The show includes the huge hit 'Breathe', which is simply a great piece of music. I am not quite sure that the DVD is from the same performance as the CD, because the banter between songs that is present on the DVD is edited out of the CD. Also a treat on the disc is a powerful song called 'Tuesday Morning' which is a sad tale of 9/11, and a sly and subtle piece of activism as well. I should note she has a decently thorough website. The material is fantastic. They aren't all hits, yet... but I would put this collection with anything she has done. Alright, I have to come clean on that last sentence. I have always like Melissa, but never bought a CD of hers (besides that Concert for New York set I mentioned). However, I am totally addicted to this CD. I have listened to it non stop on my computer every night for about a week now.
I think this is terrific, the combining of CD/DVD sets. If more artists did this… I could throw away at least one of my various media copies of Simon and Garfunkle’s ‘Live in Central Park’. Since the GOP recently confiscated all of my Cat Stevens albums, I have come to appreciate an evolving perspective on folk music. Though the experience is 100% a rock and roll show, to me the real feel is folk. Melissa’s music is contemporary folk, because it isn't the vapid shit we are generally fed in a Clear Channel world. Maybe that is because she makes such a great protagonist in my pantheon. Long story short, she doesn’t make a great rock star. In the 44 minute ‘Day in the Life’ featurette on the DVD you get a feeling of who she is in her down time. I am pleased to say she was exactly who I expected her to be.
I am sure you know she was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. We wish her all the health and love in the world to get through this in one piece. The great folks at the aforementioned KBCO have done a terrific thing with running an auction in Melissa's name for Breast Cancer research. The winner of the bid gets all 16 Studio C discs on an I-pod, along a recording of the session that started it all.
How great is that? Maybe Clear Channel isn't the devil after all.
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