Famous concert series a standout DVD

About six years ago I asked the manager of a local record company about sell-through music DVDs. I doubted people would want old Eagles or Fleetwood Mac concerts, or even a collection of Peter Gabriel's ground-breaking music clips.

The guy politely disagreed and said by the end of that year his company would be releasing more music DVDs than CDs. I told people back in the office and we all laughed - and that's why he manages a successful record company and we don't.

Sell-through music DVDs haven't gazumped CD sales in volume (last year around half a million sold as opposed to 6.7 million CDs) but they were worth almost $15 million.

Everyone from live Limp Bizkit to dead Queen, Krusty Kristofferson to Jessica Simpson, 50 Cent to Ravi Shankar has their own DVDs. There are budget-price jazz series with Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, concerts by classical artists and opera shouters, and reggae festivals on DVD.

Bruce Springsteen's recent Devils & Dust album bannered a new concept which record companies hope will halt declining CD sales, the DualDisc. In the United States it came as a double-sided disc - CD on one, DVD the other - and here as two separate discs.

Out of the dozens of music DVDs currently available, one series stands out - concerts recorded for the long-running Austin City Limits television show.

Already available are discs by Steve Earle, the Flatlanders, Robert Earl Keen and Susan Tedeschi. Three more Live From Austin TX DVDs are out now featuring Richard Thompson, alt country outfit Son Volt, and Lucinda Williams from a show in 1998 after her superb Car Wheels on a Gravel Road album.

Thompson delivers a blinder of a show (from 2001) with drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Danny Thompson which confirms his reputation as one of the greatest living guitarists. Everything from country slide, sitar and Hawaiian sounds come out of his acoustic. He sings with intensity, is in excellent humour and this is a real gem.

Son Volt are caught in 1996 in a workmanlike show for fans which is strong on songs but short on visual interest. Not for the casually curious.

Lucinda Williams' double CD Live at the Fillmore is one of the quiet sellers at the moment so there is bound to be interest in her DVD. But, great though she is, there is nothing to watch here. On one song after another Williams strums at the mike with her eyes resolutely focused on a point just above the heads of her respectful audience. She doesn't have a great line in between-song patter either: "Thank you, this is called Joy," she says as if announcing the time of the funeral.

Great songs and a passionate singer, but a visually tedious performance. Guess you had to be there.

If hers was the first music DVD you ever saw, you'd say there was no future in this format.