big for the small town in Ohio County, but for the region.
“Shows like this, with two global superstars co-headlining an outdoor concert at a super-cool venue in western Kentucky, don’t happen every day,” he said. “Sheryl Crow is a living legend. This show speaks volumes for Beaver Dam’s reach.”
Tickets for the concert are still available and can be purchased at Beaver Dam Amphitheater’s website.
“We hope everyone will come out and enjoy their family weekend on Labor Day and take in some good, old fashioned rock and roll,” Crow said.
