A Is Veteran Crow finally emakes it on By TOM ERLEWINE After hearing her new single, "Leaving Las Vegas,"don'tbe fooled into thinking Sheryl Crow is a brand- new singer-songwriter. Although she's never released an album before her stunningly accomplished debut, "Tuesday Night Music Club," she's een singing and writing for years. Crow's songs have been recorded by Eric Clapton and Wynonna Judd and she has been a back-up vocalist for Michael Jackson, Don Henley and George Harrison. But now, with the growing success of her debut album, Crow appears to be earning some much-deserved success of her own. "People keep asking me, 'Why id you wait so long to make your wn album?"' said Crow, "And I'm like, I didn't wait that long; that's when I got a record deal. It's not like they were banging down my door to give me a record deal. I went through a trip of trying to get signed a few years back. Music was sort of going through a weird period of everything had to sound like Madonna or you couldn't get signed. Particularly, cord labels didn't want to hear from girls that were strongly opinionated, until Tracy Chapman came along and slowly things have started changing. But in the last couple years, it's definitely changed and it's OK to be a woman; in fact, it's hip to have those people on your label." Crow's album has been universally critically-acclaimed, lacing her in the front-ranks of the urrent crop of female singer- songwriters. "Quite honestly, I'm pretty surprised," she admitted. "You never expect to put a record out and get really (good reviews) and I mean I've gotten really good reviews on the record. The record has lot of really good characters on it and I'm really pleased not only for my sake, but for their sake. We had such a great time naking it." "Tuesday Night Music Club" is named after a series of informal jam sessions where Crow and a group of Los Angeles musicians first began recording material for the album. "(David) Baerwald had just finished his record ('Triage') with Bill Bottrell," she recalled. "They finished a few months before and were kind of ried and they called me one Tuesday night and said, 'Hey, we're playing out here just for the fun of it - no record, no nothing.' They called me and said, 'Do you want to come out and jam,' and I did. Tony Gilbert from Toy Matinee was out there and 3-300 STUDENTS BEDROOM U NITS 'O S Itti Iq her own a couple guys showed up from Wire Train that Bill had worked with before also. And we wrote 'Leaving Las Vegas,' along with getting smashed and hanging out and laughing. "A few days later I came back out to the studio and Bill said, 'You gotta hear this.' He played it for me and said, 'You should really think about doing your whole record this way, having these guys be part of it.' So I asked them and they were kind enough to come in during the week. And we always left Tuesday nights open for jamming, so it always sort of maintained its freshness." For Crow, the sessions gave her a significant amount of creative inspiration. "It was the first time in seven years of being in L.A. that I sensed any sort of community of artists," she explained. "It's so competitive there and people don't want to share ideas because they're afraid it might be ripped off in some way. And this was so rare and so spontaneous and creative." Crow had attempted another solo record shortly before the recording of "Tuesday Night Music Club," yet the project was ill-fated. "We got a little bit into it and I just decided it was too slick-sounding and we kind of had a parting of ideas. And as soon as I heard this, I was like, 'You know, this sounds like all the records I grew up listening to.' And I really wanted to have an album that sounded like a live session was going on and that's pretty much what it was. For me, the beauty of this is that we recorded a bunch of performances so I don't have to compete with it when I go out and play live, I just continue to perform the songs." Despite the amount of massive acclaim she has received for her songs, Crow isn't letting the praise go to her head. "As far as I was concerned, when I came out of it I just felt like I had a collection of songs that sort of represented the full circle of my travels."And as "Tuesday Night Music Club" proves, it is a rich, rewarding circle. SHERYL CROW will openfor Crowded House Thursday at the State Theater in Detroit. All ages are welcome and doors open at 7:30 p.m. Call TicketMaster or 961- 5450 for more details. -Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult" doesn't exactly have a plot, but why should it? Just some more good-natured ribbing and slapstick. ' Final Insult' not By JOHN R. RYBOCK The man has police blue running through his veins, but to please his wife, he gives up the force and Naked Gun 331/3: The Final Insult Written by Pat Proft, David Zucker and Robert LoCash; directed by Peter Segal; with Leslie Nielsen and Fred Ward. becomes a house husband. But life on the killing streets goes on. Given the opportunity, the cop rejoins the force, going undercover in a prison to befriend a mad bomber, and determine where he will strike. All the while, his marriage is falling apart, but to him, his police work comes first. OK, I picture Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo. Get Malkovich to play the bomber, and rekindle the same chemistry between these actors which made for one of the most enjoyable films of last year. Or, just get Leslie Nielsen and his usual cohorts of idiots, and make it a comedy. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not implying that there is actually a plot in the new film, "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult." A movie like this usually has only a thin veil trying to pass itself off as a plot, but this third film version of "Police Squad" doesn't even try thatruse.What that essentially boils down to is some great moments which are not very well connected. Scenes at a marriage therapist, sperm bank, Statesville prison and the Academy Awards offer some great laughs, but there is almost no connection between them. And in this genre of humor, the usual basis for success is how much of the shit that the writers, directors and actors throw at the screen actually sticks. The hit-to-miss ratio compared exactly iu to "Naked Gun 2 1/2" is lower, with a lot of lame jokes dying miserable deaths. However, with this coming from the minds of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, the ratio is significantly higher than the lame rip-offs of their work such as "Loaded Weapon I." And not much can be said about the acting, which in this type of film is actually a good thing. All the usual suspects from the previous movies have the treat-this-somewhat- seriously-and-don't-wink-at-the- camera style down, and the newcomers have picked up on it, such as Fred Ward as the mad bomber and Anna Nicole Smith as his girl. (I'll bet my paycheck that those babies are not a natural side effect to giving birth.) The finale occurs at the Academy Awards, which is a strange choice to spoof. If you saw the Oscars, you realize that the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion is home to one of the most tisulting bizarre spectacles in the world. In fact, one of the most hilarious moments, aside from Raquel Welch playing a good sport as Frank Drebin tackles her on stage, come when Drebin, in front of the audience, repeats verbatim what Richard Gere said last year. It's so bizarre, its scary to think that someone actually said it, and still walk the streets straight- jacket-free. One last thing I feel I should mention. The audience when this film was reviewed truly loved one parody of a film. I won't give it away here, but I will leave you one hint: It's the joke everyone's talking about, but no one is telling its secrets. What does all this mean? It boils down simply: Not as good as "2 1/2," but pretty damn funny none-the-less. NAKED GUN 33 1/3: THE FINAL INSULT is playing at Briarwood and Showcase. I =your future * You should get a little experience before you navigate these roads: LSAT, MCAT, GRE & GMAT. it could make the road ahead ECAT a little less treacherous. MCAT -"'-'----- Satumlay, April 2 For more ifnormation, call s r Kaplan at 652-3149 I, V , ' CLOSE TO BEACH-BARS-ETC. HUDSON RENTALS (803) 249-2464 m m m