SHERYL CROW

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NOT even the most humble corvidologist at Cornell University’s famed department of ornithology would deny that Sheryl Crow is one of pop’s most potent songbirds.

At Radio City Music Hall Wednesday, Crow’s show was a crowd-pleaser that thrilled the nearly sold-out house with its all-hits, all-the-time program.

Yet while the fan factor indicated this was a performance of a lifetime, the notion that expectation was giving what was a very ordinary gig a major boost nagged at you.

Crow didn’t blow you away with her singing, and her back-up band constantly overpowered her. Hitch that to her clipped word enunciation, and it was nearly impossible to decipher lyrics unless, of course, you’d already committed them to memory as most of the fans had.

Her work on the bass guitar was adequate and workmanlike, while her six-string strumming was more posing then playing.

As for engaging the people, there was penetrating patter like, “How ya doing, New York?”

During the encore she did speak from her heart to denounce U.S. involvement in war saying “I don’t believe in this war,” before she sang “Let’s Get Free.”

That song was accompanied by a video that juxtaposed historic photos and film clips – presenting side-by-side images such as Adolf Hitler, the U.S. Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima, Osama bin Laden and the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb blast.

Crow fared better when she stuck to fluffy pop like early hits such as “All I Wanna Do” and “Strong Enough.”

The indisputable hit of this concert was opening act Joe Firstman.

The guy has yet to be discovered by mainstream America, but that’ll definitely change later this month when his debut CD is released.

In concert, the singer worked piano-power ballads and full-throttle rock, and ended his short set with a fantastic a capella cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” performed in street-corner doo-wop style.

His brief, eight-song set earned him a standing ovation – unheard of for a warm-up act.