Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) is a collection of songs, both familiar and obscure, interpreted by one of the most soulful and recognizable bands of the past two decades.

Underwater Sunshine is a testament of a band geek-obsessed with music. "There's a million great songs written every day that you discover, and wish your friends could appreciate as much as you do," says singer/songwriter Adam Duritz. "These songs come from bands young and old, stretching from the early 60s to last year. They're all great and will hopefully be heard by a few more people now."

Produced by Counting Crows and Shawn Dealey, Underwater Sunshine features tracks written by artists such as Big Star, Gram Parsons, Tender Mercies, Kasey Anderson and The Faces. Each rendition offers an entire spectrum of human emotion, delivered with the conviction and intense honesty the band is known for.

As their first independent release, it was the right time for the Crows to make this album. "If you wonder why we didn't just write our own record, it's simply because we wanted to do THIS one," says Duritz, We now have the creative freedom to release albums like this and offer our fans more music than ever."

In the spirit of becoming an independent band, the Crows will stream the new album, on demand in its entirety prior to release on radio station websites and other digital partners. They are also giving away a free download of their new song, "Mercy" on http://www.countingcrows.com/