The Film
Sheryl Crow has been on the music scene for quite some time. It's easy to forget how accomplished the woman is; she's had quite a collection of hits over the years. Sheryl Crow: Miles from Memphis - Live at the Pantages Theatre is a nice refresher course.
The concert was filmed at the glamorous Hollywood venue in the fall of 2010, while Crow was touring to support her album, 100 Miles From Memphis. Featuring over two hours of music, the show includes several tracks from that album, as well as mega-hits "Every Day is a Winding Road," "If It Makes You Happy," and "All I Wanna Do." Crow also manages to mix things up by adding in Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up" and the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back."
Admittedly, I wasn't a Crow fan before this release, and I'm still not. However, I have to respect this woman's catalog, her talent, and her showmanship. Fans will absolutely love this show from beginning to end. The girl's still got it!
The Picture
Miles from Memphis offers a variety of camera angles, allowing the viewer to catch the concert action from various spots on the stage. This is good and bad for the image. Because the cameras shift a lot, there's a lot of auto focus and a few soft shots. On-stage lighting effects also hinder the whole thing from being a clearer experience. However, this is all the way the event was filmed, and really has nothing to do with the quality of the 1.78:1 transfer. That lighting, however, does inject a few interesting colors into the image, mainly red, purple and green. When the camera gets a hold of Crow, there is some decent detail, showing her flyaway strands of hair and decent facial details. The one thing that was missing was beads of sweat. Impressive!
The Sound
On my Blu-ray player, this release defaulted to the 2-channel PCM track. Make sure you go in and fix that! The PCM track is fine for a stereo mix, as is the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. However, the DTS-HD Master Audio track offers the most bang for your buck, offering a bolder, more immersive "front-row" experience, with excellent dynamics. It can be a little hard to decipher some of Crow's on-stage chatter, but overall sound quality is excellent, allowing listeners to pick out guitars, keyboards and other instruments. The crowd gets nice surround representation as well, without ever overpowering the band.
The Extras
The solo featurette offers a behind the scenes look at the live show, with Crow talking up the venue, her band, and the experience of creating a live performance. At almost 19 minutes, it's slow moving and Crow is a bit of a "low talker," but it's a good addition to this type of release.
Final Thoughts
You may be Miles from Memphis, but this release puts you right in the front row of the Pantages Theatre. It's a wonderful Blu-ray with exceptionally stellar sound. If you missed Sheryl Crow's 2010 tour, this is just the ticket.
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