Austin City Limits has been around darn near as long as me and that's getting to be a serious length of time. But when you go hunting to find a sub-par performance, let alone a poor or even bad performance, I doubt you'll find one. ACL always gives its performers the best venue and voicing that all the performer need then do is perform ... simple really though so many venues and especially televised performances miss out on these simple ingredients. Good equipment and a comfortable venue and a relaxed performer makes for a great performance and ACL has delivered this time and time again over the decades.
The intimacy of each performance gives the feeling of sitting ringside in a not-too-crowded club (as evidenced by the small cocktail tables that you occasionally see the audience members comfortably sitting around when the camera pulls back) with the best in equipment to relay their music. What more could one ask for? This performance from Randy Newman is an especially sharp one as he gives us snappy versions of his best known songs (i mean how many times has this guy had to sing 'Short People'? ... and he still delivers it as if it hit the top ten just last week) he still brings that and a few others home with all the sardonic lines that made it his biggest and just about only hit on his own (3 Dog Night had covered 'Mama Told Me Not To Come' but few noticed the author's credit on that one years before ... and I prefer Newman's rolling-left-hand version to the Dog's version truth be told).
And for the the folks who didn't realize Newman started recording long before the 'Little Criminals' album that contained his biggest hit, there are lots of other razor-sharp lyrics on parade as he ventures through many, and for the uninitiated, unknown songs.
One special moment is when he asks if there are kids there tonight and he gets a small roar of response and chagrined says, 'I'd have sung this earlier if I'd known" and starts up with "You've Got A Friend" from "Toy Story", a song that has made him famous all over again with a generation nearly two behind him. One boy in particular is picked out by the cameras as he earnestly sings along, obviously a big fan of Newman's Pixar recent work.
I've seen Newman probably thirty times or more over the many years he's made stops around the Chicago-area and he never fails to deliver a high-quality show. There is never a lazy effort or a throw-away phrasing ... he always gives it a pro's effort and includes new 'forgotten' songs from his albums that always makes for interesting listening and not just the same-old-set-list as you get from far too many 'old pros'.
Any of the many, many, many Austin City Limits shows available are well worth having even if you don't recognize the performer's name but this is one to definitely add to your collection. (Add the BBC Sessions' performance with a small orchestra at St. Luke's in London from 2008 and you'll have two performances that you'll find yourself cueing up on your DVD player on quite a regular basis.)
The intimacy of each performance gives the feeling of sitting ringside in a not-too-crowded club (as evidenced by the small cocktail tables that you occasionally see the audience members comfortably sitting around when the camera pulls back) with the best in equipment to relay their music. What more could one ask for? This performance from Randy Newman is an especially sharp one as he gives us snappy versions of his best known songs (i mean how many times has this guy had to sing 'Short People'? ... and he still delivers it as if it hit the top ten just last week) he still brings that and a few others home with all the sardonic lines that made it his biggest and just about only hit on his own (3 Dog Night had covered 'Mama Told Me Not To Come' but few noticed the author's credit on that one years before ... and I prefer Newman's rolling-left-hand version to the Dog's version truth be told).
And for the the folks who didn't realize Newman started recording long before the 'Little Criminals' album that contained his biggest hit, there are lots of other razor-sharp lyrics on parade as he ventures through many, and for the uninitiated, unknown songs.
One special moment is when he asks if there are kids there tonight and he gets a small roar of response and chagrined says, 'I'd have sung this earlier if I'd known" and starts up with "You've Got A Friend" from "Toy Story", a song that has made him famous all over again with a generation nearly two behind him. One boy in particular is picked out by the cameras as he earnestly sings along, obviously a big fan of Newman's Pixar recent work.
I've seen Newman probably thirty times or more over the many years he's made stops around the Chicago-area and he never fails to deliver a high-quality show. There is never a lazy effort or a throw-away phrasing ... he always gives it a pro's effort and includes new 'forgotten' songs from his albums that always makes for interesting listening and not just the same-old-set-list as you get from far too many 'old pros'.
Any of the many, many, many Austin City Limits shows available are well worth having even if you don't recognize the performer's name but this is one to definitely add to your collection. (Add the BBC Sessions' performance with a small orchestra at St. Luke's in London from 2008 and you'll have two performances that you'll find yourself cueing up on your DVD player on quite a regular basis.)