Tracy Chapman - Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany, 11-20-2008

For a long time, I've been looking for a good bootleg Tracy Chapman concert that takes place after 1991. From 1988 to 1991, Chapman sold millions and millions of copies of her first two albums. But her popularity declined a lot after that, and I've found it next to impossible to find good concert bootlegs for those later years. Happily, a big Chapman fan recently contacted me and sent me this concert.

In my opinion, one big reason for Chapman's loss of popularity after her first two albums has to do with production. The later albums all had a boring "middle of the road" or "adult contemporary" gloss put on the songs that made them tend to sound the same. Whereas her early albums had much more of a stark, acoustic sound that fitted the songs a lot better. It turns out that in 2008, Chapman had a solo acoustic tour for the first time in nearly 20 years. This concert comes from that tour. As a result, it allows one to hear her later songs in a way that avoids the production issues.

This is an audience recording. But wait! It sounds great! Sometimes, a well recorded audience bootleg can sound every bit as good as a soundboard, and this is one of those times. The only snag was some volume issues. Namely, her voice was way too quiet in the talking between songs, and the audience clapping was way too loud at the end of songs. But I fixed both of those things by simply adjusting the volume levels for different parts of the recording.

The songs are a good mix between her early well known hits and her later stuff, which as I said above, sounds as good as the early stuff in this solo acoustic format. All of the songs are originals, except for the covers "Stand by Me" and "The House of the Rising Sun." The concert is an hour and 21 minutes long.

01 Across the Lines (Tracy Chapman)
02 talk (Tracy Chapman)
03 Sing for You (Tracy Chapman)
04 For My Lover (Tracy Chapman)
05 Crossroads (Tracy Chapman)
06 All That You Have Is Your Soul (Tracy Chapman)
07 talk (Tracy Chapman)
08 Baby Can I Hold You (Tracy Chapman)
09 The Promise (Tracy Chapman)
10 talk (Tracy Chapman)
11 Our Bright Future (Tracy Chapman)
12 Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
13 talk (Tracy Chapman)
14 Stand by Me (Tracy Chapman)
15 The House of Rising Sun (Tracy Chapman)
16 talk (Tracy Chapman)
17 Give Me One Reason (Tracy Chapman)
18 Save Us All (Tracy Chapman)
19 Talkin' 'bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)
20 talk (Tracy Chapman)
21 She's Got Her Ticket (Tracy Chapman)
22 talk (Tracy Chapman)
23 Behind the Wall (Tracy Chapman)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288240/TracyC_2008_KlturpalastDresdnGermany__11-20-2008_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find a photo from the exact concert in question for the covert art. However, this one is close in time. It comes from a concert in London that took place the same month as the Dresden one.