Musician Sheryl Crow will speak in Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music Nov. 4 as part of the school’s Conversations Series. Blair School senior lecturer Jen Gunderman will conduct an informal on-stage conversation with the singer, followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience, beginning at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public with seating available on a first-come, first-seated basis.
“As a musician and a songwriter, the craft of music is very important to me,” Crow said. “[rquote]I’m excited to have the opportunity to pull back the curtain on what that process looks like, especially for an audience that takes music education so seriously.”[/rquote]
“Sheryl Crow is one of music’s most exciting and busiest artists,” said Blair School Dean Mark Wait. “I am thrilled that she has graciously agreed to appear in Blair’s Conversations Series.”
Crow is a nine-time Grammy winner who has sold more than 35 million albums worldwide. She has performed duets with such musical luminaries as Sting and Mick Jagger, has been nominated for an additional 27 Grammys, and has released eight studio albums (seven charting top 10, four of them platinum-plus), a quadruple-platinum greatest-hits collection, and a Christmas album.
Her most recent album, Feels Like Home, features songs on which Crow collaborated with her longtime guitar player and frequent co-writer Jeff Trott (with whom she co-wrote past hits “If It Makes You Happy,” “My Favorite Mistake” and “Every Day Is A Winding Road”), as well as Nashville songwriters Chris DuBois, Luke Laird, Natalie Hemby and Chris Stapleton, among others.
Crow has charted in the top 10 some 40 times on the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Mainstream Top 40, Triple A (with the most No. 1 singles among women in the chart’s 17-year history) and Hot Country Songs charts, as well as had a top 20 solo country single.
She is a passionate supporter of a variety of environmental and health-related charities, including The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, The National Resources Defense Council, The World Food Program, and Feeding America.
Gunderman, who will interview Crow and moderate the audience Q&A, is a senior lecturer in music history at the Blair School. Courses she teaches include History of Rock Music and Women and Rock Music. Gunderman is uniquely qualified to interview Crow, having toured with her for the past year and a half. She is currently on leave from teaching at the Blair School while playing keyboard and accordion and singing in Crow’s band.
“Sheryl is one of the most influential and well-respected musicians of our generation,” Gunderman said. “Her singing has been admired by everyone from Michael Jackson to Luciano Pavarotti, her songwriting has produced both enduring radio hits and edgy experimentation, and she plays most of the instruments on several of her albums. It’s going to be a great night.”
The Conversations Series first launched in 1995, when Jim Foglesong, a top music industry executive and record producer, and classical guitarist John Johns interviewed guitar legend Chet Atkins. Other artists featured in the series include singer and guitarist Peter Frampton; fiddler Mark O’Connor; pianist Awadagin Pratt; singer Amy Grant; violinist Joshua Bell; mandolinist and country singer Marty Stuart; songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman; guitarist and Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler; singer Steve Earle; songwriter, composer and musician Randy Newman; singer-songwriter John Hiatt; singer Eddy Arnold; singer Wynonna Judd; and singer and pianist Ben Folds.