Review of Mary Chapin Carpenter: Jubilee

Introduction

Ok, those of you who have got this far are most likely scratching your heads and saying "Mary who?" If at least one reader knows who she is then I`ll probably be pretty shocked. I only know of about 3 people in this country who`ve ever heard of Mary Chapin Carpenter (MCC). In fact if you have heard of her - post something in the General discussion group to prove me wrong !

And the fact that so few people have ever heard of her is a crying shame, because she is probably one of the best singer/songwriters in the history of the world. Intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics, backed with beautiful music. Why don`t we know more about her? Perhaps because her roots are country music. Most of you now probably have an image of stetsons, cowboy boots and line dancing. And whilst it`s true that MCC has written a few songs like that, that`s not really what she is about.

This DVD contains a concert recording featuring some of her best songs, along with interview footage and special guests Joan Baez and Shawn Colvin.

Video

Video quality is pretty good, considering that this is a recorded for TV broadcast performance. Video comes from various sources, the concert itself, backstage footage, interview footage and more.

Audio

A full DD5.1 mix is presented here, and that`s the reason why I imported this disc. The chance to hear one of my favourite musicians in glorious 5.1 was too good to miss. And you won`t be let down by the sound. It really is excellent, and just has to be played loud.

The mix is just right, the instruments are all in the right place, and the vocals are crisp and clear.

Features

No extras here. The main feature is interspersed with interview clips and sound bites. It might have been nice to have these available separately and have the concert on its own, but to be honest I`m just grateful that it exists.

Conclusion

Ok, I`ve sung the praises of this disc enough. Time for the one bad feature. It`s a flipper. And although this should be unforgivable, I have to forgive and forget because there`s no chance that this disc is ever going to get re-released. And there`s no chance of seeing it in region 2, so if you want to see it, you`ll have to bite the bullet and buy a flipper.

So, fantastic songs in DD5.1, reasonable video quality, on a double sided disc. But the only chance of seeing this excellent artist on DVD. I can`t imagine anyone else going out to buy it, but I`m grateful for the fact that it`s available and I own it.