"Actor: Greg Leisz"

• K.D. Lang - Live By Request | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Live by Request is, most certainly, a live recording of KD Lang, though nobody in the audience seems to do much requesting. Taped in December 2000 in New York, it shows Lang and her band before a smallish audience, rattling out a few of her better-known songs and some of Lang's generally creditable readings of standards, in between interruptions from a host who walks Lang through brief discussions of her career and influences. Listening to Lang sing is, of course, no hardship: few indeed are the vocalists who can mix it with the legacies of Roy Orbison ("Crying") and Patsy Cline ("Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray") and emerge with dignity intact, never mind reputation enhanced. That said, whatever intensity there may have been about the show on the night has not translated to this recording, and this is little more than a succession of polite performances greeted by polite applause. On the DVD: The picture format is the 4:3 television standard, and there are three sound modes to choose from (Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, PCM Stereo). The menu of songs is easily navigable, but there are disappointingly no bonus features. --Andrew Mueller

• Joni Mitchell - Painting With Words And Music | DVD | (06/12/1999) from £11.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-33.30%)   |  RRP £8.99

  After more than a decade of de facto exile from the mainstream, Joni Mitchell has regained much of her media profile, if not her commercial impact, thanks to deserved if belated accolades from critics and music business peers. Recent Grammy Awards and a special Billboard citation epitomise the ironies of Mitchell's 1980s obscurity: because she reached her highest profile with the broad success in 1974 of Court and Spark, which remains Mitchell's lushest, most accessible album, the Canadian musician and painter has found herself comparatively ignored in later years simply because her work ventured into more eclectic amalgams of her already diverse influences. Yet in her forays into world music, jazz and pop collage, Mitchell has remained a prescient and influential artist.This 1998 concert special sheds welcome light on the work from that post-Spark quarter-century, its 22 songs dominated by the confessional works that have remained Mitchell's strong suit. Early favourites like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Just Like This Train" retain their charm, but it's Mitchell's more mature pieces such as "Amelia" (from Hejira) and "Sex Kills" (from Turbulent Indigo) that convey the depth and acuity of her work. A superb band--including Brian Blade, Mark Isham, Larry Klein, and Greg Leisz--provides a sinewy, sympathetic framework well suited to the palette of jazz, folk, and pop colours that Mitchell daubs on her songs. Adding further intimacy to the performance is a circular stage design, a small audience and a welcome lack of "big" production effects; instead, Mitchell indulges her second career as a painter through a pre-show stroll around a gallery of her visual works.Mitchell's frail health in the late 1990s, as well as a lifetime of cigarettes, has taken a toll on her voice, which has lost much of its upper register. Yet there is also an added richness to her lower range befitting this sharp-eyed survivor's art. Old fans will also recognise the flurries of girlish laughter in between-songs patter, while savouring how Mitchell's powers as a writer and player (especially on a new, striking electric guitar) have matured as well. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

• Bill Frisell: The Disfarmer Project | DVD | (06/05/2013) from £18.45   |  Saving you £-2.46 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This film captures the essence of this project performed live as the sounds of Frisell's ensemble mingle with Disfarmer's pictures to achieve the fullest realization of the music. Bill Frisell is one of today's most prominent guitarists in America. In the 1930s, Mike Disfarmer shot a long series of portraits of the townspeople in Heber Springs, Arkansas. This recently excavated gallery of photographs is reminiscent of America's heartland as well as the indelible times of The Great Depression. Bill Frisell took on this body of work as the main inspiration for what became a musical recording project of his own displaying his gift for revisiting and revitalizing American music. Special Features: The Disfarmer Project - a film by Guillaume Dero Bill Frisell - Disfarmer: Live at Banlieues Bleues [Live Concert] Extended interview with Bill Frisell Track Listing: Disfarmer Theme Lonely Man Lost, Night Farmer Peter Miller's Discovery That's Alright Mama Little Girl Little Boy No One Gets In Lovesick Blues I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You Focus Exposed The Wizard Arkansas (Part 2) Did You See Him? Natural Light Focus