sheryl crow

Torrential Midwestern rains held off just long enough last night for Missouri girl Sheryl Crow and her band to finish the encore set of their concert at Starlight Theatre. I wasn’t really up for going, but some girlfriends insisted; once they got me there, they presented me with a free tenth row ticket, a VIP parking pass, a glass of pinot grigio, and a beautiful, breezy, Kansas City pre-storm evening.

These three women have been my friends for close to thirty years (one for forty) and we’ve been through all the ups and downs of life together. Crow, who is really quite politically and environmentally liberal and outspoken, has been on her own roller coaster these past couple of years, and the songs on her new CD are all about what she calls life’s “detours.” Having recently battled breast cancer, she had some astute things to say about being forced to take a different route from the one you thought was going to be ahead of you.

The four of us fifty-somethings (my friends are very close to becoming sixty-somethings) were right there rockin’ out with the best of them. We still have it, I am happy to report.

I was amazed to learn that Crow is in her mid-forties. She is one gorgeous, fit and energetic woman. (We left the concert feeling like we wanted to grow out our hair and go to the gym more.)

Anyway, it was a fantastic night under threatening and amazing skies, and I thank my friends for getting me out into it. Here’s one of Crow’s new songs, which she wrote about her breast cancer treatment. Her new album is called “Detours” and I think it’s worth checking out.

Make It Go Away
 (Radiation Song)

I stare into

Some great abyss

And calculate

The things I’d miss

If I could only

Make some sense of this



And Madam Butterfly

Resounds

Over the mothership

Her lights flashing around


I float above her and

I wonder how

To make it go away

Make it go away



I crawl into my circumstance
Lay on the table

Begging for another chance

But I was a good girl


I can’t understand how to

Make it go away

Make it go away



Sometimes
I wonder

Which hurts the worse

The thought of dying

Or reliving every hurt

Was love the illness

And disease the cure


Make it go away