Real Live Roadrunning (with DVD) Review

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(More customer reviews)This set comes as a CD / DVD combo, but after listening to (and viewing) the DVD, I can't imagine when I would ever listen to the CD. There is nothing wrong with it, but the DVD has more songs and when played through a good home theater with DTS capability, it has an unmatched sound quality. Even if I simply wish to hear music, I'll load the DVD, set it up to DTS, and then turn off the TV. This is the quality of sound that makes it clear why we don't just have a DVD player hooked straight into the TV, and why we tolerate a room full of speakers. If you can't decode DTS, you are missing a lot with this DVD.
The DVD has a mini interview / photo shoot where both Knopfler and Harris talk about the project that became their previous album. There are some other nice things included, such as a warm-up session where the players all sit around and play acoustically to get into the mind-set for the show... just a little jam session.
The actual concert was a nice mix of songs from the Knopfler / Harris album, "All the road running" along with some gems from Knopfler's solo work and even a couple of Dire Straits tunes. Knopfler is not stingy about allowing Harris to sing songs from the back catalog, and some of the duets from even the Dire Straits era sound like they could have been cut for the last project.
A couple of highlights for me:
Song for Sonny Liston: Wow! This track is a real minimalist delight. Mark sits on a chair hits that shuffle and sings. A bit later some drums and an acoustic upright base come into the mix. It is feel, rhythm and story, not flash or superficial fluff. Knopfler takes a verse to solo a bit, but this is also understated, yet great. The base player and Mark play off of each other and then some more vocals. I kept hitting replay on this song when I first saw it.
Speedway at Nazareth: From "Sailing to Philadelphia", the song is nicely rendered, but I loved the last couple of minutes after the singing was finished. The band is simply fantastic. It is a real team thing here, with the appearance that everyone is soloing at the same time, yet not once is anyone showing off or walking over the next person. The stage is full of world-class musicians that most people could never name, who are so in sync and meshing perfectly. With no visual cue, they all land on one single terminal note and the music stops. It is so nice to see professionals in action.
Why Worry: This Dire Straits tune becomes an Emmylou Harris song here. It ends the show, and makes you want more. Terrific.
There are great bits throughout the entire concert. Mark does bring out several guitars and while not playing blinding speed runs, he says more these days with a few very well chosen notes than most people can with a hundred. It was nice to see him with that thumb / claw style of finger picking that has become his signature just serving the song, rather than showing off. At just over an hour and a half, I never felt it was dragging on too long. An overall great show.
O.K. For the record, aside from my comments above about the CD being less important than the DVD, based on the quality, I did listen to the CD all of the way through. It is a first rate music disc in everyway, and will be nice in a car or office CD player if that is the only sound system that can be used. If I am home, the DVD will be my first choice, even for audio-only playback. Again, it has more songs and that 5.1 surround sound from the DTS track makes this a no brainer for me.


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Live footage of Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris before a sold-out crowd at the Gibson Amphitheatre on June 28th, 2006. More from Emmylou and Mark Knopfler

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