Though she first connected with a huge legion of fans via the anger and introspection of her phenomenally successful album Jagged Little Pill - which has sold close to 30 million copies since its release - Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette has never quite managed to reach the dizzy heights of commercial success that the 1995 album (her third) attained. Which is not to say that she’s been slumming it in the bargain bins, of course; while the follow-up record Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (arguably her best work) didn’t send statisticians into a frenzy, it still sold in the millions and is considered a “failure� only in this curious corporate world where it’s not enough to just be successful - you’ve got to be more successful each time. A terrific, inventive collection of songs heavily influenced by Morissette’s exploratory time in India, it indicated that this was an artist in pursuit of deeper, more spiritual things.

A year or two after the release of that album, Alanis Morissette found herself and members of her live band travelling to the land of the Navajo Indians for the premiere episode of a TV show called Music in High Places, which took artists out of their natural habitat, plonked them in the middle of a historically and culturally important ancient site, and got them to play unplugged to bemused locals. The show’s producers made some astonishingly silly choices artist-wise, but Alanis was an exception; already quite renowned for her eagerness to explore other cultures, she took to her surroundings like a kid in a candy store.

The 52-minute show basically alternates between two things; Alanis being introduced to some of the important areas of the reservation by her Navajo guide and some of the reservation’s people, and carefully-shot acoustic performances of nine of her songs. The potential for pretension is high, but Morissette seems genuinely thrilled to have the chance to explore the land and culture, and finds much that she relates to. There’s no Bored Rock Star Posing going on here (aside from a pair of purple sunglasses that seem a little out of place), only wide-eyed appreciation. In other words, she reacts much the same way most people would when presented with such history, natural beauty and tradition.

The music performances are superb. You wouldn’t think this woman’s songs would translate especially well to the acoustic mode, but some of them (Ironic, for example) actually benefit from it. The more obtuse, production-reliant Infatuation Junkie songs are distilled to their raw essentials here, Morissette’s powerful, rock-solid voice delivering the goods every time (with a few judicious edits helping out). The lyrics are more prominent, too, which isn’t necessarily always a good thing - the Morissette tendency to write prose and then wrap it around a melody by splitting three and four-syllable words into two pieces sometimes borders on the comedic. But there’s plenty of good songwriting here, and to hear the pointedly autobiographical UR sung in such a peaceful, timeless environment is quite an experience.

Shot on Digital Betacam in a 16:9 aspect ratio, the Music in High Places series was, sadly, post-produced and edited for mass consumption in non-anamorphic 4:3 - and while we’d hoped the producers would have had the insight to prepare 16:9 masters for DVD release, they have instead simply used the tapes that went to air a couple of years ago, complete with two gratuitous on-screen plugs for the show’s web site. “Go behind the scenes,� implores one. We popped online and typed in the provided URL; it took us to an advertising site for some kind of intensive music-industry course. Not quite the “behind the scenes� we’d hoped for; presumably the owners of the address have decided to try and make a little cash out of whoever buys the home video versions of the show.

The picture has been letterboxed (in a 4:3 frame) to something approaching a 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio, meaning the top and bottom of the original camera image has most likely been cropped slightly. That would be a stylistic choice, and fear not, it’s meant to be that way. Visuals are important here, and generally the video looks okay for a non-anamorphic effort that has been converted from an NTSC master; it’s a little soft and there’s a bit of aliasing and shimmer on occasion, but there’s plenty of rich colour and sufficient detail to make sections like the song shot in “Slot Canyon� look quite gobsmackingly lovely, though that’s got more to do with nature than it does the camera operator.

Audio is provided in the original broadcast stereo and in a remixed 5.1 form, and the location recording is generally very good (though there are a couple of rather obvious instances where the engineer panicked and turned down the recording level!) However, we’d recommend that even 5.1-equipped viewers stick to the stereo track; the 5.1 reworking seems to have less presence and sparkle, and is mastered at a lower level (though in fact both audio tracks are too quiet - the first authoring company to start abusing the Dolby “dialnorm� setting to make music discs mega-loud is going to get a lot of business!) The 5.1 mix renders the centre and LFE channels almost redundant (though the centre is actually there, very quietly) and sticks a delayed guitar feed in the surrounds. The result is somewhat unnatural, and is best avoided.

Extras are limited: the Behind the Scenes featurette is moderately interesting (and shows the amount of setup involved in those “spontaneous� song performances!) but Getting There is simply a rehash of material already in the main show. Just the Music allows you to hear the songs by themselves (including uninterrupted versions of a couple that got talked over), but some genius has mastered all the music for these in mono; strike another blow for whatever passes for quality control these days. Finally, there’s a text bio - one that you know you should take with a grain of salt when it claims Morissette “rode in on the second wave of grrrl rock in the mid-'90s� - along with Jewel and Fiona Apple! We’re sure all those thousands who got injured moshing at the latter two’s live shows back then would wholeheartedly agree.