Best of the Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters Show
Best of Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters Showis a two-disc set emphasizing performance highlights from six episodes of the NBC "country music-variety" show that hit the air in 1980. That’s the same year Barbara Mandrell won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award, and it’s a pleasure to look back on how well she took to being such a charismatic, warm, and fun host as well as a dynamic vocalist. Appearing with her are sisters Louise and Irlene, the former a good singer in her own right while Irlene is essentially a personality. Each of the truncated shows here begins with the trio bantering at the top of an episode, generally targeting poor Barbara for being the shortest, the oldest, or not much good at dancing. The first show here, from November of 1980, finds Dolly Parton singing "9 to 5" while also participating in a gospel medley with John Schneider and the Mandrells. (Each show in the series seems to have ended with a gospel medley as a signature piece, involving all the musical talent available on any given night.) This episode is also the only place that one really gets a sense of what the comedy was like on this series, in a passable bit in which one sees how only child Barbara’s happiness was destroyed by the announcement that her mother was pregnant with Louise. Another show from that same time period ushers in Kenny Rogers as a special guest, though his fine solo contributions and collaborations with the sisters isn’t nearly as interesting as Barbara and Louise’s Patsy Cline medley and tribute.Things really pick up with a 1982 episode starring Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, who share a lot of enjoyable, old memories with Barbara and embark on a short tour of their musical legacy. Johnny sings a spare "I Walk the Line," and he joins his wife and the Mandrells on a final medley that includes "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." A 1981 appearance by Bob Hope is a treat, especially a duet with Barbara on "Buttons and Bows." (There’s also a reminiscence by Barbara about appearing in a skimpy outfit for one of Hope’s TV specials years before.) Another ’81 installment featuring Alabama and Glen Campbell proves okay, but the final show here stars Ray Charles in excellent form on "You Don’t Know Me" and a bluesy, understated "Old Time Religion."--Tom Keogh