Lorrie Morgan-The Color of Roses (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-A Tour Of Lorrie Morgan's House Audio-Only Track-Help Me Make It Through The Night Audio-Only Track-The Color Of Roses Interviews-Cast-Lorrie Morgan
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	75:25
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Don Car
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Lorrie Morgan
Case	Click
RPI	$34.95	Music	Lorrie Morgan

    Lorrie Morgan: The Color Of Roses is a very well-presented live concert, bringing varied excerpts from the career of Lorrie Morgan, along with some new material: the song The Color of Roses debuts at this concert. The back cover describes the material as consisting of "heart-breaking ballads", "classic country tunes"' and "rock-infused anthems". While the first two are reasonable descriptions, I must have missed the material that comes in the third category. This may well be a case of having both kinds of music on this disc - country and western. I found the material to be very laid-back but still enjoyable.

    I have seen Lorrie Morgan described as "one of the survivors of Nashville". The daughter of Grand Ole Opry star George Morgan, she first appeared on stage at 13 and came to prominence in 1989 with the release of Dear Me. She has released a string of hits throughout a 30 year career that is still going strong.

    Along with Lorrie's band, there is a backing orchestra at this concert, adding a whole new dimension to the music and lifting it a notch above your usual country and western effort. This along with the inclusion of a DTS soundtrack makes this a particularly good release, especially for fans.

    The concert is well-presented and Lorrie, even after 30 years on the road, has a very strong stage presence and obviously puts her heart and soul into her music. The interview in the extras section is interesting, but probably not in the way that they hoped. It runs for 45 minutes and covers a very wide range of topics, such as what Lorrie's favourite midnight snack is, and other topics including marital advice. It never ceases to amaze me when Americans turn to someone that is good at a sport or singing and expect expert opinions on a wide range of topics completely outside the famous person's expertise. They then follow these opinions as if they were handed down from on high. Fans will find some interest in this material but others may find it a little strange.

Video

    The transfer is presented at 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    As mentioned, sharpness varies in inverse proportion to the length of the shot. Look at the long shot at 4:10 to see one end of the spectrum. Shadow detail is good, especially as we have a wide range of stage lighting present. There is no low level noise present.

    Colours are very good, with good saturation and no noise.

    At 4:10 on the edge of the stage there is some aliasing, but other than that, the transfer is free of MPEG artefacts.

    There are no subtitles present.

    The layer change does not appear during the main feature. I think that the main feature is on one layer and the extras are on the other.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue quality is excellent throughout the concert and audio sync is spot-on for all the soundtracks.

    The music is from one of the most successful country and western singers around, with a career spanning three decades. Fans will enjoy the first-ever concert video release from this artist and others may well enjoy stepping outside their normal material for a trip to Nashville, Tennessee.

    The surrounds contain a large amount of information. I don't believe this was naturally recorded surround from the venue but an artificially generated surround presence. The voice in the surrounds is too clear for an ambience recording. Still, it is a very good surround presence.

    The sub bounces along with the bass track but is not obtrusive.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menus are backed by a 59 second video/audio loop from the concert. The submenus fade in after selection. This takes a little time and can be confusing if you don't catch on at first. The next menu does appear after a time. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette: Lorrie Morgan's House.

    While waiting to interview Lorrie we are taken on a 2:18 tour of Lorrie's house. We see her awards, antiques and other household contents. Accompanied by a Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack.

Interview: Lorrie Morgan

    This runs for 43:18 and is accompanied by a Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack. There are a couple of moments of camera shake and an audio click at 5:13. The interview has some very good material hidden in between material that is totally irrelevant. I don't need to know what she has for breakfast but I am interested in how a life on the road has affected her and other similar information.

Bonus Song: Help Me Make It Through The Night (3:31)

    The audio is presented as a PCM track with a still picture (the one from the cover) on-screen for the entire song. This might concern those with projection devices that are susceptible to burn in (static images are not recommended).

Bonus Song: The Color Of Roses (4:27)

    Presented identically to the above song.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• $5 instant coupon for 1-800-flowers.com (valid through 31-August-2002)

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Nothing

    Can't see myself ordering from the states on the basis of a $5 coupon for flowers. But seriously, the discs seem identical although information on the transfer quality in R1 was impossible to find.

    Overall, this is a very enjoyable concert. Any style of music is enhanced when the performer is both an accomplished professional and really enjoys their work. Their love for the music and their enthusiasm transcends the genre and will surprise even those that normally don't listen to this type of music.

    The video is as good as a video recorded concert can be.

    The audio is excellent.

    The extras are a great inclusion for fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall