VH1 Presents the Corrs: Live in Dublin

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine You knew the Corrs had made it when they played the final JFK Awards ceremony of the Clinton administration. Playing it would have been achievement enough, but their status as a happening thing was cemented at the end of the ceremony, during the encores, when everybody was taking their final bows. Bill moseyed up over to Andrea, put his arm around her, and when she was looking away, sized her up -- at precisely the same moment Chuck Berry was checking her out. If that doesn't mean that you've broken America, entering its pop culture, I don't know what does, expect for maybe a VH1-endorsed piece of product like Live in Dublin. Lo and behold, that's exactly what the Corrs received in the spring of 2002, a year and a half after "In Blue" and its accompanying single "Breathless" broke down the doors in America for the U.S. Only two songs on this set list are shared with In Blue, but that doesn't mean that the group returns to their slightly more traditional Celtic roots on the remainder of the songs. Sure, there are hints of that, but there are also four pop covers, two of them ("Little Wing" and "Ruby Tuesday") featuring Ron Wood, with another song, the Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra duet "Summer Wine," featuring Bono. Some of this is not unfamiliar to the Corrs' repertoire, since they did cover "Little Wing" before, on Talk on Corners (plus an MTV Unplugged release), but the end result is the same -- it's a crossover collection, not an album that emphasizes their Celtic roots. This wouldn't be a problem if the seams weren't so transparent -- if each selection didn't seem like it was a way to expand the group's audience, if it didn't seem like the soundtrack to post-yuppie dinner parties. On that level, it succeeds pretty well, and it is pleasant, but if a family of four very good-looking siblings didn't perform this music, it's hard to see this attracting much attention. After all, in this context, Bono and Ronnie Wood don't seem all that far removed from the leering Bill Clinton and Chuck Berry.