Legendary Performances Archive Series – Marty
Robbins + Tammy Wynette (Shout!
Factory DVDs/Country Music)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C/C+ Main Programs: C+/B
Shout!
Factory has a decent series of Country Music DVDs arriving with the giants and
legends of the genre and two of them are being issued at the same time, though
separately in cooperation with The Country Music Hall of Fame. Marty Robbins (1925 – 80) was dubbed a
crossover artist at the time, peaking in 1959 with his classic El Paso topping the Country and National
Pop charts, though he had plenty of other big hits on both charts while at
Columbia Records. Tammy Wynette (1942 -
98) has 20 #1 Country hits and her legendary Stand By Your Man has endured for decades since it hit back in
1968.
The song
received a new wave of interest in the early 1990s when soon-to-be First Lady
Hillary Clinton called on the song to show how she was not going to be (read
idle, co-dependent woman) if they made it to the White House in one of the most
ironic statements ever, though it also opened the great Bob Rafelson film Five Easy Pieces (1970, with Jack
Nicholson) as one of many of her classics that were featured throughout that
film.
On both
DVDs, a compendium of video clips (usually shot on videotape, some of which is
luck to have survived in any form) are featured chronologically to show the
growth and progress of their careers.
Robbins actually had several TV shows, so that was easier, yet the clips
can be uneven in playback quality.
However, he seems to always be enjoying himself. That leaves the Wynette clips, which includes
four duets with George Jones when they were a power couple in the industry.
She too
seems to be having a good time and doing well, but you can also see changes in
her sometimes turbulent life were wearing on her, despite her professionalism
and amazing talent, never hitting a false note anywhere here. Now an underrated figure in all of American
Music, her work becomes increasingly profound and vital, especially in a genre
that has gone so wrong and backwards since the late 1980s.
Both DVDs
feature a 1.33 X 1 image that is weak, loaded with aliasing errors and can be
soft to a point of distraction, but it is nice to see these in any form. I hope these are not the best versions of
some of these clips, or someone needs to get serious about funding archiving
and restoration of Country history of that time. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is a mix of mono
and some stereo throughout, but plays better than the image. Extras include both being inducted into The
Country Music Hall of Fame, vintage interviews with their respective discs and
the Wynette disc has footage of her wedding to George Richey.
- Nicholas Sheffo
