Sheryl Crow

Bolder and more free-spirited than ever, Sheryl Crow embarks on paths both deeply personal and grandly global on Detours (Interscope/A&M Records). Filled with songs about having and holding, changing and letting go, about beginnings, endings, and the roads between them, Detours was inspired by “how I feel things are going in the world and what’s happened to me the last couple of years,” says the nine-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter.

Crow’s lyrical signposts range from the demise of a relationship, the adoption of a child (baby Wyatt, who guests on “Lullaby For Wyatt”), a public bout with breast cancer to the war in Iraq (”Peace Be Upon Us,” featuring Arabic lyrics sung by Ahmed Al Hirmi), environmental disaster (”Gasoline” featuring Ben Harper), and the ravaged New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina (”Love Is Free”).

Marking her reunion with Bill Bottrell, who produced her sensational 1993 debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, Detours wends its way across the pop musical landscape from the rockin’ “Shine Over Babylon” and acoustic folk “God Bless This Mess” to the plaintive “Diamond Ring.” An out-of-the-blue telephone call from Crow prompted a reconciliation with Bottrell and brought him to the studio at her farm near Nashville to produce her sixth studio album.

Each of her previous studio albums has charted Top 10 and earned at least platinum certification. The seven times platinum Tuesday Night Music Club hit #3 and earned three Grammys–Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the classic “All I Wanna Do.” The album also featured “Strong Enough,” “Can’t Cry Anymore,” and “Leaving Las Vegas.”

1996’s triple platinum Sheryl Crow (#6) earned the Grammy for Best Rock Album and, for “If It Makes You Happy,” Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. 1998’s platinum The Globe Sessions (#5) also garnered the Best Rock Album Grammy, as its “Everyday Is A Winding Road” and “My Favorite Mistake” both reached the Pop Top 20.

The new millennium brought 2002’s platinum C’mon C’mon (#2), whose gold “Soak Up The Sun” peaked in the Top 20 and “Steve McQueen” again nabbed her a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy. The 2003 greatest hits compilation, the four times platinum The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow, was also a #2 charter, featuring a new recording, a cover of Cat Stevens’ “The First Cut Is The Deepest.” 2005’s platinum Wildflower (#2) featured the duet with Sting, “Always On Your Side.”

On Detours, the fearlessly outspoken Sheryl Crow continues a journey of self-discovery that has increasingly appealed to both the head and the heart.

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Nikka Costa

The daughter of famed arranger/producer Don Costa and goddaughter of her father’s longtime client, Frank Sinatra, R&B vocalist Nikka Costa is no stranger to the music business. Born on June 4, 1972, she landed her first gig at age five, when she opened for the Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho. Two years later, a young Costa wowed 300,000 Police fans in Chile. The burgeoning singer was a natural talent, and her childhood gigs paved the way for a fruitful career.

Costa went back and forth between Los Angeles and Europe, enjoying her youth while molding a sophisticated music career. She made her studio debut in 1981 with a recording of “(Out Here) On My Own,” a song from the musical Fame, and watched as the 45rpm record climbed to the top of the European charts. She released several albums throughout Europe, Israel, Central and South America, most of them going platinum. Whirlwind success, however, was matched by her exciting life at home, as Costa spent time in her father’s recording studio alongside luminaries like Quincy Jones, Sly Stone, and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Nikka Costa’s late teens were spent atop the German charts, and by the time she reached her mid-twenties, she called Australia home. She became a favorite in the Outback, landing a deal with Mushroom Records and issuing Butterfly Rocket in the mid-’90s. The album help garner Costa a nomination for “Best New Artist” at the annual Australian Recording Industry Awards.

The new millennium sparked a new scene for Nikka Costa. Now a mature woman with a fiery spark of determination and passion, the red-headed siren’s songwriting expanded into an alluring art, and her urban vocals sashayed with class and raw sexiness. She soon signed with the Aussie label Cheeba Sound, home to soon-to-be labelmate D’Angelo. The sultry single “Like a Feather” marked Costa’s almost ignored debut in fall 2000 when the cut was used in a Tommy Hilfiger advert. Virgin Records took notice, however, and properly re-introduced Nikka Costa to the world in spring 2001 with the full-length release of Everybody Got Their Something. She returned in May of 2005 with Can’tneverdidnothin’ and supported the album by touring with one of its guest stars, Lenny Kravitz. Pebble to a Pearl followed in 2008, furthering her synthesis of funk, soul, and contemporary R&B.