VH1 Storytellers: Sarah McLachlan
March 2004 Reviewed by: Doug Schneider Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Bill Flanagan, executive producer for the VH1 Storytellers series, writes in the DVD’s accompanying booklet, "The idea behind VH1 Storytellers is pretty simple -- put a great songwriter in front of a small, appreciative audience and ask him or her to tell the stories behind the songs." And that, in a nutshell, is precisely what you get on McLachlan’s Storytellers release. Culled from two albums, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing, songs like "Good Enough," "Building a Mystery," "Hold On," and "Adia," are prefaced by McLachlan explaining what motivated her to write a particular song. As a fan of McLachlan’s music I listened with great interest to what she has to say -- and I believe that to be the real appeal of a disc like this. When you become absorbed in a musician’s music it’s often nice to learn more about what’s behind it all. If I wasn’t a fan, though, I probably wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about this DVD release.

Although the ten-song selection is pretty good (but sparse, mind you), there’s nothing all that special going on performance-wise. McLachlan and her band perform competently, but nothing stands out musically to make this a must-have item. The passion in the singing and playing seems to be missing -- it’s as if the performers all know that this is more about Sarah talking than Sarah playing. If you want to listen to something far more compelling from McLachlan, buy her CD The Freedom Sessions, which contains mostly studio-produced demo tracks from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Every track on Sessions is superior to what’s on Ecstasy, and is a better example of what McLachlan can accomplish when performing spontaneously.

Picture and sound quality are adequate, but certainly not reference-grade. This is a shot-on-video performance that’s been clearly transferred to DVD -- that’s it, that’s all. And the sound, although it’s clean and reasonably detailed, is thin, with a definite lack of weight and presence through the bass and midrange. For a musical performance DVD, at least the sound should be topnotch, and this one falls short of that goal.

Extras are close to nonexistent: a thin foldout that explains the concept behind Storytellers, as well as an onscreen music-only option that bypasses the between-the-songs banter and goes straight to the music. In terms of the latter feature, given that the real appeal of this disc is the artist’s discussion of each song, bypassing that portion leaves you with only an average concert experience -- hardly worth the price of admission.

Given the wide appeal of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, I was a tad disappointed to find the VH1 Storytellers: Sarah McLachlan DVD to be a rather straightforward ten-cut affair with little visual or sonic flair. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that the key word in the title of this DVD is "storytellers." The purpose of this series is to give some insight into an artist’s songwriting process, and that’s something that this disc does deliver. For that, fans that want to learn more about McLachlan’s music would be wise to check this out.

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