The classy PBS unplugged music show Sessions at West 54th Vol. 2 has spent some time in my DVD player. While the first Sessions at West 54th to grace the DVD format was outstanding, things did not turn out so well for the follow up. The only shortcoming of the original was the lack of any kind of extras. Bonus material has become so prevalent on DVD releases that the original almost appeared naked in that respect. Session Vol. 2 attempts to right the wrongs, with spoken intro’s, a photo gallery, and interviews with the artists featured on Vol. 2. All of the people involved in the project failed miserably. But before I get into that mess, allow me to shed some light on the performances found on Sessions Vol. 2.

There are now 14 performances as opposed to the 15 found on the original. Once again the mix is very broad and eclectic. Only on Sessions could you find Kronos Quartet, Afro-Cuban All Stars, Natalie Merchant and Ozomatli all thrown together. The first outstanding moment on Vol.2 goes to Imani Coppola with Legend of a Cowgirl. Imani is nothing short of a ball of energy. Imani almost seems to leave her band short of breath just trying to keep up with her.

Miss Coppola moves from serious to playful to energized as quickly as her mood changes, (and it changes often). This cowgirl was born to perform on stage. She plays with the crowd (attempting to undress a blowup doll that a man is holding in the front row) and moves around the stage and the audience with ease. As she spins and twirls she finds herself tangled in her microphone cord: yet with the ease of a pro, she disguises her untangling maneuvers as yet more of her body movements.

For the most brief of moments she even sings as if singing in front of the crowd was a bothersome waste of her time. Imani even manages to squeeze in time to plug all the band members before ending her number. Imani is so confident and playful that she is a joy to watch. Subsequent viewings will no doubt uncover little details missed the first few times Legend is played. Through it all as hard as I've tried, I cannot detect a single bead of sweat on Imani's forehead at the end of Legend of a Cowgirl. With lyrics like "I'm gonna hunt the hunter gonna serve 'em well-done. . " the writing manages to keep up with Imani's spunk.

Neil Finn is as of this writing, only one of two members to have their entire session released on DVD. The other artist is Keb Mo. On Vol. 2 with Try Whistling This Neil manages to tingle the heart with this piano ballad. With strong writing and a moving musical piece, Try Whistling This by Neil Finn is definitely a standout track. Lyle Lovett shows up with a wonderful song Step Inside This House that was in fact written by Lyle's early idol Guy Clark.

Lyle's spoken introduction explains that Step Inside was Guy's first written song. It also appears that while the song has been performed live by Guy over the years, it was never recorded. Guy gave Lyle permission to perform this early tune and it is wonderful. Step Inside is a sweet poetic song about a young mans love for a woman (isn't that what they're all about?).

Natalie Merchant is the first artist to show up to the party that might be more recognizable to mainstream America. On round two of Sessions it seems Wonder was chosen to represent Natalie. Here Wonder displays Merchant's writing prowess. This song tells the tale of a child that is so special and gifted that people come from all around to see her. Natalie delivers lyrics like "I believe fate smiled and destiny. . Laughed as she came to my cradle. . . " with her usual slightly husky, and with just a hint of chalk vocals.

To say that Natalie is an amazing artist is to state the obvious. But it is the venue that brings the sweet little things to the surface. With a small intimate setting, things that would go unnoticed at a large venue are readily apparent on Sessions. A young girl in the front row with large round eyes, never takes them off of Natalie. She even closes her eyes briefly to soak in the artist that is just a few feet away from her. Watching this young girl, I would bet a paycheck that she knows every word to every song by miss Wonder herself. Those are the little things that bring Session above some mere rock concert.

And to bring my praise to an end, Steve Earle sends chills up the spine with Ellis Unit One. During the spoken intro, Steve explains that he worked at Ellis unit one, the name of the death row section of said prison. Ellis Unit One tells the dark and painful story of ending someone's life from the viewpoint of those that strap the supposed guilty to the chair. While it might not change any feelings about the death penalty for any one person; Ellis will remove any illusion of true justice and closure for the victims. Also delivering great performances are John Hiatt with Cry Love, and if the Afro-Cuban All Starts don't make you want to get up and dance, something is wrong with you..

The music that drags Sessions Vol. 2 down (just a little)

I'll keep this brief, Kronos Quartet is not my cup of tea. They are not the conventional but rather the avantgarde, to these ears they sound harsh and their style is sudden and too bold for my tastes. Randy Newman has a love/hate following, and I'll just get right to it, I hate the man. I hate his style, the persona or the characters that he takes on while performing irritates me. I find him as entertaining as a metal shovel being dragged across the pavement.

Lucinda Williams with Right on Time was neither here nor there for me. Her music and her performance was just uninspired from where I was sitting. Ozomatli with Como Ves is one of those groups of young men singing and banging on drums and anything else they found out of the garbage dumpster. The novelty of their performance wore off after the first viewing. Now I understand the ability that my DVD player has to program the skipping of tracks; it makes little sense when viewing movies, but for non-movie material and certainly in this instance, it's a beautiful thing.



A ticked off consumer with anger to vent

So this is time for the obligatory "why I'm so mad" explanation. Have you ever seen a Pampers commercial? I felt like one of those babies that was given a box of Pampers to play with; only to have it ripped from my hands so that a shot of me crying my eyes out could be captured. You know that moment when a baby has its mouth wide open, it's like the eye of storm. It's calm and you know that this loud ear shattering wail is about to make its presence known. That was me when I had this artist interview, barely two minutes long suddenly cut short. I felt confused and robbed, who in the hell thought this was a good idea? A two minute clip for each artist featured on Sessions at West 54th Vol. 2? Did I buy a demo disc without knowing it?

I can accept a teaser on a demo disc, or as a trailer on another release. But in this instance it is totally unacceptable, I paid twenty big one's and I want the rest of those interviews. I know it was not a space issue, DVD's can hold over three hours of video on one side. I also don't care if there were issues in getting releases for this material. If there were such problems none of it should have made its way onto Vol. 2. I don't like having carrots dangled in front of me.

I get so upset over moronic decisions like this that I begin to ponder many things. Do the morons that handle transfers to DVD utilize test audiences as the motion picture industry does? Given the opportunity I would chew someone out as I gorged on free popcorn after a test screening. What I would give to be a big cheese at Sony. I would go on a tirade, roll some heads and pretend to fire someone to get my point across. Coffee mugs with the West 54th logo would end up flying across the room. I certainly would have corrected this atrocity if I had the power, but sadly I don't.

This title loses one star on the performances alone, the line up was just a tad better on Vol. 1. And as strange as it might sound Vol. 2 loses yet another star for including this half a-s-s material. Vol. 1 with its lack of any extra's is still the better disc in my opinion. To add insult to injury, the gallery is a joke. I mean still photo's that occupy about a quarter of a TV screen is nothing to write home about. On top of that there are only a handful for each performer, the gallery is not only bad but unnecessary. NTSC television is not exactly hi-res, pictures that small look bad, period. This is DVD if you want a photo gallery hit the pause button, there is your gallery.

The one and only tiny extra that is nice are the spoken intro's for some of the performances on Vol. 2. Because the intro's are stored out of sequence with the regular tracks there is a pause between the end of the intro and the beginning of the song. But even this little nugget is botched. For whatever reason unbeknownst to me, the intro's are Pro-Logic only, the performance is Dolby 5.1. On the surface this is not a big deal, however during the transition from the end of the spoken intro, to the performance the player detects this. I am sure some DVD owners know where I'm going, when this happens a horrible loud pop is heard. This can't be good for my receiver or my speakers.


Had the good folks at the studio maintained 5.1 sound for everything this would not happen. Even if only the center speaker is utilized for the 5.1 spoken intro, it makes no difference. But what in the hell do I know? I am sure some techno monkey at Sony or Columbia Music Video can make excuses for this being the case. I mean we can fake putting a man on the moon, but not a soul can solve this dilemma? What a joke, hey Sony and Columbia Music I'm holding up a finger can you guess which one? You know what? That finger is going to cost yet another star. For insulting me as a fan and as a consumer.

Why I hate writers

I have come across a few reviews for Sessions Vol. 2 by published writers. I feel that these writers are much too forgiving, and it no doubt goes back to the fact that they don't pay for their early copies. One writer even mentioned the bonus interviews and never mentioned the fact that they were only two minutes long. Are there any writers out there with any common sense or even guts? Are they all too worried about offending someone? I thought the reader was more important, but maybe I'm just crazy.

The Bottom Line

I can honestly say that I will do some heavy research as to the content of a Vol. 3 should it ever rear its head. Vol. 1 was so good that I automatically purchased Vol. 2. That definitely won't be the case the next time around if in fact there is a next time around. Anyone that could care less about the extra material please disregard my ranting. In that case four stars would be more appropriate, but with the extra material included, I generously give two stars to Vol. 2.








Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD