Sheryl Crow - Feels Like Home

Nashville-based since 2006, it was perhaps inevitable that Sheryl Crow would eventually go country. She’s flirted with the genre throughout her phenomenally successful career (album sales in excess of 50 million, nine Grammy wins...), recording with the likes of Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and Dixie Chicks. However, country – or ‘nu-country’ – was usually just one sonic strand in her radio-friendly blend of pop, country, R&B and soft rock.

One glance at the song titles of her ninth studio album (‘We Oughta Be Drinkin’’ etc) and it’s obvious Crow – whose career kicked off as backing singer for Michael Jackson’s – has finally taken the country plunge.

Co-produced with Justin Niebank, each track was co-authored with another songwriter, including such honky tonk heavy-hitters as Brad Paisley, Chris DuBois, Shane McAnally and Luke Laird. The result is country by numbers, with well-worn themes of love, heartbreak, cheating men (though no mention of her former beau Lance Armstrong), bastard children, alcohol abuse, rehab, reality TV and the general unfairness of life.

The only rules broken are those of English grammar. On the steel-laced ‘Callin’ Me When I’m Lonely’, she croons, “Why is he always gotta be calling me when I’m lonely?/ It’s so wrong to be leading me on and I can’t say no/ He swears that it’s gonna be different this time, but it won’t be/ Why is he always gotta be calling me when I’m lonely?”

The rub is that, as unpretentious, unashamedly middle of the road Nashville albums go, this is pretty darn tootin’ good. The musicianship is tightly twanging, Crow has a treacle-sweet voice with just the right amount of husk. Almost every single one of these 13 tracks is catchy and hummable. Crow isn’t attempting to reinvent the wheel here. “Everything you can think of/ It’s all been done before,” she sings on ‘Crazy Ain’t Original’.

It’s far froma classic, but fans of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Tammy Wynette will find much to enjoy.