Counting Crows

Alright, alright...I know. For those that knew me in the '90's, you know that I was a huge fan of Counting Crows. I've been to a couple of their shows, gotten their autographs, bought their albums, T-shirts, stole some posters (actually, Kerry did) and even bought a bunch of bootlegs off ebay.

Whenever I ask anyone if they're a fan of CC, they say, "I think I have their first album." If anybody that I know has bought an album or has an album by them, it is usually August and Everything After. Seriously, there's a reason why this album sold approximately 8 million copies in the US alone (almost unheard of today thanks to digital downloading). They have four other studio albums - Recovering the Satellites, This Desert Life, Hard Candy and Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings). While sales have slipped with each album debut, they still debut their albums in the top 10 selling at least one hundred thousand copies alone in the first week. They have built a "Dead-head" like following.

Their albums have been produced by a who's who of the music world. T-Bone Burnett (numerous country and rock acts such as Wallflowers) and Gil Norton (Foo Fighters) have been producers. Adam Duritz has collaborated with several respected artists including Ryan Adams, Sheryl Crow, Jakob Dylan, Nanci Griffith, Dashboard Confessional and Live.

Adam Duritz is famous for two things: 1. Writing morose and tortured songs and 2. Dating lots of famous women (Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Emmy Rossum and a few others). I can't comment on all the stars he's been with but he does suffer from a "dissociative disorder" which makes the world seem like it's not real. Many artists that have the right brain tendency (artistic side) tend to struggle with depression or mental illness which makes them brilliant artistically but also have problems as a result of being bi-polar, etc.

Thinking of checking them out? Start with August and Everything After and the skip to Hard Candy. The rest of the albums are excellent but these two stand out especially. They don't cuss like sailors but they do swear occasionally but not liberally. Often times swearing is used to punctuate a point rather than being crass because they can. Duritz's illness can be detected throughout the music which is a fascinating listen to hear of how he hurts others and how others close him up.

They have also released two live albums (Across a Wire and another one that I can't remember).

Pop...
Greg