Sheryl Crow, 'Peaceful Feeling' (Sessions)

AOL: A lot of songs from that era we love have this very upbeat aspect to it and these very sad words and very sad emotions or lyrics that invade the tempos.

Crow: We just try to fool the listener all the time; don't get too happy. It's funny because 'All I Wanna Do' is that way. 'All I Wanna Do' is a very cynical take on the '90s in Los Angeles, and people kind of latched on to 'All I Wanna Do,' but that's great. Some of the best songs ever written were like that, and I think it is an interesting juxtaposition and it is kind of indicative of what living is, you have the bittersweet with the euphoric.

AOL: When did the idea to explore these sounds and arrangements on '100 Miles From Memphis' come to you?

Crow: I've always had a certain amount of direct influences on all my records. Even 'All I Wanna Do' was taken from a Marvin Gaye song, 'Got to Give It Up.' Every record has music that is very implied and I just felt like that it was time to really fully commit to that style of music and to go back to what it originally was that I was trying to do in 1990 when I came off the Michael Jackson tour. I tried to get a record deal, and every single record label turned me down for the very reason they didn't know what to do with a blue-eyed soul singer. And I got into songwriting, I got into listening to Bob Dylan and I got into writing in a more literary, narrative fashion kind of implied in some ways a kind of a Southern folk rock, and I just felt like this was the record that felt natural for me to do after coming off [2008's] 'Detours' record.