Mary Chapin Carpenter - Jubilee (Live at Wolf Trap) (1995) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A great performance by a great singer-songwriter, singing terrific songs. How can it miss? Well there are some signifcant drawbacks to this disc, though the acual performance and music are terrific.
First, the positives: This undated (why?) 1995 show at Wolf Trap in Washington, DC, near her home in Maryland, shows Mary Chapin Carpenter in perferct form. The band is terrific, her singing i outstanding, her stage presence commanding and entertaining. She's probably the top singer-songwriter of the 90's, her album "Come On Come On" deservedly won some Grammy's, and some of the best songs on it are here as well as "Down at the Twist and Shout." The sound is excellent but NOT 5.1. There is no separate track for the rear speakers. (I suspect, since this was filmed in 1995, that surround sound on concerts wasn't important. There probably were no mikes in the rear of the crowd.) All in all, the filmed performance (not complete) is worthy of 5 stars. But there are some negatives that can't be overlooked, and should have been corrected.
The biggest draw back are the voice-overs at the beginning of each song, interview clips between songs, and voice-overs even during some songs. That's inexcusable!! In addition, the extra appearances of Shawn Colvin and Joan Baez (hardly a negative) are not part of the concert itself but extras. However, instead on placing them as bonus tracks, they are included right along, severely interrupting the flow. In fact, there is no flow, since the voice-overs/interviews appear between every song.
This should have been avoided. I believe that this show was taped for PBS fund-raiser telecast, which clearly accounts for the interruptions between songs. Television loves the overlapping voice-overs/music and interview footage. And it appears that they just copied that tape for the DVD release.But couldn't they have taken a little time and re-edited the tape to remove all interruptions and put the interviews and bonus tracks at the end (or on a separate special features section?) That is what should have been done. As a result, it seriously detracts from the show.
However, at the heart of the matter is a great performance by Ms. Carpenter which I do recommend. Strongly. Maybe next time, they'll get the DVDrelease right.

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