Sugarland – ‘Live on the Inside’ – Album Review

By Patrick Luce Aug 5, 2009, 15:14 GMT

Sugarland\'s live show comes to life on the DVD with 16 songs and over an hour of live performance footage.

The CD/DVD release of Sugarland’s ‘Live on the Inside’ will be a treat to the popular country music duo’s fans and manages to capture the energy Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush put into their live shows.

The CD/DVD is available exclusively available at Wal-Mart, and aired Monday (August 3rd) as a network television special on ABC. The concert was filmed at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, and was directed Shaun Silva.

Silva was able to capture the concert with 20 cameras and does an excellent job of putting the viewer in the front row of the show and getting you close to the performers to match the feeling of being there (especially during the “bubbles” performance of “Nightswimming/Joey”).

@Photo Credit Mercury Nashville

The DVD portion features the charismatic Nettles and Bush cranking out some of their biggest hits – including “Settlin’”; “Baby Girl” (where the crowd goes nuts as the song is introduced); “Want To”; “Already Gone”; “All I Want to Do”; and the powerful ballad “Stay”.

Along with their back-up musicians, Nettles and Bush keep the crowd cheering for their favorite songs and never seem to get tired or feel stale in their performance. Nettles’ voice still has all the power of when they broke big, and the two seem to be just as excited to be performing for the crowd as the audience is watching the show.

The CD portion of the release features recorded live performances of a few of Sugarland’s hits, but is mostly made up of live cover tunes from other famous bands  - including Pearl Jam, The B-52s, R.E.M., Beyonce, Kings of Leon, and Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.

The cover tunes will be a hit or miss depending on how big a Sugarland fan you are or how much you like the original songs. Nettles explains on the disc how they enjoy all kinds of music and mixing up their own songs with some songs they love. It is clear from the energy (especially on the cover of The B-52’s “Love Shack”) they truly do enjoy performing these songs.

The cover songs don’t sound bad, but might seem a bit off with Nettles’ southern drawl (most notably for me with the Pearl Jam cover of “Better Man”). I did enjoy the duo’s take on R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” and Bush’s vocal work on the cover. Nettles’ voice is so powerful in most Sugarland songs that Bush’s quiet vocal work on the song was a nice change to the duo’s normal sound.

This is a release that fans will want to check out. I am not sure that it will win the duo any new fans, but it is a nice treat to fans that have never been able to check out Nettles and Bush live. In a world of overproduced-studio magic talent, it is nice to see a duo who can actually deliver the goods live and seem to be in music for the enjoyment of making music.

The DVD portion of Sugarland: Live On The Inside is set to debut in 35 theatres across the country on Thursday, August 6th.  For all participating theaters and to purchase tickets visit: http://www.dandeentertainment.com/sugarland/home.html.