Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris Real Live Roadrunning
January 2007 Reviewed by: John Crossett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Hot on the heels of their smash success CD, All the Roadrunning, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris have followed up with a new disc, Real Live Roadrunning. But this time there’s a twist -- it’s a live recording and has added a bonus DVD of the concert. Concert DVDs tend to follow a familiar pattern and this one follows that to a "t." You get views from the audience, from the stage (front, back, and sides) and overhead. This one tends to switch angles a bit quicker than I’d have preferred, but when it matters, the camera sticks with the stars. Picture quality is clean and clear, with good, though not exceptional, color saturation and a not-too-dark, not-too-light stage. Edge definition is pretty darn good as well.

The sound quality equals the picture quality. Sure, you have only two choices, DTS 5.1 or PCM stereo, but at least they’re good, quality choices. The back-up band is Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Richard Bennett on additional guitars, Danny Cummings on drums, Stuart Duncan on fiddle and mandolin, Matt Rollings on keyboards, and Glenn Worf on bass. With the band kept to a minimum like this, listeners can follow whichever instrument and/or voice they want.

And speaking of voices, Emmylou Harris is in about as fine a voice in this DVD as I’ve heard in recent years. She has, does here, and probably always will, sing like an angel. Knopfler, on the other hand, sounds just a bit tired, his vocals not doing justice to the songs as well as he did on the studio album. After initially attempting to reach for notes he couldn’t quite achieve, Knopfler gives up and changes his singing style to accommodate what he was capable of that night. Maybe he was just having an off night, but he makes a point of telling the audience that because of the limited number of shows on this tour, they considered each special. Still, their voices complement each other so well I hope that these discs will inspire a continuation of this partnership. Frayed voice aside, Knopfler’s guitar work is still top notch and distinctive.

The song selection is an appealing mix of tunes from All the Roadrunning with some numbers particular to each artist, such as Harris’s "Red Dirt Girl" and "Boulder to Birmingham" and Knopfler’s "Romeo and Juliet" and "Song for Sonny Liston." The DVD contains four songs not on the companion CD (while the CD has one song -- "All That Matters" -- not on the DVD), so having both is not redundant.

Extras are somewhat limited since the real extra here is the music CD. The DVD contains only a pre-show dialogue with Harris about how this music came together and an interview with Knopfler and Harris, which is both fun and informative.

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