Sheryl Crow - 2009

Bolder and more free-spirited than ever, Sheryl Crow embarks on paths both deeply personal and grandly global on Detours (Interscope/A&M Records). Filled with songs about having and holding, changing and letting go, about beginnings, endings, and the roads between them, Detours was inspired by "how I feel things are going in the world and what's happened to me the last couple of years," says the nine-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter.

Crow's lyrical signposts range from the demise of a relationship, the adoption of a child (baby Wyatt, who guests on "Lullaby For Wyatt"), a public bout with breast cancer to the war in Iraq ("Peace Be Upon Us," featuring Arabic lyrics sung by Ahmed Al Hirmi), environmental disaster ("Gasoline" featuring Ben Harper), and the ravaged New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina ("Love Is Free").

Marking her reunion with Bill Bottrell, who produced her sensational 1993 debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, Detours wends its way across the pop musical landscape from the rockin' "Shine Over Babylon" and acoustic folk "God Bless This Mess" to the plaintive "Diamond Ring." An out-of-the-blue telephone call from Crow prompted a reconciliation with Bottrell and brought him to the studio at her farm near Nashville to produce her sixth studio album.

Each of her previous studio albums has charted Top 10 and earned at least platinum certification. The seven times platinum Tuesday Night Music Club hit #3 and earned three Grammys--Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the classic "All I Wanna Do." The album also featured "Strong Enough," "Can't Cry Anymore," and "Leaving Las Vegas."

1996's triple platinum Sheryl Crow (#6) earned the Grammy for Best Rock Album and, for "If It Makes You Happy," Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. 1998's platinum The Globe Sessions (#5) also garnered the Best Rock Album Grammy, as its "Everyday Is A Winding Road" and "My Favorite Mistake" both reached the Pop Top 20.

The new millennium brought 2002's platinum C'mon C'mon (#2), whose gold "Soak Up The Sun" peaked in the Top 20 and "Steve McQueen" again nabbed her a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy. The 2003 greatest hits compilation, the four times platinum The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow, was also a #2 charter, featuring a new recording, a cover of Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is The Deepest." 2005's platinum Wildflower (#2) featured the duet with Sting, "Always On Your Side."

On Detours, the fearlessly outspoken Sheryl Crow continues a journey of self-discovery that has increasingly appealed to both the head and the heart.