The pop-music world, in many ways, has only gotten angstier (it would be hard to imagine a mood-poet chanteuse like Billie Eilish commanding arenas 20 years ago). But even back in the ’90s, Sheryl Crow was the kind of straight-up, middle-of-the-strike-zone, tasty-licks virtuoso of rock ‘n’ roll good times who seemed to have been put on earth to make people happy.
She was at the forefront of a revolutionary wave of women in pop — the Lilith Fair generation, from Alanis Morrisette to Sarah McLachlan to Shawn Colin to Paula Cole — but she was also, you could argue, one of the last great rockers to work in the heart-on-the-sleeve, guitar-riffs-on-air tradition of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. My favorite line of hers has always been the one that comes after “All I wanna do is have some fun” — namely, “Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard.” With…
