Sarah McLachlan's rich voice and haunting, polished songs make her one of my favorite singers, and one whose work I like from beginning to end, from 1989's Touch through Solace, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Surfacing, and Mirrorball, to 2003's Afterglow. McLachlan's 1998 appearance on the VH1 Storytellers program gave her the chance to perform a sampling of her songs to a small audience in an intimate setting; it's sure to please any fan of McLachlan's music, whether a devoted fan or a casual listener.

McLachlan performs eight songs in the 55-minute main program, with two additional bonus tracks accessible through the special features menu. It's a lovely and characteristic selection: "Good Enough," "Building a Mystery," "Ice Cream," "Sweet Surrender," "Hold On," "Elsewhere," "Possession," and "Adia." Two additional songs, "Witness," and "Angel," were filmed but not shown in the original broadcast; they are included on the DVD, but without comments from McLachlan.

The performance of each song is polished and smooth, with McLachlan sounding every bit as good here as in her published albums. But what makes the Storytellers session of particular interest for fans is that McLachlan's performances of the songs are often quite different from the studio recordings of those songs: even if you already own all her albums, the Storytellers live session is distinctive enough to merit keeping alongside the others.

The salient feature of the Storytellers program is that the artist introduces each song, giving some background or insight into it. McLachlan does a nice job here of offering interesting thoughts on the making of her music, whether it's on her musical influences growing up, or the often very specific inspirations for particular songs.

McLachlan's Storytellers program has a music-only option, which gives the DVD considerable replay value, as it can be watched with McLachlan's introductions the first time, and thereafter listened to without the comments, as a nice recording of a live performance.

The DVD

Video

VH1 Storytellers: Sarah McLachlan is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, as it was originally shown on television. The image quality is good overall, with colors looking warm and rich. The image is slightly grainy and soft, but this isn't distracting at all, as the main focus is on the music.

Audio

Three audio tracks are offered for the program: a DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1, and a Dolby 2.0. Surprisingly, the best of the three is the Dolby 5.1. In most respects, the DTS and the 5.1 track are very similar, with a pleasing overall sound and a reasonable use of surround effects. The 5.1 has slightly stronger bass, however, which leads to a richer-sounding track. The Dolby 2.0 track also offers a solid listening experience, though it's obviously lacking the nice ambiance and depth provided by the surround channels in the other tracks.

The audio quality is similar to what you'd get on a CD, rather than a DVD-Audio; the program sounds very good and gets a deservedly high mark, but it's not exceptional when compared to the best DVD-Audio tracks.

Viewers also have a music-only option for listening to the program.

Extras

Two bonus tracks are included: "Witness" and "Angel." These are accessible through the tracks list.

The other special feature of note is the music-only option, which can be selected in the special features menu; all three soundtrack options are available in this option, which simply cuts to the next song as soon as one song is finished. This occasionally makes for some abrupt jumps, but on the whole is well handled. Without McLachlan's introductions, the program runs 40 minutes.

An insert is included, which is more useful than the typical DVD insert, as it provides a full discography for Sarah McLachlan, as well as a timeline of all the performers on VH1 Storytellers and a short introduction to McLachlan and her appearance on Storytellers.

Final thoughts

VH1 Storytellers: Sarah McLachlan is sure to please fans of McLachlan's music; her comments about each song, as well as her variations on the songs themselves, make this definitely worth picking up, and the music-only option provides the program with solid repeat viewing value. The sound is quite good, about the same quality as we'd get on a CD recording, with the Dolby 5.1 track surprisingly offering a better listening experience than the DTS track. Highly recommended.