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There are not many artists that listeners can rely on to be worth the cost of a CD every time they put a new one on the market. Sheryl Crow is one of those artists.

Crow’s newest release, “Detours,” is just what is expected, respected and to be reflected on by fans. She has never been one to mince words and she certainly does not do any mincing here either.

Producer, Bill Bottrell worked with Crow on her debut album in 1993, “Tuesday Night Music Club,” earning three Grammy’s – Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “All I Wanna DO.” The two were back together to do their thing for “Detours.”

The first video from this CD, “Love Is Free,” is about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The song opens with “She got a shack, Floating down the Ponchartrain, with the water rollin’ in…” which refers to the Ponchartrain Lake, the lake where the powers that be pumped the water from the flooded streets of New Orleans after the levees broke.

Only Crow could do a bouncy little number, with a chorus easy to remember and sing along with, while making a point of how she felt about the whole calamity.

Crow, with her folksy, classic rock, rock’n’roll sound with just a hint of country and blue grass, has the guts to voice what some may think, but tend to keep inside.

From her very public, failed relationship, to the Iraq war with “Peace Be Upon Us,” which features Ahmed Al Hirmi singing in Arabic, to her battle with breast cancer and a tribute to her new baby boy, Wyatt in “Lullaby For Wyatt,” it’s all here.

Fans of rock will like “Shine over Babylon,” while “God Bless This Mess” has a sound that is reminiscent of the anti-war music of the ’60s. Each song is different from the one before and the one after, there is something for everyone.

When listening to “Detours,” listeners have the feeling of sitting in on a private conversation between Crow and the world.

As a nine-time Grammy Award singer/songwriter Crow knows what she wants to say and how she wants to say it.

In a recent interview with Billboard Magazine, Crow stated, “It’s difficult to be awake and not be affected by all that is going on around us.”

Now if she could just put that thought to music, wait, she did, and it’s called, “Detours.”