Sheryl Crow
Riverside Theatre
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
December 5, 2013

Source: Church Audio CA-11 cards => UGLY pre-amp => Tascam DR-2D (24/44.1)
Transfer: DR-2D => WAV => Magix Audio Cleaning Lab => Convert to 16/44.1 => FLAC (level 8)

Location: Second row, slightly right of center

Track listing:

Disc one (59:30):
(1) DJ intro (1:13)
(2) Steve McQueen (4:28)
(3) All I Wanna Do (6:19)
(4) Easy (4:24)
(5) Callin' Me When I'm Lonely (3:23)
(6) My Favorite Mistake (5:53)
(7) Shotgun (3:43)
(8) The First Cut Is The Deepest (4:23)
(9) Give It To Me (4:11)
(10) Can't Cry Anymore (6:19)
(11) Crazy Ain't Original (4:00)
(12) Strong Enough (3:38)
(13) Banter (2:27)
(14) Redemption Day (5:03)

Disc two (35:03):
(1) Soak Up The Sun (6:31)
(2) Best of Times (5:38)
(3) Band introductions (0:29)
(4) Picture (1:15) =>
(5) If It Makes You Happy (4:57)
(6) Every Day is a Winding Road (6:25)
(7) Encore break (2:25)
(8) Waterproof Mascara (3:40)
(9) Run Run Rudolph (3:39)

Md5 signature file is included. Sorry, no artwork (feel free to make some)

Comments:

Good show by Sheryl Crow in support of her country-tinged "Feels Like Home" album. I felt that she did a good job of balancing material from her 20-year pop career with her new foray into country music; even though there were seven songs from her new album (only a couple of which had a strong country feel), the overall performance didn't feel like too much of a departure from her past tours.

There were several nice moments in the show -- a heartfelt Nelson Mandela tribute preceded "Redemption Day," and his disembodied voice (lifted from his own recording of her original song) was used for a couple of the verses. Most of the set was in line with material she's played throughout 2013, with the exception of a fun first-time performance of "Run Run Rudolph" (she didn't know the words, so the lyrics were taped to the floor in front of her -- old school). I get the sense she hasn't played in a while and/or had recently changed the set -- there were a couple cases where she forgot the lyrics to some of her older songs, but the flubs were fun and not too noticeable. The new material came across well -- highlights were "Shotgun" and "Best of Times," the latter of which brought the audience to its feet.

In terms of the recording, this came out really well. I was 2nd row center, and the crowd around me (with the exception of some woo-woo's early in the set) was very respectful during songs. The fidelity is great - much better than I expected for 2nd row - although I did need to bring up the high end to make the vocals a bit more prominent. The sound noticeably brightened near the end of track two (10:23 on this recording; I tried to make the change a little more subtle with some additional EQ on the first ten minutes of the recording. Altogether I was really happy with it.

A couple comments:
* After the DJ intro, Sheryl and band took the stage to roughly a minute of a pre-recorded version of the Rolling Stones' "Country Honk." Per DIME rules, this has been deleted, but there is a noticeable jump between the DJ introduction and the first notes of "Steve McQueen." Since the band started over a fadeout of the pre-recorded song, you'll notice the recording cuts back in during the last few seconds of the pre-recorded track.
* There is a digital "hiccup" early in "Best of Times" (at 1:06:14 on this file set) which causes a brief dropout (~1/4 of one second) on the recording. I have no idea what caused that, and have never had it happen before. In any case, it's on the master and I don't think it can be fixed. It's brief.

I had no intention of checking out this album because I'm not a country fan ... after seeing this show, however, I'll definitely grab it. The songwriting on the new material, IMO, is really good.

Mp3 samples are included in the comments.