Blu-ray Review “A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King”

“A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King”
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Shout! Factory
Run Time: +/-60 min
Format: Blu-Ray and DVD

Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars

On January 24th, 2014 Carole King was honored as the 2014 MusiCares Person of the Year. During the event King along with a long list of super star guests performed some of Kings most celebrated songs from a career spanning decades. “A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King” is the film presentation of those performances which in include appearance by LeAnn Rimes, Gloria Estefan, James Taylor and Lady Gaga just to name a few. Proceeds from the sale of this disc will provide essential support for MusiCares, which ensures that music professionals have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need.

“A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King” is the latest MusiCares release from Shout! Factory who has previously released tribute concerts dedicated to Paul McCartney, Barbara Streisand and Neil Young. Much like previous releases in the MusiCares series the concert is made up of a number of guest’s performances all paying tribute to the selected artist for that year. King is certainly more than deserving of the award and you can certainly tell the impact she has had on all music simply by looking at those who appear in her honor. Songs like “You’ve Got a Friend” performed by Lady Gaga and “Natural Woman” performed by Alicia Keys are definitely worth checking out as is my own personal favorite “Beautiful” performed by Sara Bareilles, Zac Brown, Jason Mraz and Raining Jane.

All in all a pretty entertaining release however if you’re looking for something a little bit more such as bonus content or interviews you won’t find it here. What you do get its 60 minutes worth of star studded entertainment which at times outweighs the lack of those missing special features.

Track Listing:
1.) Hi De Ho (That Old Sweet Roll-) LeAnn Rimes and Steven Tyler
2.) So Far Away- P!nk and Paul Mirkovich
3.) I Feel the Earth Move- Train
4.) Its Too Late- Gloria Estefan
5.) Love Makes the World/Where is the Love?- will.i.am and Leah McFall
6.) Beautiful- Sara Bareilles, Zac Brown, Jason Mraz and Raining Jane
7.) Way Over Yonder- Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill and Darlene Love
8.) Where You Lead- Jesse & Jay
9.) Crying in the Rain- Miguel and Kacey Musgraves
10.) Natural Woman- Alicia Keys
11.) Been to Canaan- Jennifer Nettles
12.) I’m Into Something Good- Amy Grant
13.) It Might As Well Rain Until September- Miranda Lambert
14.) One Fine Day- Martina McBride
15.) Up On the Roof- James Taylor
16.) Home Again- Carol King, Moez Dawad and Ahmad A. El Haggar
17.) Sweet Seasons- Carol King and James Taylor
18.) Hey Girl- Carol King and James Taylor
19.) Will You Love Me Tomorrow- Carole King and James Taylor
20.) Jazzman- Carole King and Tom Scott
21.) I Feel the Earth Move- Carol King and Cast Ensemble

Blu-ray Review “A MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney”

Stars: Paul McCartney
Number of discs: 1
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Shout Factory
Run Time: 60 minutes

Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars

“A MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney” is a collection of never-before-seen performances by a slate of all-star artists ranging from Alicia Keys and Coldplay to Neil Young, James Taylor and McCarty himself. The songs all pay tribute to Sir Paul McCartney an artist whose lasting impression in music and on the world as a whole is unmatched. Proceeds from the sale of the disc will provide essential support for MusiCares, which ensures that music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need. If you are a fan of The Beatles and Paul McCartney the latest release from Shout Factory has you covered. “A MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney” has some of today’s hottest artist combined with legendary performers which I found gives this release something really special.

Presented in beautiful 1080p Hi-Definition with DTS-HD sound you are getting the best sound and picture quality available which only adds to incredible performances such as Alicia Keys rendition of “Blackbird” to James Taylor and Diana Krall’s version of “Yesterday”. Probably my personal favorite of the whole performance is that of Paul McCarty, Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh. The three artists seem to mess flawlessly creating a performance every music lover has to experience.

Though the disc doesn’t really include any special features or additional content I found the concert to be strong enough to stand on its own with no real need for extra footage though it would have been cool to see what was going on behind the scenes and possibly some of the rehearsal footage. That aside proceeds from this release will be donated to MusiCares which is a great organization that helps musicians in their times of need so they can keep providing us with the music we love. If you want to get a great performance you can watch over and over again while supporting an equally great cause then this is the release for you.

Performance List:
1.) Get Back/Hello Goodbye/Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band- Cirque du Soleil feat. The Beatles “Love” Cast
2.) Magical Mystery Tour- Paul McCartney
3.) Juniors Farm- Paul McCartney
4.) Blackbird- Alicia Keys
5.) No More Lonely Nights- Alison Krauss & Union Station feat. Jerry Douglas
6.) And I Love Her- Duane Eddy
7.) Oh! Darling- Norah Jones
8.) I Saw Her Standing There- Neil Young and Crazy Horse
9.) The Fool on the Hill- Sergio Mendes
10.) We Can Work It Out- Coldplay
11.) Yesterday- James Taylor w/ Diana Krall
12.) For No One- Diana Krall w/ James Taylor
13.) My Valentine- Paul McCartney
14.) Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five- Paul McCartney
15.) Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/ The End- Paul McCartney feat. Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh