Product Details

• Actors: Cyndi Lauper
• Directors: David Phillips
• Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: RED GENERAL CATALOG
• DVD Release Date: October 24, 2011
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B005ISRAEI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,837 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Grammy and Emmy Award winner Cyndi Lauper burst onto the world stage as the quintessential girl who just wanted to have fun. After more than 25 sterling years and global record sales in excess of 30 million, she has proven that she has the heart and soul to keep her legion of fans compelled by her every creative move. With her Grammy-nominated Memphis Blues, the best selling Blues album of 2010, Cyndi firmly asserts her position as one of the most beguiling, innovative and downright exciting recording artists of this and ever other generation. To Memphis With Love, due out on October 25th, serves as Cyndi s love letter to the Blues and the city with which she has fallen in love. Featuring Allen Toussaint, Tracy Nelson and Jonny Lang, this DVD introduces her audience to Blues superstars and their music.

In 1985, Cyndi won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and became the first female artist to have five top-10 singles from a debut album. Along the way she has continuously won accolades as a singer, musician, actress, and writer. She has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, 2 American Music Awards, 7 American Video Awards, and 18 MTV Awards.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lady Sings The Blues...And, Yeah, Has Fun Too November 19, 2011

By Gregor von Kallahann

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Back in the 80s, I made a mix tape highlighting two of my favorite singers, the great--though much neglected--Tracy Nelson and a then "promising newcomer" named Cyndi Lauper. Why I saw any kind of link between the two would have been hard to explain. Lauper may have been new on the scene, but she was already something of a pop phenomenon. Nelson had been in the business for close to 20 years at that point and, at best, remained something of a cult figure. And Nelson was very much of a traditionalist, musically--her tastes eclectic certainly, but her arrangemets never too far remove from basic American roots music. Lauper's first record was glossy and synth laden, well done but not really what you might call trad.

But both singers were capable of packing an emotional wallop, and ultimately, that's what counts (at least as far as I was concerned). I labeled the cassette "TraCYndi" and played to it til it it was stretched to the point of unlistenability. So you can imagine how surprised and delighted I was last year when I learned that Cyndi Lauper had recorded a blues album (MEMPHIS BLUES) and had spotlighted Tracy Nelson's signature song "Down So Low." I felt, well, vindicated and, if I might be allowed a little self-congratulation, kind of prescient, actually.

It's actually not all that surprising that Cyndi would be aware of Tracy's music. She was a musically aware urban teen, catching all the great blues and rock acts at the Fillmore East. And like so many young people who came of age in the late 60s and early 70s, she was wide open to just about everything. While blues purists tended to scoff at her statements, made at the time of MEMPHIS BLUES' release, that the blues pretty much provided the basis for everything she's ever done, there is a lot of truth in those assertions. When Cyndi belted out songs like "Money Changes Everything," or "Boy Blue" back in the early days, she evoked no one so much as Janis Joplin, and it came as no surprise to anyone with ears that among her earliest professional gigs were spots with a Joplin tribute band. She cut her teeth on the blues-rock (which included the less well-known Nelson as well as Joplin) of the era, and like many of her generation, that music inspired her to dig even deeper into the blues.

Lauper's slightly raspy voice is actually quite well suited for the blues. When she duets with Nelson on the live take of "Down So Low" included on this concert DVD/CD collection, it's actually a study in two contrasting blues vocals styles. Tracy Nelson has always embodied something of the gospel tradition in her rich, stately vocals. Cyndi has more of a "whiskey voice," and brings a kind of earthy sassiness to her blues numbers, including "Down So Low." The two singers provide an interesting counterpoint to each other. You could almost describe it as a course in Blues Singing 101.

Lauper's other guest artists in this project include Jonny Lang, whose gritty vocals also complement Lauper's effectively and whose sense of showmanship matches the singer's own. Expert accompaniment is also provided by such legendary figures as Allen Toussaint and Charlie Musselwhite. The frequent close-ups of Toussaint attacking the keyboards are just revelatory. I could watch him forever.

There's a confidence to the live performances included on this DVD that is particularly impressive. MEMPHIS BLUES was a solid enough record, but after having toured and lived with this material for many months, Lauper and crew bring real authority to the live versions of the songs from that CD, as well as a few "bluesified" blasts from the past, including "She Bop" (a pop tune that always has a kind of sly and bluesy erotic--or, more accurately, auto-erotic--sensibility behind it), "Change of Heart" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," as a closer. These tunes aren't exactly "converted" into blues numbers, but the blues touches lend credence to those claims about the blues serving as a basis for Lauper's music all along.

And part of that basis is the level of conviction that Lauper brings to her interpretations of all her material. Even at her poppiest, Cyndi Lauper was an emotive singer whose vocal gifts were always apparent and whose interpretive abilities placed her head and shoulders over the competition of the day. She has only gotten better over the years. Her largely ignored 90s albums, HATFUL OF STARS and SISTERS OF AVALON demonstrated her growth as a songwriter and interpreter. Her more recent "genre" efforts AT LAST, THE BODY ACOUSTIC and the "return to dance music" BRING YA TO THE BRINK demonstrated a certain restless eclecticism that continued on into the more recent blues projects. It all makes for an impressive body of work.

With every new project, it seems that more and more people catch on to the fact that Cyndi Lauper is a talented artist and not just a popster who released a few novelty records over 25 years ago. One of the OTHER differences between her and a neglected talent like Tracy Nelson is that someone who's enjoyed the level of stardom that Lauper has experienced also has to contend with the BURDENS of fame and all its attendant expections, stereotypes and absurdities. She has often expressed her desire to be taken seriously as a musician. Projects like TO MEMPHIS WITH LOVE offer ample proof that she deserves as much.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting sound choice November 7, 2011

By D. Richner

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The sound quality on this DVD is not just good, it's almost too good. What Cyndi Lauper and her team seem to have chosen is to record each of the instruments at the live performance directly, then studio mixed the sound so that there's never a vocal fallout of a screechingly loud horn moment or whatever. The sound is beautifully modulated, so much so that it sounds too good to be live, if that makes sense.

At first, I must admit I was taken aback by it in a not-so-positive way. Then a few songs in I got used to it. By the end it almost seemed innovative. Every artist mixes their studio albums for perfect balance, so why not do the same for a live recording?

When you watch a live concert on video you have a certain expectation about the sound quality. This DVD will definitely surpass your expectation. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to you.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic October 27, 2011

By danny

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Great video and sound quality! Saw this tour at the House of Blues in Dallas; this disc is like a front row seat.