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COUNTING CROWS
By John Benson
Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz is feeling comfortable these days.
Not only is the band he helped form nearly a quarter of a century ago still going strong, but the alt-rock act with hints of pop and Americana is celebrating the release of its seventh studio effort, “Somewhere Under Wonderland,” which recently debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
The follow-up to the group’s 2012 covers album “Underwater Sunshine [Or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation],” featuring songs by Bob Dylan, Big Star, Gram Parsons and Faces, finds the Crows channeling the same spirit and vibe experienced on their 1993’s multiplatinum debut, “August and Everything After.”
The centerpiece of “Somewhere Under Wonderland” is the meandering “Palisades Park,” an 81/2-minute-long gem that captures a ’70s New York City vibe. Fans can expect to hear that song and more when the Counting Crows come to Warren on Saturday for a show at Packard Music Hall.
The Vindicator talked to Duritz about the group’s love affair with Ohio, the elegant “Palisades Park” and why the band has lasted over the decades.
Q. The Counting Crows may be making their Trumbull County debut, but the band is no stranger to Ohio. What is it about the Buckeye State?
A. We’ve played so many shows in Ohio. It’s a weird thing. We almost play more shows in Ohio than any other state in the country. It’s like more than California. It always amazed me that they could draw crowds in so many different places. You always play Columbus, Akron, Cleveland and Cincinnati. It’s crazy. It’s not a huge state, but tons of people like our shows.
Q. As far as “Palisades Park” is concerned, it’s a perfect album opener. We’re guessing that was a calculated decision to have it as the opening track.
A. As soon as it was written, I thought I wanted it to be the first song and single so it was heard. I kind of felt like we’ve had a lot of problems in our career because we haven’t been able to sort of introduce people to records in the right way. We make whole albums rather than single songs, so we’ve had trouble trying to represent ourselves with what is often just the shortest song on the record. (The singles) are good songs, but they’re not always representative of the whole record. I think “Palisades Park” has a lot in it, so I thought it was the way to start everything off.
Q. It’s a rare feat that a band is actually able to accurately capture its live sound in the studio. That’s exactly what “Palisades Park” accomplishes. Did you sense that?
A. We do this thing where we tend to improvise songs live, and we tend to take a left turn in the middle of our songs and go all kinds of different places. We’re really good at doing it; it’s very creative stuff, and I realized I never captured that fully on a record as part of the composition of the song. It was always something I did to songs later on in concert, sort of turning them inside out. One of the things I did like about “Palisades Park” was, really, the opportunity to do that in the actual composition of the recorded song, as opposed to something that I added later on. Yeah, it really was the aim of that song to take you several different places.
Q. Compared with peer groups from the ’90s, the Counting Crows have done a pretty successful job of avoiding the package tours and thus staying relevant. Was this a cognizant band decision?
A. We’re not really trying to at all. People are going to tag you with what they’re going to tag you with. We did a lot of co-headline tours years ago — Live, Maroon 5, John Mayer — and we made a lot of money. But the problem with co-headline bills is you don’t get to play very long. So I felt like we were making a lot of money but sort of not satisfying anybody. You’re only getting 65 minutes of each band, and it’s not a great show. I felt like with the depth of our material, we could really play these great, long, involved shows that would be very rich for everybody. We started playing these two-hour shows years ago, and I really liked it.
Q. Finally, how has being in the Counting Crows evolved or changed for you personally over the decades?
A. I certainly have changed. I really enjoy it a lot more now, I suppose. I never thought that enjoyment was the most important part of it, but I think I’m more comfortable in the whole thing now.