It’s funny. No matter what sort of desperate lengths you may have gone to in your life to avoid country music in any way, shape or form, you’ll find one performer in particular seems to have run roughshod over those carefully constructed defences and managed to infiltrate that musical recognition department in your cranium anyway – Kenny Rogers.

Oh my God!

How? I’m buggered if I know, but I daresay few people who’ve hit their 30s wouldn’t know of such little ditties as Islands in the Stream, Lucille, The Gambler, Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town or Coward of the County, just for starters. This Rogers bloke is very sneaky.

Bursting on stage for this performance looking much like Father Christmas in one of The Joker’s purple jackets (then jolly red number must have been at the cleaners), Kenny’s certainly an amiable fellow, keen to chat to the many folk phoning in to this TV show to request tracks from throughout his career. From such far-flung places as Louisiana, Arizona and even Idaho, they just keep on a comin’, and Kenny gratefully receives them, lets the viewers in on some information about the songs and then does what he does best, sings ‘em. All the abovementioned hits are here, plus quite a number more both old and new, many of which will also ring more than the odd bell of recognition in many minds – whether you wish them to or not.

Track listing…

The fact that this 2001 production is delivered in full frame is, naturally enough, forgivable, however it being NTSC is less deserving of a kiss and make up session. It’s harder not to wonder how much of this disc’s target market – everyday people rather than equipment nerds – will have the capability to even play it. And with those four dreaded letters only mentioned in passing on the back cover, you’ve got to feel for all the shops that will get bucket-loads of returns when this here disc done does not work on being taken home. Well, assuming people buy it, of course. Anyway, vision is decent enough, not the sharpest, but certainly no fuzz-fest either (except for Kenny’s beard). All is quite bright, but really there’s nothing of note in the visually ick department to put anybody off. Well, other than the NTSC-ness of it all.

At least there are no complaints in the way of audio, with DTS 5.1 supplied, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0. When you take away the marked volume difference between the two six speaker mixes there really is little to differentiate between them, and really there’s no great workout offered with what is a fairly sedate affair that features minimal amounts of bass. Still, it’s all very clear and sounds good for what it is, naturally the 2.0 mix offers up a little less lustre, however if that’s all you’ve got you should still find it quite pleasing.

Sadly for Kenny fans, not a single, solitary, lonesome extra of any sort has drifted anywhere near being lassoed onto this disc.

In all this is a pleasingly intimate performance. There’s no denying that Kenny Rogers is a consummate professional and a bona fide country legend, and any fan of his works won’t be taking a gamble with this mostly impressive offering.