‘C’mon, C’mon,’ Time for New Album

Does absence make the heart grow fonder, or just make fans forget? That’s the question Sheryl Crow will get an answer to this week when SoundScan’s first-week sales figures show up for her “C’mon, C’mon” album.

It’s been four years since her previous studio album, “The Globe Sessions”--a couple of lifetimes in terms of the pop music world’s ever-accelerating churn rate.

During that period, she has given her time to numerous benefit concerts and has become one of the prime movers behind the fledgling Recording Artists Coalition, an organization she and Don Henley have launched to give musicians a voice on Capitol Hill regarding legislation that affects the recording industry.

Early returns from retailers indicate that the time she’s spent on stage and on camera promoting matters other than her own career reinforces the adage that all publicity is good publicity. “C’mon, C’mon” is shaping up as her highest-charting entry to date, and possibly her first No. 1: She could vault past Ashanti and Celine Dion to the top of the pop album chart when numbers are released Wednesday.

“She definitely has a shot at No. 1,” says Craig Swedin, assistant rock buyer for the Wherehouse Entertainment chain. “I think it all has to do with how Ashanti does nationwide.... I think [Crow’s album] will definitely be No. 1 or No. 2.”

Although Crow considers her efforts on behalf of the Recording Artists Coalition to be “vital,” it’s music that she still thinks of as her “real work.”

“Don and I laugh about it all the time,” she told The Times recently. “We could spend our entire lives just working on artists’ issues and never making music. I have to be really careful about getting my real work done.”

That work is expected to include a summer tour, but the only date Crow has scheduled in the immediate future is her appearance Saturday at Fan Nation 2 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, where fans can hear musicians play and sit in as they take part in chat sessions offstage.

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--Compiled by Times staff writers