Town Hall Party: February 14, 1959

Country crooner Jim Reeves and primal rockabilly combo the Flairs were the special guests for this installment of Town Hall Party, a country-accented variety show broadcast on a local Los Angeles television station. The folks at the Bear Family record label have brought this rare material to DVD in style. Airing live before the widespread use of videotape, the Town Hall Party broadcasts were recorded for reruns on kinescope film. While the quality of the archival footage varies throughout the episode, most looks good and the presentation on disc of this NTSC export edition is solid, with the images having a strong transfer in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and the audio mastered in uncompressed PCM mono. No multiple language options or bonus features have been included, but the packaging is beautiful (featuring a booklet loaded with rare photos), and fans of vintage country sounds are bound to enjoy this.