Tuesday Night Music Club

The spectacular debut album that launched Sheryl Crow into rock music consciousness has been expanded both musically and visually for the 2CD/1DVD "Tuesday Night Music Club - Deluxe Edition." Along with the original 1993 album, the package adds a second CD containing B-sides, rarities and out-takes, as well as a bonus DVD featuring the album's videos ("Leaving Las Vegas," "All I Wanna Do," "Strong Enough," "Can't Cry Anymore," "Run, Baby, Run" and "What I Can Do For You," plus a rare alternate version of "All I Wanna Do" directed by Roman Coppola) and a newly produced documentary comprised of on-the-road, backstage, soundcheck and live footage from the original album tour.

Highlighting the bonus CD for "Tuesday Night Music Club - Deluxe Edition" are four previously unreleased recordings from 1995 that were intended for the follow-up album--"Coffee Shop," "Killer Life," "Essential Trip Of Hereness" and "You Want More"--each only now mixed by original "Tuesday Night Music Club" producer Bill Bottrell. In addition, Bottrell remixed the album's "I Shall Believe" specifically for this "Deluxe Edition." The bonus CD also includes a trio of U.K. single B-sides ("Reach Around Jerk," an alternate "The Na-Na Song" titled "Volvo Cowgirl 99" and a cover of Eric Carmen's "All By Myself"), a tribute album cover of Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er," and "On The Outside," a contribution to an "X-Files" soundtrack album.

"Tuesday Night Music Club" has proved to be a landmark achievement even beyond propelling Crow's own formidable career by inspiring and influencing countless female singer-songwriters, perhaps even saving that genre from extinction in the grungy days of the early `90s. Certified seven times platinum and charting at #3, the album spawned five Grammy® nominations and three wins: Best New Artist and a pair for "All I Wanna Do," including Record of the Year. Three songs reached the Pop Top 40--the gold "All I Wanna Do" (#2), "Strong Enough" (#5) and "Can't Cry Anymore." "Leaving Las Vegas" cracked the Modern Rock Top 10.

"Somehow amidst the dance divas of MTV and the dark angst of Seattle grunge," writes her manager, Scooter Weintraub, in the liner notes, "Sheryl's salty voice, twangy Telecaster, frayed Levis, red curls and bent upper lip scratched their way into the musical culture." In 1999, she was ranked among VH1's "100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll."

Sheryl Crow's proper debut--an earlier, slicker record was scrapped in favor of Tuesday Night--occasionally reaches too far in attempting Significance, as when the album opens by name-checking Aldous Huxley. Usually, though, Crow and her band of L.A. session and singer/songwriter collaborators strike just the right tone. The "Stuck in the Middle with You" homage of "All I Wanna Do," the clanking guitar riff of "Can't Cry Anymore," and the funky threat of "What I Can Do for You" meld perfectly with the lyrics, resulting in a peak of mainstream pop-rock. --Rickey Wright