Tammy Wynette – Greatest Hits Live (1986/DVD-Video)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C+ Concert: C+
Tammy
Wynette was a groundbreaker in American music and Country & Western in
particular in a way that is undeniable. Stand By Your Man is the ever-controversial
crossover hit from 1968 that made her a legend, continues to echo to this day
(even without Hillary Clinton’s help) and helped make her The First Lady Of
Country. Picking up where Patsy Cline
left off, she would earn as many Country #1s as The Beatles and pave the way
for Dolly Parton, early Olivia-Newton John, Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gale and many
country-flavored Pop hit sin the 1970s.
Now comes a brief half-hour concert she did for The Nashville Network on
DVD boldly dubbed Tammy Wynette –
Greatest Hits Live.
Taped in
1986, it does not feature all of her best hits, but it is good for its
length. Crying In The Rain, Divorce (where she literally spells it out as
D-I-V-O-R-C-E), Womanhood and Your Good Girls Gonna Go Bad are
highlights (tracks not in the order the DVD case gives) though this is not
ultimately as comprehensible as her classics as featured in the 1970 Bob
Rafelson/Jack Nicholson masterwork Five
Easy Pieces.
Still,
fans will enjoy it and it is a portrait of an artist who left us too soon.
The 1.33
X 1 image is shot on old NTSC analog video and down at least a generation in
this transfer. Color is fair, but even
that can bleed a bit. The Dolby Digital
2.0 is compressed and hardly stereo.
Extras include an hour-long interview with Wynette that is pretty good
and previews for other Quantum Leap DVDs.
- Nicholas Sheffo
