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Bonnie Raitt: Road Tested - Live
DTS // DTS
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Dtsonline]
The Music:
1. Thing Called Love
2. Three Time Loser
3. Love Letter
4. Never Make Your Move Too Soon
5. Something to Talk About
6. Matters of the Heart
7. Shake a Little
8. Have a Heart
9. Love Me Like a Man
10. The Kokomo Medley
11. Louise
12. Dimming of the Day
Disc: 2
1. Longing in Their Hearts
2. Come to Me
3. Love Smeakin' up on You
4. Burning Down the House
5. I Can't Make You Love Me
6. Feeling of Falling
7. I Believe I'm in Love with You
8. Rock Steady
9. My Opening Farewell
10. Angel from Montgomery
The DVD
SOUND: "Road Tested" is presented on 2 DTS CDs in 20bit/DTS 5.1 audio. Remixed for DTS by Brant Biles and producer Ed Cherney, the audio quality and presentation throughout both discs is consistently excellent. As with any presentation of live material, the engineers involved obviously can't be that creative with the surround mix from song-to-song. The utmost concern is presenting the audio in a fashion that brings the viewer into a "concert" environment convincingly and keeps them there in that position. Both are quite successful with that goal here, with Raitt's terrific vocals wonderfully carried by the front three speakers; her vocals sound warm, rich and forward - not "far off". In the main front two speakers, there is not only the main instruments, but backing vocals. Surrounds consistently contribute a nice bit of ambience and re-inforcement as well.
Sound quality remained superb throughout the two discs of music. Again, Raitt's vocals came through with great presence and impressive clarity for a live recording. I especially loved hearing her take on the Talking Heads "Burning Down The House"; her vocals are terrifically energetic and the backing band really provides terrific instrumental work. Her sassy presentation of the hit "Something To Talk About" also came through remarkably well. Throughout the album, she also occasionally shares vocal duties with other singers well such as Bryan Adams on "Rock Steady" (although Raitt's vocals seemed to have a bit more presence here than Adams's) Her backing band sounded superb throughout not only "House", but the rest of the songs. I was pleased to hear that they are highlighted nicely throughout this surround-sound presentation. All of the instruments came through quite clearly and none sounded "far off" or were overshadowed by another element. A very nice, appropriate amount of low bass accompanies some of the more rockin' tunes. The crowd sounds are also nicely recorded - although they sound a little bit far away a couple of times, for the most part, it feels like you're in the middle of the audience at a Raitt show.
"Road Tested" certainly isn't anything complicated in the way that it presents this live recording in surround-sound, but it positions the music quite well and brings both the vocals and instruments through with great clarity, detail and warmth while maintaining a convincing "live" feel - the presentation definitely accomplishes what it set out to do superbly.
Extras: No extras are included on DTS CDs. This one though, does have a bit better booklet than most of the DTS CDs do.
Final Thoughts: "Road Tested", as a live album, doesn't present quite the kind of enveloping, active surround-sound music presentation that many look for from the format, but if you're a fan of Raitt and would enjoy being placed convincingly in the middle of a concert environment for great performances of some of her biggest hits, DTS's "Road Tested" is the album for you.
