Sheryl Crow is fearless on her new album

Sheryl Crow isn't afraid of much anymore.

Sure, she gets worried - about the environment, the political climate, health care and cancer research, and, of course, her two sons, Wyatt and Levi. But after being diagnosed with breast cancer, having your breakup with Lance Armstrong hit the tabloids and publicly arguing with then-senior White House adviser Karl Rove, fear pretty much takes a permanent backseat in your life.

With her soulful new album "100 Miles From Memphis" (A&M), Crow continues to leave fear behind artistically as well. On her previous album "Detours," Crow boldly outlined her views on politics and world issues. On "100 Miles From Memphis," named for the distance from her hometown of Kennett, Mo., to the Southern soul hotbed, she strikes out in a completely new direction, one that had made her a bit nervous throughout her career.

Yes, Sheryl Crow is ready to write about feeling sexy.

"It's not a comfortable place for me," she says, calling from a tour stop in Saratoga, Calif. "I try to be more cerebral or more clever or more narrative in my approach to writing. This was not that. This was more about being real and being present at a time when people are not being terribly emotional. It was a conscious decision and for me a real challenge."

Crow sounds downright sultry on "Roses and Moonlight" and on her version of Terence Trent D'Arby's "Sign Your Name," which features Justin Timberlake on the harmonies. The breezy single "Summer Day," with its lush string and backing vocal arrangements punctuated with a horn section, is brimming with a feeling of carefree love.

"I'm somebody who keeps my feelings close to the vest," Crow says. "But I love this album. It is where I am. I'm in a great place - I'm involved with somebody, I'm happy, I've got two beautiful kids. Life should be more emotional. It should be more about love, and that's kind of where it's at. . . . This record is more of an exercise in being in an emotional place and being OK with that, with showing vulnerability and desire. Soul music has been historically steeped in that, anyway."

Crow says she pushed herself to commit to expressing her feelings, "to throw myself into actually writing emotional lyrics and sexy lyrics and lyrics that were about desire." "It was not only necessary, but the direction that I wanted to go," she says. "I wanted to make a record that people would enjoy listening to and that I would enjoy singing."

Politically direct

That doesn't mean Crow's given up talking about politics all together, though. "It's really difficult for me not to at least acknowledge the elephant in the living room," she says.

In the politically charged, yet still soulful "Say What You Want," Crow sings, "I saw you ranting on TV today, I heard you tell me to reload. You've got a lot of nerve to talk that way. Someone unplug the microphone."

Though the "reload" imagery comes from Sarah Palin statements, Crow says the song is tackling a broader problem in politics today.

"When I think about what is happening in the country, my greatest concern is that our idea of leadership has really changed," she says. "This idea that leaders are people who are supposed to incite abject fear in order to motivate us, that really terrifies me. We have so many leaders now rising to the top who can only appeal to us in a way that is about anger and fear.

"When you're looking for a leader to represent you, you have to really put yourself in some sort of ethical check to see if that is someone you want to represent you, someone who uses words like, 'reload,' which, to me, only incites violence," she adds.

Crow takes a different tack in "Peaceful Feeling," an upbeat soul rave-up that addresses flying "off in the wrong direction" and making your way through tough times. She talks about the common ground - "everybody wants to feel all right" - and getting people to dance.

"It's a shaky time," Crow says. "But I say, 'No matter who is leading, there will be peace and salvation.' One way or another, the environment is going to dictate what's going to happen. It's going to wake us up to the error of our ways. . . . Ultimately, the earth will dictate that peace will have to reign."

The "Peaceful Feeling" approach fit more with Crow's current state of mind and her goal for "100 Miles from Memphis," saying, "I wanted to make a record that people would enjoy listening to and that I would enjoy singing."

Getting soulful

And Crow says she's certainly enjoying singing the new songs on her current tour, which features an all-out soul revue backing her up, a band that includes a horn section and her producers Doyle Bramhall II and Justin Stanley.

"I'm having a blast playing it live," she says. "It's just unbelievable. It's a real infusion of energy, and with new musicians, there's a new approach to the older songs - more of a soul attitude. 'Soak Up the Sun' sounds like it's coming from a completely different place."

Crow says that to prepare for the tour, which stops at Radio City Music Hall Sunday, she watched a lot of old footage of Donny Hathaway to get in a soulful mood. To capture the right feel for her soulful protest songs "Say What You Want" and "Peaceful Feeling," she turned to the music of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye.

"You don't usually want to be sitting and writing when you're happy," Crow says. "But working with Doyle and Justin, it didn't really feel like working. We didn't really approach it methodically. It was more like, 'Let's see what we get.' We ended up with so much material that we're going to have enough for a Volume 2 that we'll be putting out really soon. It was a really cool experience that ended up being very easy."

All Sheryl Crow wants to do . . . is a lot

Though Sheryl Crow is focusing on her new tour, as well as raising her sons, she has several other projects that are finished or close to finished.

'You Are My Sunshine' - Crow joined Jerry Lee Lewis and producer Jon Brion for a version of the classic that appears on The Killer's album "Mean Old Man," which is out now. "He's heroic, and he's from my part of the world, so that made it mean that much more," Crow says.

'Coal Miner's Daughter' - Crow teamed up with Loretta Lynn herself, as well as Miranda Lambert, for a new take on the classic, just in time for the 50th anniversary of its release this year. The single comes out Tuesday, and the album it's on, "Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn," hits stores Nov. 9. "I've always been a huge fan of hers," Crow says. "What a thrill to sing on that song with her."

The Sheryl Crow Imaging Center - The center, which opened this month as part of the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Los Angeles, specializes in digital screening and diagnostic imaging to help detect breast cancer earlier. The center was created by Dr. Kristi Funk, who treated Crow during her bout with breast cancer. "We want to open these centers across the United States," Crow says. "It's very special to me."