Sheryl Crow - Straight to the Moon - Non-Album Tracks (1998-1999)

Here's another in a long line of Sheryl Crow stray tracks collections.

Crow is one of those artists like Norah Jones in which I think these stray tracks albums are often better than her official studio albums. She has written a lot of very nice hit songs, but her albums tend to contain some mediocre songs that tend to blend into each other. With these stray tracks albums, one gets a lot more variety.

This album is a particular case in point, because the range is greater than usual. She does everything from an old Johnny Cash country song ("Orange Blossom Special") to a cover of a Guns n' Roses hit ("Sweet Child O' Mine"), with a lot of points in between. And by the way, a lot of people criticize that "Sweet Child O' Mine" cover, but I like it. Good covers do something different instead of just slavishly copying the original.

Anyway, most of the songs here are covers, with the exceptions being a couple of songs she wrote for B-sides. Two songs are duets with Dan Wilson. In case you don't know who he is, he was the lead singer and songwriter for the 1990s band Semisonic, who had a hit with "Closing Time." But he's also written some hit songs for others, including Adele's mega-hit "Someone like You." 

The duets with Wilson, plus another duet with Neil Finn and another duet with Tim Smith are the only officially unreleased songs, but they basically have the same sound quality as the rest of the songs.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Ode to Billy Joe (Sheryl Crow)
02 Is It like Today (Tim Smith & Sheryl Crow)
03 Merry Christmas Baby (Sheryl Crow with Eric Clapton)
04 Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (Mary J. Blige & Sheryl Crow)
05 Four Seasons in One Day (Neil Finn & Sheryl Crow)
06 You Always Get Your Way (Sheryl Crow)
07 Straight to the Moon (Sheryl Crow)
08 Still (Sheryl Crow)
09 Sweet Child O' Mine (Sheryl Crow)
10 Drift Away (Sheryl Crow & Dan Wilson)
11 What Is Life (Sheryl Crow & Dan Wilson)
12 Orange Blossom Special (Sheryl Crow with Willie Nelson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15104658/SherylC_1998-1999_StrighttotheMoon_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Crow dates to the year 2000. As a change of pace, I thought it would be interesting to have a more serious face instead of the using smiling one.