Sheryl Crow’s new album, Threads, is a 17-track labor of love, filled with collaborations with people who inspire her, whose music has shaped her and artists who have become her dear friends over the years. The working title of the album for a couple of years was People I Love, and the idea for the project was spawned from a recording session she did with Kris Kristofferson. Sheryl says, “After I recorded with him I called Steve Jordan and said, ‘I want more of this. I want more of the special moments that change the molecules.’ And he and I talked about what that would look like, and I said, ‘Well I don’t know exactly what that’s gonna look like, except for I’ll write songs, I’ll do the songs by the people that matter to me. I’ll write with people when there’s an opportunity to do that.’ And it was all of that.”
Sheryl certainly knew a lot of the people she wanted to work with a record with, because she says, “The common thread is music and the people that made them. When I reflect on my career, I reflect on a seven-year-old who was obsessed with records and would pour over the album credits and would dream about becoming a Stevie Nicks or a Bonnie Raitt or an Emmylou Harris or a Keith Richards. And that thread, from the moment of being inspired by musicians and music, runs all the way through my life creatively and personally. And it leads me, actually, into this next generation of young artists who are still inspiring me to make music and do what I’m doing.”
So the list of people Sheryl collaborated with on Threads reads like a who’s who of music. “I wrote with Joe Walsh for the record. I did a Bob Dylan song, because I love him so much, with Jason Isabell,” Sheryl shares. “I did a George Harrison song because not only was he a monumental figure in my creative life, but also the song felt necessary to record for my children and for the people of their generation. And I asked Eric [Clapton] to play on it and I asked Brandi [Carlisle] to sing on it because she’s a mom. And there are just so many things that were threads that just wove through the making of this record and that presented themselves.”
Sheryl also enjoyed collaborating with artists like Stevie Nicks and Maren Morris on the song, “Prove You Wrong,” because she feels like they are women of different generations cut from the same cloth. And while Threads will be Sheryl’s last album, she is definitely not done making music. Her intention is to release songs individually as she feels the desire to do so, without having to wait to release a full album to get the music out.
Sheryl Crow – genesis of Threads :56
“Well, the process did start with Kris Kristofferson, and after I recorded with him I called Steve Jordan and said, ‘I want more of this. I want more of the special moments that change the molecules.’ And he and I talked about what that would look like, and I said, ‘Well I don’t know exactly what that’s gonna look like, except for I’ll write songs, I’ll do the songs by the people that matter to me. I’ll write with people when there’s an opportunity to do that.’ And it was all of that. I wrote with Joe Walsh for the record. I did a Bob Dylan song, because I love him so much, with Jason Isabell. I did a George Harrison song because not only was he a monumental figure in my creative life, but also the song felt necessary to record for my children and for the people of their generation. And I asked Eric to play on it and I asked Brandi to sing on it because she’s a mom. And there are just so many things that were threads that just wove through the making of this record and that presented themselves.”
Sheryl Crow – common thread through album :39
“The common thread is music and the people that made them. When I reflect on my career, I reflect on a seven-year-old who was obsessed with records and would pour over the album credits and would dream about becoming a Stevie Nicks or a Bonnie Raitt or an Emmylou Harris or a Keith Richards. And that thread, from the moment of being inspired by musicians and music, runs all the way through my life creatively and personally. And it leads me, actually, into this next generation of young artists who are still inspiring me to make music and do what I’m doing.”