1990s 1991–1992: Formation and early years Adam Duritz, former member of the
San Francisco Bay Area band
the Himalayans, and producer/guitarist David Bryson formed Counting Crows in San Francisco in 1991. They began as an
acoustic duo, playing gigs in and around Berkeley and San Francisco. Another friend, guitarist
David Immerglück, played with them from time to time, though he was not an official member of the group, and experimented with other musicians in the area. As the emerging band recorded some
demos, and as other musicians joined the duo to make a full band, Immerglück recorded with the band on some of the songs for its first album. He declined to join the band at the time, because of his membership in two other locally popular bands,
Monks of Doom and
Camper Van Beethoven. By 1993, the band had grown to a stable lineup of Duritz as
vocalist, occasional
pianist, and primary
songwriter, Bryson on guitar,
Matt Malley playing
bass guitar,
Charlie Gillingham on
keyboards, and
Steve Bowman as
drummer, and the band was a regular in the Bay Area scene. When Gary Gersh of
Geffen Records heard the band's demo tape, he was "blown away". A bidding war between nine different record labels broke out in February 1992. In April, the band—which, by that time, included other members—"signed a deal with Gersh and Geffen believed to be so lucrative that industry wags dubbed them Accounting Crows". On January 16, 1993, the band, still relatively unknown, filled in for
Van Morrison at the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, and was introduced by an enthusiastic
Robbie Robertson. At the ceremony, they played a cover of Van Morrison's "
Caravan". Before signing to Geffen, the band recorded demo versions of a number of songs, known as the "Flying Demos". These later surfaced among the Counting Crows fanbase. Tracks include "
Rain King", "Omaha", "Anna Begins", "
Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)", "Shallow Days", "Love and Addiction", "
Mr. Jones", "
Round Here", "40 Years", "Margery Dreams of Horses", "Bulldog", "Lightning", and "We're Only Love".
1993–1994: August and Everything After and popular success The band's debut album,
August and Everything After, was released in September 1993. It describes the desire of working musicians to make it big and the fantasies they entertain about what fame might bring. Duritz sang the song in fun, enjoying the fantasy; he did not realize that just months later, in December 1993, drawing massive radio play and launching the band into stardom. In 2018, the
Chicago Sun-Times described
August and Everything After as follows: "August And Everything After" [launched] the Bay Area septet with its hippie-inspired, roots-rock-infiltrating hits "Mr. Jones", "Round Here", and "Rain King", (ironically, at a time when grunge dominated the charts). Counting Crows eschewed the trend, happily wearing their time-stamped influences like Van Morrison and The Band on their patchwork sleeves, and found an audience who agreed with them. That first album went on to become a seven-times-platinum success in the U.S. alone, at the time the fastest-selling record since Nirvana's
Nevermind. With "Mr. Jones" propelling the band forward, and with positive reviews from
Rolling Stone and other publications, it was decided that the band could use a second guitarist, and Dan Vickrey, another Bay Area musician, was offered the role as
lead guitarist, singing
backing vocals. The band toured extensively in 1993 and 1994, both as headliners and in supporting roles with other artists, including
the Rolling Stones,
Cracker,
the Cranberries,
Suede,
Bob Dylan,
Los Lobos,
Jellyfish, and
Midnight Oil. Success took a toll on Counting Crows; Duritz suffered a widely reported
nervous breakdown, which was not his first. Towards the end of 1994, Bowman was fired from the band. He was replaced on drums by Ben Mize.
1995–1998: Recovering the Satellites and double live album The band played only two gigs in 1995. and a Top 10 hit in the United States. On July 2, 1997, Counting Crows started off a co-headlining tour with
the Wallflowers that continued to September. The tour included opening acts by
Bettie Serveert,
Engine 88,
Gigolo Aunts and
That Dog, with each opening band touring for three-weeks. After nine months of near-constant touring in support of the album, Duritz developed
nodules on his vocal cords in July 1997, leading to the cancellation of a number of gigs. After taking time off to recover, the band toured for the rest of 1997, concluding with a
MTV show at the
Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. This concert was released as half of a double live album,
Across a Wire: Live in New York City. The other disc was a recording of a predominantly acoustic set from the band's appearance on the
VH1 Storytellers show.
1999–2001: This Desert Life and extensive touring In 1999, Counting Crows performed at
Woodstock 99. Later that same year, the band released
This Desert Life, sales of which were propelled by the success of "
Hanginaround" and "
Colorblind", which was also featured in the movie
Cruel Intentions. Supporting the album, the band embarked on a co-headlining tour with alternative rock band
Live. Counting Crows closed nearly every show. Before this album and subsequent tour, the band invited
session player and long-time friend David Immerglück to join the band as a permanent member. Immerglück had played on every Counting Crows album as a
sideman, but early on had declined a permanent position. This time, however, Immerglück agreed. He plays a variety of instruments with the band, including acoustic, electric and
pedal steel guitars,
slide guitar and
mandolin, as well as
backing vocals. The original version, without vocals by Carlton, appeared on the first album release as a hidden track.
Hard Candy received better reviews than the previous efforts, with "radio friendly" songs, like "
American Girls" (which featured
Sheryl Crow on backing vocals), and contains a more upbeat feel and tempo. The band toured with the
Dutch band,
Bløf. A song, "Holiday in Spain", came together as a result of the camaraderie between the two groups: it is sung partly as a dual language duet, and partly as a musical "round", with both
lead singers singing in differing languages at the end of the song. Midway through the Hard Candy tour, drummer Mize amicably left the band to spend more time with his family and pursue his own musical interests. After Mize completed the American leg of the tour, he was replaced by Jim Bogios, formerly a drummer with
Ben Folds and Sheryl Crow. Bogios attributes leaving Sheryl Crow for Counting Crows to becoming a band member and having more creative input. Following the Hard Candy tour, longtime
bassist Malley left the band after growing weary of touring, and to attend to his duties as a new father. He was replaced by
Millard Powers. Counting Crows released the greatest hits album
Films About Ghosts in November 2003.
2004–2006: Oscars and New Amsterdam In 2004, the band's "
Accidentally in Love" song appeared on the
soundtrack of the animated film
Shrek 2. At the
77th Academy Awards, the song was nominated for
Best Original Song, but lost to "
Al otro lado del río" from
The Motorcycle Diaries. In June 2006, the band released
New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall album.
2007–2008: Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings Duritz hinted in a 2006 interview that Counting Crows' next studio record would be released in late 2007. He indicated that the band had spent three weeks working in a recording studio with
Gil Norton, the producer behind
Recovering the Satellites, and revealed the working title of the album to be
Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings. Duritz explained that, "Saturday night is when you sin and Sunday is when you regret. Sinning is often done very loudly, angrily, bitterly, violently." Vickrey stated that "the idea at the moment is to have kind of a rocking side and then an acoustic-y, maybe country-ish side. We got the first half done in May in New York, so half of it is pretty strong and done. And now we're going to work on the second half, the country tunes, during the tour." On July 22 they previewed two new songs at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium in
Wilmington, Delaware, a new ballad titled "Washington Square" and a hard rocking track called "Cowboys". On August 8, 2007, VH1 filmed a live performance of "Mr. Jones", clips of which were shown on the miniseries
100 Greatest Songs of the 90s. The song ranked No. 27 on the list. In September 2007, Counting Crows played a unique show at Town Hall in New York City, during which it performed all the tracks from
August and Everything After in album order. The show was recorded for a planned DVD release, and also featured several songs from the new album. On September 27, Duritz announced on his blog that the band had asked its record label to postpone the release of
Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings until early 2008, citing the time pressures involved in preparing both the new album and an
August and Everything After deluxe edition for release. On January 16, 2008, the band released a digital single on its official website as a free download. It featured "
1492" from the "Saturday Nights" half of the new album, and "When I Dream Of Michelangelo" from the "Sunday Mornings" half as its B-side. The album was released on March 25, 2008.
Departure from Geffen On March 22, 2009, Duritz announced on the band's website that they would be leaving
Geffen Records, with whom they had worked for 18 years. He ended the post with a free download of the band's cover of
Madonna's "Borderline", recorded live at the
Royal Albert Hall in 2003. Following the departure from Geffen, the band has continued to tour. During the summer of 2009, they launched the ambitious
Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus and Medicine Show tour with longtime Bay Area friend
Michael Franti, his band Spearhead, and the band
Augustana. Instead of the traditional concert format of a short set by an opening act, followed by a longer set from a main supporting act, and then a long set by the headlining band, the shows featured members of all of the bands joining each other for songs from each bands' catalogs at various points throughout the evening. As Duritz explained in a welcoming message on the official website for the tour, each show "is going to start with EVERYONE onstage together and we're going to all be running on & off stage all night playing one each other's songs all together and basically just playing whenever we feel like playing."
2010s 2010–2013: Independent releases and individual projects The album
August and Everything After: Live at Town Hall was released on August 29, 2011. The release marked the band's third professionally produced live album, and the first concert video of its career. The album used footage from the Town Hall concert, recorded in September 2007. The band released a covers album entitled
Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) on April 10, 2012, with a cover design by a fan chosen in a promotional contest. After touring extensively in 2012 and 2013 in support of the album (including headlining
The Outlaw Roadshow, a traveling festival tour presented in conjunction with Ryan Spaulding of the music blog Ryan's Smashing Life, and touring North America in the summer of 2013 with
the Wallflowers), the band began working on material for a new album. Duritz also took time in the summer of 2012 to begin co-writing a play called
Black Sun, which will also feature some music written by Duritz, including well-known rarity songs "Good Luck" and "Chelsea". A live album,
Echoes of the Outlaw Roadshow, was released in North America in November 2013.
2014–2019: Somewhere Under Wonderland, podcast and wine The writing of material for a new album,
Somewhere Under Wonderland, began early in 2013 and continued during that year's summer tour. In 2018, Duritz became an investor in three wineries based in
Napa Valley, California—Elyse Winery, Institution Winery, and Addax Winery—managed by winemaker Russell Bevan. Starting in February 2018, Duritz began recording the Underwater Sunshine Podcast, a weekly music podcast with author and music journalist
James Campion. Having parted ways with Spaulding, Duritz and friends began putting on their own twice-annual music festival in New York called the Underwater Sunshine Fest to showcase independent music. The first festival, held at the
Bowery Electric in October 2018, featured 17 bands over two nights. A second in April 2019 showcased 18 bands, and a third held at
Rockwood Music Hall in November 2019 expanded the lineup to 26. Acts as diverse as Yellow House Orchestra, Seán Barna,
Mikaela Davis,
Marcy Playground, Matt Sucich,
Stephen Kellogg, Stew and the Negro Problem, and Fairhazel have appeared. More bands recorded acoustic sessions at Duritz's loft the weekends of each of the festivals. In January 2019, Counting Crows released a newly recorded version of "August and Everything After" performed with the
London Symphony Orchestra at
AIR Studios. The song was cut from the band's first album, which had been named after it. "The Angel of 14th Street", and "Bobby and the Rat Kings".
Mott the Hoople,
Thin Lizzy, and Seán Barna's album
CISSY were cited as influences on demos of the songs. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, without touring and being unable to work on music in the studio, as well as taking a hiatus from his podcast, Duritz began hosting cooking videos through his Instagram stories. Speaking with chef
Tyler Florence, Duritz said the type of research he would do regarding music for the podcast he turned into exploring more about food and cooking to share with others. The EP, titled
Butter Miracle, Suite One, was released on May 21, 2021. At the time, Duritz told
Rolling Stone that a second EP,
Butter Miracle, Suite Two, would be released and together with the first form a full album. He was writing songs for the second EP, and the band planned to resume touring in the fall of 2021. During the 2022 Butter Miracle Tour, Counting Crows performed live in
Israel for the first time, playing in an amphitheater in the city of
Ra'anana. In April 2023, the band returned to Australia and New Zealand for a series of headlining shows, with English musician
Frank Turner supporting them. The following year, the Oneness Tour saw them travel with
Santana. On February 21, 2025, the band put out a new single, "Spaceman in Tulsa", to announce the release date for the upcoming album
Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!. Forgoing a second EP, the new album, with the four songs from the
Suite One EP plus five additional songs, was released on May 9, 2025. == Influences, live performances and covers ==