"Actor: Mark Isham"

• 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

• Lyle Lovett - In Concert | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  This performance features Lyle Lovett backed by his 14-piece big band and 26-piece orchestra. Lyle performs songs from his new album Smile a collection culled from an eclectic cross-section of recent American cinema. Randy Newman and trumpeter Mark Isham join Lyle on stage. Randy Newman in addition to his duets with Lovett performs familiar songs such as Political Science (Let's Drop the Big One) and I Think It's Gonna Rain Today. Lyle Lovett rounds out the show performing a gospel set including some well-known classics and popular originals. He performs his version of the Ray Charles song What'd I Say and I'm Gonna Wait. Tracklisting: 01: Blue Skies 02: Straighten Up And Fly Right 03: Smile 04: Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You 05: Summer wind 06: Moritat ( Mack the Knife) 07: Walking Tall 08: You ve Got A Friend In Me 09: Political Science 10: If I Had A Boat 11: That's Right ( You're Not From Texa... 12: Long Tall Texan 13: What Do You Do 14: Church 15: What'd I Say 16: I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lo... 17: I'm Gonna Wait

• RMS In Concert With Special Guest Gil Evans | DVD | (21/01/2013) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-3.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Ray Russell Mo Foster and Simon Philips (aka RMS) flew in from London and Gil Evans flew in from New York. That evening further inspired by the beautiful music of Herbie Hancock who preceded them on stage the band played a wide ranging collection of titles. Everyone had a ball and as a the final chord died away Gil shook his clasped hands above his head his familiar gesture seeming to say 'we got there'. Tracklisting: 1. Broadway Rundown 2. First Love 3. The Whole Of Tomorrow 4