Crow Marks the Big 4-0 in Style With A-List Guests

“Don’t tell anyone I said I was 40, because I totally intend to lie about it in the press,” Sheryl Crow said to the El Rey Theatre audience during the birthday concert/party she threw for herself Monday.

Well, if she keeps putting on shows like this one, she can say she’s any age she wants.

It didn’t hurt that celebrants included A-list guests both on stage (Gwyneth Paltrow, Bonnie Raitt, Don Henley, Dwight Yoakam and Doyle Bramhall II all sat in with Crow’s band) and in the audience (Meg Ryan, Anjelica Huston, Gwen Stefani, Chris Rock, David Spade, Ellen DeGeneres, Laura Dern and Paltrow’s mom, Blythe Danner, among others, mixing with music business figures and actual paying fans). But it was the birthday girl herself who set the tone for the evening, showing that age is just a number.

Starting with a buoyant version of the James Gang’s “Walk Away,” a giddy Crow kept the mood loose and spirited for nearly two hours, mixing a bunch of mostly ‘70s rock songs with some of her own biggest hits and several enticing selections from her upcoming “C’mon, C’mon” album, due April 9. The performances were rarely sloppy, even through the parade of guests--testimony to Crow’s leadership and the strength of her band.

Among the highlights: Raitt and Henley trading verses on Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider” and Boudleaux Bryant’s “Love Hurts,” with Raitt teaming with Crow on the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers”; Yoakam twanging up Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” and Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”; and Crow and band reliving their youths with the Move/ELO classic “Do Ya,” Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times” and Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down.”

Even in that illustrious set-list company, Crow’s own songs held their own. And, yes, Paltrow, introduced by Crow as “my backup singer,” proved a strong vocal partner on several songs.

If Crow wants to give her fans a present, she’ll play as if it’s her birthday every day.