Jim Croce Live Concert Album - Classic Folk Rock Music for Home, Car & Travel Listening

I was so happy to find this DVD of live performances by Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen, his incredible lead guitarist! It's the closest thing we have to seeing them live in concert now, and I'm so grateful this was released. The performances are wonderful, intimate, acoustic versions of many of Jim's hits and lesser known beauties. For me, it was a revelation to see Maury playing all the intricate lead guitar riffs that make Jim's sound so unique. Until I saw this footage I assumed, as I'm sure many did, that Jim was doing all the guitar work on these songs. I searched online to find out more about Maury, and he truly was a musical genius who took Jim's music to a higher level. He was killed with Jim in the 1973 plane crash, so this is footage to treasure of both of these amazingly talented and truly kind and gentle men.The quality of this footage is amazing considering that it's from 1972-73 -- the remastering is incredible. Most of the footage is so clear that you feel you're in the same room with them. This is true even though the footage is from a variety of sources: TV shows, a PBS concert, a live "In Concert" show, etc. Three songs are not shown being played live, probably because live footage doesn't exist, so they're shown over photos and opening credits (Photographs & Memories), a photo montage (I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song), and documentary footage of Jim, Ingrid, and AJ on the farm (Time in a Bottle). It was especially touching seeing Jim romping with his 18-month-old son AJ -- wonderful and gut-wrenchingly sad at the same time, knowing he wouldn't live to see his son's second birthday.There's also a section of bonus footage, including interviews with entertainers who knew them, another Jim & Maury concert segment, footage from a promotional documentary filmed at Jim & Ingrid's farmhouse, and a cheesy, ridiculous animated version of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" from the Sonny & Cher Show. I could have done without that, but the rest is great. In addition, there are two bonus audio commentary tracks, one that you can choose to play over the performance footage, consisting of Ingrid answering questions posed by an interviewer, and one that you can play over the bonus tracks which features AJ commenting on them. I especially enjoyed the documentary footage of "Jim at home on the farm" scenes, including a brief segment of Jim and Ingrid singing part of Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night". It starts with Jim sitting on a chair on their porch, chatting with the crew, and then he calls "Ing" to bring AJ out. She comes out looking pissed off about something, and then Jim starts playing the song. AJ's commentary on this segment says something like, "She didn't want to do the song, and you can see him bullying her into it." -- There's no bullying, so that is a very odd comment! She sits down, Jim starts playing, then she joins in on the chorus, and it's a beautiful duet. -- That's it! I'm not sure WHAT that comment was all about!!This is a wonderful DVD with lots of material that fans will love to see. I have no complaints about it at all, except that Maury's name seems to have been omitted from the credits, liner notes, etc. That's a very odd omission, and I just wonder how that happened. But overall, a fabulous video compilation that all fans will want to own!