In this reconstituted world of artists releasing recorded music, it’s been a while since Counting Crows hit us with new material, which will be the centerpiece of their upcoming June 29 Jones Beach gig. The band’s last full-length studio effort was 2014’s “Somewhere Under Wonderland” and in the 11 years since, the band toured, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra and released a newly recorded 2019 version of “August and Everything After,” the here-to-for unreleased title cut from the album of the same name. Throw in a global pandemic and the only new music Counting Crows released was the 2021 EP, “Butter Miracle, Suite One,” which featured a four-song suite influenced by the likes of Mott the Hoople, Thin Lizzy and Seán Barna’s album “CISSY.” Vocalist and founding member Adam Duritz will be the first to admit how the drastically altered music has forced his band to rethink the paradigm the music industry has evolved into.
“For a while, I wasn’t sure how to put out records,” Duritz admitted. “With ‘Somewhere Under Wonderland,’ we had a great record company who did a really good job [promoting it] and the album just kind of disappeared. It’s hard to work hard on the music and then feel like you’re throwing it down a hole.”
The four songs that make up the album—“The Tall Grass,” “Elevator Boots,” “Angel of 14th Street,” “Bobby and the Rat-Kings”—served as a baseline for the band’s next full-length. After recording five more new songs last spring before leaving for a summer tour, Duritz and his compatriots came away with the recently released “Butter Miracle! The Complete Sweets,” Counting Crows’ eighth studio album. And while the whole project took nearly four years to complete, the 60-year-old vocalist was thrilled with the chemistry he and his bandmates had during the recording process.
“The time in the studio was good,” Duritz said with a smile. “We were just playing so well and it was so easy. One of my favorite moments was the day we mixed ‘Bobby and the Rat Kings’ and cut the whole suite together. Up until that point, we didn’t know if it would work. It’s a weird thing when you’re recording and working on songs one-by-one, you kind of know they work. With a suite like this, no matter how well it was turning out in the studio, there was a question as to whether it was going to fit together and flow the way we wanted it to. That was one of the most creative days of my life, honestly and it was so satisfying when it worked.”
While the pace of putting out eight albums over the 34-year lifespan of the band (and counting) makes for slower recording output, the live side of the coin has always been a robust facet for Counting Crows. And with such an enterprising slate of new songs to play, Duritz is looking forward to throwing the newest songs into the mix along with tackling the challenge of playing the four-song suite.
“On our last tour, we played the whole thing as one,” Duritz recalled. “I love the suite. I never really tried one song alone, but to me, ‘Elevator Boots’ doesn’t feel as great alone. I think it’s going to be exciting because we have all these new songs that rock. I’m excited to play them. We played ‘Spaceman in Tulsa’ a few times now. We’ve opened with it for a few shows and it was great.”
With three-plus decades in the books, Counting Crows could have easily collapsed under the weight of hype that found them at the center of a major label bidding war back in February 1992. All these years later, Duritz will tell you he’s been perfectly happy to ensure that harmony, in both a literal and metaphorical sense, winds up being the fuel that keeps his band’s longevity going.
“I can only really speak for myself, but I realized early on that I loved being in this band and this is what I’d always wanted for my life,” Duritz said. “I think you see bands that break up all the time and a lot of it is because there’s always a way for anyone in any band to figure out why they deserve more. More attention, more respect, more money—whatever it is. There’s always a way for everybody in every band to feel slighted. But, you’ve got to figure out what’s important and I think I realized early on that this band was what I’d always been looking for, so I just made that the priority.”
Counting Crows will be playing on July 29 with Gaslight Anthem at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, 1000 Ocean Pkwy, Wantagh. For more information, visit www.jonesbeach.com or call 800-745-3000.
