ROCK'S NEW TERRAIN:
IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT SCALES MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES WITH
ALANIS MORISSETTE AND DEFTONES ON DVD AND VHS, AUG. 27
***
Inspired performances and exotic locales converge
when artists unplug and explore United Nations World Heritage sites

She wears her heart on her sleeve and they're sworn to extreme volume, so what do confessional singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and punk-metallurgists Deftones have in common besides Grammy wins and massive album sales? These seemingly disparate artists are each the subjects -- and guides -- in separate episodes of Music in High Places, in which they perform at and explore two of the United Nations 630 designated "World Heritage" sites.

Image Entertainment, a worldwide company long recognized as the market leader in licensing, distribution and production of music long form DVDs, began releasing the Music In High Places series last September. To date, the company has released programs featuring Brian McKnight in Brazil, Collective Soul in Morocco, BBMak in Vietnam, Sugar Ray in Australia, Boyz II Men in Korea, Joy Enriquez in Puerto Rico and Wynonna in Italy. Alanis Morissette and Deftones will be available on DVD and VHS August 27.

Think of it as MTV Unplugged with a hipped-out, cranked-up spin on National Geographic, where pop, rock, R&B and country stars have the opportunity to show various aspects of their personalities by virtue of the extraordinary locations around the world to which they've traveled. More than just a gleeful romp through paradise, Music in High Places was designed to build awareness of endangered areas around the globe.

Morissette's journey takes her to the Navajo Nation's Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona, to experience Native American culture and theology. Morissette offers up inspired renditions of "Ironic" (from her 1995 Grammy award-winning Album of the Year, Jagged Little Pill), the double Grammy-winning "Uninvited" (from The City of Angels soundtrack and her own Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie), "Baba," "That I Would Be Good," "Heart of the House," "I Was Hoping," and others. Morissette's own well-documented spirituality is a graceful complement to the sacred land that she reverently explores.

Meanwhile, on the Big Island of Hawaii, Deftones members Chino Moreno (vocals), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Chi Cheng (bass) and Abe Cunningham (drums) are all about high-velocity fun. Even without amps, their acoustic versions of "Knife Party," "Digital Bath" "Change" (all from the brooding White Pony), "Headup," "Be Quiet and Drive" and "Around the Fur" (from the 1997 disc by the same name), and others, are as volatile as the volcanoes that stand sentinel on the landscape, and definitely not as dormant.

Deftones' Music in High Places DVD includes approximately 70 minutes of bonus footage that highlights location and behind-the-scenes material, interviews and other rarities.

Music in High Places was masterminded by musician-turned-music-industry-executive Parvene Michaels, whose childhood in the High Sierras was the catalyst for the project. In an in-depth interview with Music Connection, Michaels explained, "Part of the process was looking at locations as if they were artists in their own right...We isolated locations we felt were important; locations that have effected artists throughout time." Music in High Places unifies the musical with the spiritual and deftly mixes both with the cultural and the historical.