Beach bum/biker chick plays catalog with energy

CLEARWATER - The knock against Sheryl Crow's live shows was that they were maybe a little too scripted, a little too inside the box, and that although she's a gifted songwriter and musician, she didn't have much of a stage presence. Play the hits, and don't look up unless you have to.

That's understandable. The woman, after all, is 41. Maybe this is the more mature, more restrained Crow. It's no sin to slow down. Even Madonna came back to earth.

And then this 5-foot-4 beach bum/biker chick, wearing black leather pants and jacket, black work boots and toting a serious attitude, bounds onto the stage at Ruth Eckerd Hall Tuesday night and blows everyone away.

In front of a soldout crowd, after she arrived from a Sunday night gig in Virginia, Crow opened her nearly two-hour set with a blasting, bare-knuckle version of Steve McQueen. She set the bar high, and then raised it.

She also leaped onto the drum stand, kicked off her boots, danced on the keyboard and had a running conversation with 2,163 people. And they adored her for it.

Crow's voice was as strong and clear as ever, with a Bonnie Raitt quality to it that's still uniquely Crow. She tore off her jacket as she opened My Favorite Mistake to reveal a black T-shirt and the industrial side of her. Backed by a solid group of studio musicians, most notably lead guitarist Peter Stroud, Crow and Co. played their hard-driving, foot to the floorboard best.

The highlights were many, including Strong Enough, a simple, beautiful song Crow performed as if it was the first time she sang it. After at least two severe bouts of depression earlier in her career, she lived the words she sang.

"Lie to me. But please don't leave me."

Crow, in fact, played her hits. She did Picture, A Change Would Do You Good, All I Wanna Do and Soak Up the Sun.

There is no other female rock/pop star who does what Crow does. She's not a diva, thankfully, and she's not a part of an act the way Natalie Maines is a part of the Dixie Chicks.

She is simply Sheryl Crow, a woman who taught music to autistic children in the early 1980s, sang backup vocals for Michael Jackson, wrote commercial jingles, and finally made it on her own. In a big way.

Tuesday night in Clearwater, she proved it again.

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