Free at Last - The Music and the Movie (Special Edition)

Free at Last celebrates the first 10 years in the careers of three young men from Liberty University who turned artistic revolution into stylistic revelation, forever changing contemporary Christian music. With concert footage interspliced with band interviews and candid backstage dramas, the DVD documents a group on the brink of massive success as it tours America on the power of a Grammy Award-winning release. Some clips are starkly revealing, such as Kevin "Max" Smith's poignant discussion about being adopted or Toby McKeehan and Michael Tait soberly touring civil rights historical sites in Montgomery, Alabama. The concert footage itself aptly captures the trio's energy and vocal prowess. Of course, it all boils down to the music, and one listen to Free At Last's CD demonstrates how well this gem holds up. With Toby Mac's hip-hop sensibilities and the lush, harmonious voices of Tait and Smith, dc Talk combined seldom-mixed styles and unapologetic Christian lyrics into a voice for a new generation. With hits like "Luv Is a Verb" and "Socially Acceptable," the band showed a conservative industry that it could take chances and still win. Even remakes of classic tracks like Bill Withers's "Lean on Me" and the Doobie Brothers' "Jesus Is Just Alright" sounded fresh and urgent with the group's sonic diversity. In the 1970s it was Phil Keaggy and Larry Norman. In the 1980s it was Amy Grant. The decade of the '90s had dc Talk to thank for transforming the face of Christian music. --Michael Lyttle