The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to the Beach Boys. 1967 - 1977, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 2-13-2016

Here's yet another concert from the Wild Honey Orchestra (WHO), that collection of mostly Los Angeles-based professional musicians. 

This time, the target of their tribute show is a little unexpected. The tribute is to the Beach Boys, but not that band's most popular era, in the early and mid-1960s when they had hits like "California Girls" and "Help Me, Rhonda." Instead, it focuses on the years 1967 to 1977. By that time, the band's resident genius was less involved. But the other band members stepped up with surprisingly strong songwriting efforts, leading to more variety. Personally, that's my favorite Beach Boys era, even though there were a lot fewer hits in those years.

The Beach Boys are an ideal tribute subject for the WHO, because their music sounded simple but actually was surprisingly complicated. How many bands of that era would use instruments like the glockenspiel and theramin? But the Beach Boys did. The WHO could have twenty or more musicians on stage at a time, and these songs were well rehearsed, so they were able to nail the arrangements while a carousel of different lead singers sang the songs.

This time around, the WHO was joined by one actual long-time member of the Beach Boys, Al Jardine. But his role was relatively small compared to that of John Sebastian at the WHO's Lovin' Spoonful tribute show. Jardine only sang three songs, two near the beginning and one at the end. David Marks was also there and sang one song. But his involvement with the Beach Boys was much less. He was a member of the band in its very early years, 1962 and 1963, then joined again for their 2012 reunion album and tour.

Other than them, it was mostly the "usual suspects." By now, I've noticed that certain people seem to have taken part in the WHO show every year, or at least most every year. People like Thomas Walsh of Pugwash, Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills, Syd Straw, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints, and so on.

The source for this bootleg is the same as the others, which means excellent sound quality. But there's the same quirk that it's only the songs and not much talking between songs, except usually giving out artist names at the end of each song. In fact, this time there are no banter tracks whatsoever. 

But on the plus side, there's a heck of a lot of music. This album is two hours and 17 minutes long, which I believe is the longest of the WHO shows I have recordings for.

Unfortunately, I only have one more WHO concert after this one, a 2016 tribute show for the Band. There are many more shows than that, including a 2022 Big Star tribute show, so let's hope quality bootlegs of more of them emerge. If you have any, please let me know.

By the way, the bootleg I found had a nice graphic included that shows which songs played were originally from which Beach Boys album. So I've included that in the zip file as well, and you can see it here.

01 Our Prayer (Wild Honey Vocal Group with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 Heroes and Villains (Al Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
03 California Saga- California (Al Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 Feel Flows (Thomas Walsh & Carnie Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
05 Country Air (Rachel Haden & Anna Waronker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 This Whole World (Chris Price & Emeen Zarookian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 Breakaway (John Wicks & Debbi Peterson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Sail On Sailor (Susan Cowsill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Add Some Music to Your Day (Willie Aron with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 Thoughts of You (Syd Straw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 Let Us Go On This Way (Steve Wynn, Mike Mills & Linda Pitmon with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 Our Sweet Love (Steve Stanley with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Be Still (Stephen Kalinich with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 Surf's Up (Skylar Gudasz & Brett Harris with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 Funky Pretty (Scott Bennett with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Disney Girls (Rumer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 'Til I Die (Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 The Trader (Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 I Can Hear Music (Nick Guzman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 Friends (Nelson Bragg & Carnie Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 Wonderful (Muffs with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 Busy Doin' Nothing (Mike Randle & Monique St. Walker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 Be Here in the Mornin' (Mike Randle with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 WIld Honey (Micky Dolenz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 Time to Get Alone (Matt Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 Wake the World (Jason Brewer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Little Bird (David Marks with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 Darlin' (Darian Sahanaja with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
29 Let the Wind Blow (Danny Henry with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 Marcella (Cosmo Topper with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Only with You (Chris Price with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 Bluebirds Over the Mountain (Carla Olson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 Pacific Ocean Blues (Bobby Figueroa & Carl B. Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 Lookin' at Tomorrow (Cindy Lee Berryhill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
35 Forever (Billy Hinsche with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
36 Back Home (Bill Mumy with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
37 Day in the Life of a Tree (Andrew Sandoval with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
38 Long Promised Road (All Day Sucker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
39 Honkin' Down the Highway (Al Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
40 Hold On Dear Brother (David Goodstein & Monique St. Walker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
41 Good Vibrations (Probyn Gregory with the Wild Honey Orchestra)

https://www.imagenetz.de/guGh7

I made the cover art from two sources. The top and bottom parts both come from promotional art for the show. I split that in two and made some other adjustments. In the middle, I put some artwork by someone named Thomas Leparskas. This is a collage of everyone who participated in the show.