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A new performance DVD from one of the most talented female rockers falls strangely, disappointingly flat.

I like Sheryl Crow. I like Sheryl Crow a lot. She’s a talented singer and songwriter, very attractive, and I tend to agree with most of her politics, which doesn’t make for a bad combination at all. That’s why I was disappointed - truly disappointed - by her new performance DVD, Sheryl Crow Live (or if you prefer, Soundstage Presents: Sheryl Crow Live). Sure, it’s a solid set of songs, and Crow and her band perform them very, very well. But there’s a certain “spark” missing, and somehow, that renders the DVD flat for me..

Now, I should admit that I often find musical performance DVDs a bit…limiting. Generally, I enjoy them if they offer a wide variety of songs, preferably with one or two rarities, and it’s especially cool if you get to hear an arrangement different from what you get on the album, or see a lot of unusual artist/audience interaction. There’s precious little of that sort of thing here. From the time she first comes out on stage, it feels as if somebody wound a key up in Crow’s back, and we’re seeing the artist on a sort of timed autopilot. There are 18 songs included, with all the popular hits: “My Favorite Mistake,” “Leavin’ Las Vegas,” “If It Makes You Happy,” “All I Wanna Do,” and “Steve McQueen,” among others. Not one of them sounds unlike what I’d get if I put the albums on my stereo. There’s one rarity - the Nick Lowe song ”(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,” popularized by Elvis Costello. Again, Crow seems to be using the exact same arrangement as Costello - the one everybody knows - and frankly, I don’t find that the least bit interesting.

Crow’s brief interaction with the audience feels forced, too, as if she doesn’t want to be there. After the first song, she stops to tell the audience how pleased she is to be doing an installment of PBS’ Soundstage series, since she knows the productions “look great” and are “really high quality.” She doesn’t actually seem that excited, though. Later, following “The First Cut is the Deepest,” she sighs, “I wish I could tell you I wrote it, but alas, Cat Stevens wrote it,” and she almost sounds annoyed. (It’s also a funny thing to mention, since once again, she’s not using Stevens’ original arrangement or full lyrics; she’s covering the far more famous Rod Stewart version.) I don’t mean to take anything away from Crow’s talent; she could have been having a bad day, or perhaps she doesn’t enjoy interacting with her audiences much. I’ve never seen her in concert and I wouldn’t know (I blew my chance to see her, two years ago, when a date stood me up). To my simple fannish eyes and ears, however, there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of fun present in this performance. No zest, no zing. It all rings pretty hollow.

Sheryl Crow Live comes to DVD through Koch Vision, and yes, it looks and sounds very, very good. As the case proudly proclaims, the concert was filmed in high definition, and I honestly couldn’t find anything wrong with it. The image is bright, colorful, even a bit eye-popping. Similarly, both the standard stereo and 5.1 tracks are very, very pleasing to the ear. Technically, there’s not a thing wrong with the disc.

No special features have been included - not even a little jukebox feature. You can play the feature, go straight to a specific song, or change the audio track. That’s it. The DVD is housed in an amaray case with a matching cardboard slipcover, and there’s an insert inside the case that advertises other Soundstage DVDs, including Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Heart, and Michael McDonald. Nice range, there.

I’ve seen performance DVDs that felt too much like a music video. I’ve seen performance DVDs with too few songs or too much filler. But never, before Sheryl Crow Live, have I seen a performance DVD so technically competent - technically outstanding, even - with so little life invested into the proceedings. I’m almost tempted to watch another in the Soundstage series just to see if they’re all like this. In the meantime, though, I won’t be watching this again; no offense to Sheryl Crow, but I’d rather put in one of her albums, instead.

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