The Knitters - The Ritz, New York City, 10-24-1985

Have you even heard of the Knitters? Maybe not. But it's more likely you've heard of the punk band X. The Knitters are a basically an X side project, featuring three out of four members of X, including their two singer-songwriters, Exene Cervenka and John Doe. But there are two other members, including Dave Alvin, a singer-songwriter from the Blasters. The reason for this side project is because the Knitters play a very different style of music. They were alt-country about five years before the alt-country movement even began.

The Knitters were formed around 1982, and they generally perform a handful of concerts each year. They only released two studio albums, "Poor Little Critters in the Road" in 1985 and "The Modern Sounds of the Knitters" in 2005. They've never put out an official live album.

So if you're a fan of this band, as I am, this album is really great. It's double the length of their debut album, so it contains lots of songs that they never put out on either album. They played a couple of X songs redone in a country rock style ("The New World" and "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts") as well as some Knitters originals. But mostly they did classic and obscure folk or country covers. So not every fan of X is going to love this. But if you're open-minded about country rock, you should really like it. They were way ahead of their time back in 1985.

This is a soundboard bootleg. It's the only Knitters bootleg that I know of, so it's a lucky thing that the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 talk (Knitters)
02 Silver Wings (Knitters)
03 talk (Knitters)
04 Cryin' but My Tears Are Far Away (Knitters)
05 talk (Knitters)
06 Poor Little Critter on the Road (Knitters)
07 talk (Knitters)
08 The New World (Knitters)
09 Someone like You (Knitters)
10 talk (Knitters)
11 Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (Knitters)
12 talk (Knitters)
13 Poor Old Heartsick Me (Knitters)
14 talk (Knitters)
15 Mama Tried (Knitters)
16 talk (Knitters)
17 I'm Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (Knitters)
18 I Can't Hold Myself in Line (Knitters)
19 Pipeline [Instrumental] (Knitters)
20 Long White Cadillac (Knitters)
21 talk (Knitters)
22 Love Shack (Knitters)
23 talk (Knitters)
24 The Call of the Wreckin' Ball (Knitters)
25 I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts (Knitters)
26 talk (Knitters)
27 Jackson (Knitters)
28 Rock Island Line (Knitters)
29 talk (Knitters)
30 The Trail of Time (Knitters)
31 talk (Knitters)
32 Tennessee Border (Knitters)
33 talk (Knitters)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16625127/TKNITTRS1985TRitzNwYrkCty__10-24-1985_atse.zip.html

 I couldn't find any photos of the Knitters in concert back in 1985 (or any year around then, for that matter). So I used a photo from an X concert taken from a TV appearance in August 1985. The two singers shown here, Exene Cervenka and John Doe, are also the two main singers for the Knitters.