Grammy Award-winning artist Sheryl Crow today released her cover of Bill Withers’ “Lonely Town, Lonely Street,” featuring Citizen Cope and produced by Steve Jordan. “I love
Bill. His passing last week was a heavy blow, on top of the challenges
we’re all facing just trying to live day to day right now,” she shared
of the tribute.
Crow
continued: “After making incredible, beautiful, funky records
like ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ ‘Grandma’s Hands,’ ‘Use Me’ and ‘Lean On
Me,’ Bill got tired of the music business and stopped recording in 1985.
When I was fortunate enough to meet him, I begged him to make music
again and he replied, ‘I am a stonemason now and I am good at it!’
He told me he was happy and didn’t want to make music anymore. Times
like these remind us about what’s really important in life – love,
family, living life in harmony with each other and our planet. Bill’s
music was about that, and so much more. In loving memory, I am releasing
one of my favorite Bill Withers songs that I recorded with Citizen Cope
and Steve Jordan a while back, “Lonely Town, Lonely Street.”
Jordan
added, “I’d been working on getting Bill to record for over a decade.
He would send me a tune and say, ‘I need a certain kind of person to
record this.’ The truth is, he was the only person that could record it
first! He would visit me in the studio and we would have a blast, he
loved hanging with the studio cats… everyone would get such a thrill
with Bill just being there, he was a GURU! There was only one Bill
Withers.”
“Bill Withers is such a huge influence on me as a songwriter and a
transmitter of energy and emotion. His music will move and touch people
forever,” said Citizen Cope.