Feathers, leather ornament Crow’s by-the-numbers set

Albuquerque

An outdoor-adventure-loving crowd soaked up the sun along with the music of Sheryl Crow and nine other artists as part of the Jeep Outside Festival Sunday at the Journal Pavilion.

Crow closed out a long day of performances with an hour-and-a-half set that included her big hits and a sampling of more than half of the songs from her new CD, “C’mon, C’mon.”

C’mon, Sheryl. Have you gone wholly commercial, brazenly promoting your new pop CD and headlining a tour sponsored by Jeep?

Jeepers creepers! We thought you were too cool to sell out.

But it’s easy to cut Crow some slack. Like Brando, Dean and McQueen, her sheer coolness is what made her popular. Can’t fault her for being herself. And after all, she gave the people what they wanted, singing songs about having fun, being happy and old boyfriends.

Crow started her show the same way her new CD begins, with the edgy “Steve McQueen.” The Queen of Cool dressed the part, wearing a dark-brown suede vest and tight leather pants trimmed with feathers at the bell bottom — all complemented by beaded necklaces adorned with turquoise and feathers.

The recently-turned-40-year-old looked great and graceful, swirling about the stage, at times rocking to familiar songs such as “Every Day is a Winding Road” and “A Change” and, at times, rolling out mellower melodies such as “Leaving Las Vegas” and “My Favorite Mistake.”

Crow appealed to the fun-loving crowd with “All I Want to Do” (is have some fun) and “If It Makes You Happy.”

Then there were the customary songs about relationships, including “Strong Enough,” and one of her new songs, titled “Lucky Kid,” which she introduced as being about an old boyfriend she left somewhere along the side of the road.

Nearly half the set consisted of songs on “C’mon, C’mon,” including the title song, “You’re An Original,” and, of course, her current hit, “Soak Up the Sun.”

After a finale of “There Goes the Neighborhood,” Crow again dipped into her new-song collection for the encore, singing “Safe and Sound.”

Safe and sound pretty much describes Crow’s performance. She played it safe, playing the hits everyone expects to hear along with her new material, but offering few surprises, save for slipping into an old Kinks riff at the end of “A Change.” Her show was sound, leaving the throng with nothing to be substantially disappointed about.

Like the popular commercial success she’s come to be, Sheryl Crow gave the people what they wanted. And they gladly bought it.