VH-1 Storytellers, The Bottom Line, New York City, 8-27-1996

We're getting very near to the end of the "VH-1 Storytellers" series. I only have two more I plan on posting after this. This one features the band the Black Crowes.

We happened to get lucky with this one, because there is a soundboard bootleg of the entire concert that the Storytellers TV show drew from. I cut out a couple of songs that were duplicates, due to the producer asking the band to do them again because of some minor reason or another. I also cut out a lot of dead air time. And there were some chunks of that, for instance while the band had to wait for the producers to get something ready. But I kept all the worthy banter.

The Black Crowes hit it big with their debut album, "Shake Your Money Maker," which sold five million copies in the U.S. Their second album also sold two million. But their fourth album, "Three Snakes and One Charm," didn't even go Gold in the U.S. (meaning sales of 500,000). That was the album they were promoting with this concert, as it had been released the month before.  

Surprisingly, they only played two songs from it: "Good Friday" and "Under a Mountain." Most of the songs were from their previous albums. However, they finished with a Rolling Stones cover, "Torn and Frayed."

Due to the sourcing, I didn't have some of the usual problems with this series, like the first song getting cut off. But I had some other problems I had to fix. For instance, the banter between songs sometimes got very quiet, so I boosted that. And there also was a lot of hiss at times during the banter, but I managed to get rid of a lot of that through using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is an hour and 41 minutes long.

01 talk (Black Crowes)
02 Nonfiction (Black Crowes)
03 talk (Black Crowes)
04 Good Friday (Black Crowes)
05 talk (Black Crowes)
06 Under a Mountain (Black Crowes)
07 talk (Black Crowes)
08 Thorn in My Pride (Black Crowes)
09 talk (Black Crowes)
10 Jealous Again (Black Crowes)
11 talk (Black Crowes)
12 Wiser Time (Black Crowes)
13 talk (Black Crowes)
14 She Talks to Angels (Black Crowes)
15 talk (Black Crowes)
16 Hard to Handle (Black Crowes)
17 talk (Black Crowes)
18 Ballad in Urgency (Black Crowes)
19 talk (Black Crowes)
20 Descending (Black Crowes)
21 talk (Black Crowes)
22 Remedy (Black Crowes)
23 talk (Black Crowes)
24 Torn and Frayed (Black Crowes)

https://www.imagenetz.de/kwrti

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iZhC4sD6

The cover photo is from a concert at the Paradiso, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on February 15, 1997. 

Pink - VH-1 Storytellers, MTV-VH-1 Studios, Santa Monica, CA, 8-21-2012

The next target of the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring Pink. (Her birth name is Alecia Hart. She prefers to go by P!nk with the exclamation mark in the name.) Note this is the second to last Storytellers episode, with only Ed Sheeran's episode three years later after this one.

Pink has sold 60 million albums worldwide. One month after this concert, she released the studio album "The Truth about Love." It reached Number One in the U.S. album charts and sold the equal to about three million copies in the U.S. (I say the equal because by 2012 an increasing number of sales were digital.) 

On the album, she was joined by the singer Lily Allen on the song "True Love," and by the singer Nate Ruess of the band fun on the song "Just Give Me a Reason." Both Allen and Ruess guested on those songs for this concert as well. The two of them also co-wrote those songs with Pink. 

In addition to those two songs, the song "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" came from the album. The others were generally hits from previous albums.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 So What (Pink)
02 talk (Pink)
03 True Love (Pink with Lily Allen)
04 talk (Pink)
05 Sober (Pink)
06 talk (Pink)
07 Who Knew (Pink)
08 talk (Pink)
09 Just Give Me a Reason (Pink & Nate Ruess)
10 talk (Pink)
11 Family Portrait (Pink)
12 talk (Pink)
13 Blow Me [One Last Kiss] (Pink)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17195344/PINK2012StrytllrsMTVH1StdosSntaMncaCA__8-21-2012_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JTwmWKJ2

The cover is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert.

Robert Plant - VH-1 Storytellers, Westway Studios, London, Britain, 6-6-2002

I'm running out of "VH-1 Storytellers" albums to post, but there still are a few to go. This one features Robert Plant.

A month after this concert, Plant released his seventh solo studio album, "Dreamland." It got good reviews from critics, but it didn't sell well. As I write this in 2024, it's the only Plant solo album to not at least go Gold in the U.S. (sales of at least 500,000). Perhaps a problem was it had been nine years since his last true solo album, so his career lost some momentum. (He did a reunion with Jimmy Page in the meantime.)

The album largely consisted of cover versions. Three of those covers were performed here: "Funny in My Mind (Fixin' to Die)," "Darkness, Darkness," and "Morning Dew." Three of the remaining songs were songs he first did with Led Zeppelin.

As usual, the first song started halfway through. Unfortunately, this was a case where I couldn't find a fix. The song, "Ship of Fools," was one that he only played a few times around 2002, and none of those other recordings sounded good. He did play it a bunch of times in the early 1990s, but I thought that was too big of a time jump.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Ship of Fools [Incomplete] (Robert Plant)
02 talk (Robert Plant)
03 Funny in My Mind [Fixin' to Die] (Robert Plant)
04 Whole Lotta Love (Robert Plant)
05 Tall Cool One (Robert Plant)
06 talk (Robert Plant)
07 Four Sticks (Robert Plant)
08 talk (Robert Plant)
09 Darkness, Darkness (Robert Plant)
10 talk (Robert Plant)
11 Going to California (Robert Plant)
12 talk (Robert Plant)
13 Morning Dew (Robert Plant)
14 talk (Robert Plant)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17191027/ROBRTPLNT2002StrytllrsWstwyStdosLndonBrtin__6-6-2002_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RJYh6vff

The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo, in London, Britain, on October 30, 2002.

The Goo Goo Dolls - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 3-12-2002

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" album series is an episode featuring the Goo Goo Dolls.

The Goo Goo Dolls have sold 15 million albums worldwide. But their popularity definitely peaked with one album, 1998's "Dizzy Up the Girl," which sold five million albums in the U.S. alone. For this concert they were supporting the follow-up album to that one, "Gutterflower." It would be released a month after this concert. That album would sell slightly less than a million copies in the U.S., which was a good showing but still a steep drop from the previous one.

Only performances of two songs from that album were included here: "Big Machine" and "Sympathy." Probably more were played but the concert was edited down to fit the TV show time slot.

As was usually the case with this TV show, only the end of the first song was included. But I found a different version of that song, "Name," and used it to fill in the missing portion. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title. I believe I also boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments using the UVR5 program, since they were low in the mix.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Name [Edit] (Goo Goo Dolls)
02 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
03 Iris (Goo Goo Dolls)
04 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
05 Broadway (Goo Goo Dolls)
06 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
07 Slide (Goo Goo Dolls)
08 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
09 Sympathy (Goo Goo Dolls)
10 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
11 Black Balloon (Goo Goo Dolls)
12 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
13 Big Machine (Goo Goo Dolls)
14 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
15 We Are the Normal (Goo Goo Dolls)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17191028/TGOOGDLLS2002StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__3-12-2002_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CJNoN743

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Coldplay - VH-1 Storytellers, Harvey Theatre, New York City, 5-18-2005

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" flood is an episode featuring the band Coldplay.

Coldplay has seen massive success, selling over 100 million albums worldwide. But they've also faced a lot of backlash from people who think their success is not deserved. The band's lead singer made a joke about this as soon as the recording begins, by introducing the band as "the Backstreet Boys" before correcting himself. Personally, I don't think they're awful but they don't really interest me much either. But they're decent enough for me to include them with all the other Storytellers albums I'm posting.

This concert took place about two weeks prior to the release of the band's third album, "X&Y." That album would go on to hit Number One in 32 countries and sell 13 million albums worldwide, making it the best selling album of 2005. But just two of the songs performed at this concert were from this album: "Speed of Sound" and "Fix You."

I kind of rued the day I decided to post this album, because it needed a lot of work. Unfortunately, it came during the 2005 to 2006 time period when the people behind this TV show thought it was a good idea to put voiceovers on top of the music. This happened for all but one song. Worse, on some songs it even happened two or three times! That's why there's "[Edit]" in most of the song titles. I tried to fix this problem using UVR5, but in some spots the underlying music was damaged, and you can hear some iffy bits. But after fixing all that, I discovered the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I had to run all the songs through UVR5 again to take care of that.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 talk (Coldplay)
02 Yellow [Edit] (Coldplay)
03 talk (Coldplay)
04 In My Place [Edit] (Coldplay)
05 talk (Coldplay)
06 Politik [Edit] (Coldplay)
07 talk (Coldplay)
08 Speed of Sound (Coldplay)
09 talk (Coldplay)
10 The Scientist [Edit] (Coldplay)
11 talk (Coldplay)
12 Clocks [Edit] (Coldplay)
13 talk (Coldplay)
14 Fix You [Edit] (Coldplay) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/17191015/COLDPLY2005StrytllrsHrvyThetrNwYrkCty__5-18-2005_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5BQPsyHE

The cover is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Rod Stewart - VH-1 Storytellers, Supper Club, New York City, 4-28-1998

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring Rod Stewart.

This episode took place just one day prior to the release of Stewart's 19th studio album, "When We Were the New Boys." In my opinion, the show was lucky to have him when he did, because he was ending a phase of releasing typical rock albums. Starting in 2002, he would spend about a decade recording albums that mostly consisted of "Great American Songbook" songs. Those sold very well, but are easily skipped over, so I'm glad this predates that.

The "When We Were the New Boys" album was a bit unusual for Stewart because it consisted mostly of cover versions of contemporary music acts like Oasis, Primal Scream, and Ron Sexsmith. He sang three songs from that album: "Cigarettes and Alcohol," "Rocks," and "Ooh La La." That last one actually was done by his early 1970s band the Faces, but it had been co-written by band member Ronnie Lane (along with Ronnie Wood). Stewart did it on the album as a tribute to Lane, who died the year before.

I had to do the usual things I did with most of these Storytellers episodes. Namely, fixing the applause at the ends, which often got cut short. I also boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments using UVR5. At least this episode didn't have part of the first song cut off, as was often the case for this show.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Cigarettes and Alcohol (Rod Stewart)
02 talk (Rod Stewart)
03 Maggie May (Rod Stewart)
04 talk (Rod Stewart)
05 Tonight's the Night [Gonna Be Alright] (Rod Stewart)
06 talk (Rod Stewart)
07 Stay with Me (Rod Stewart)
08 talk (Rod Stewart)
09 Ooh La la (Rod Stewart)
10 talk (Rod Stewart)
11 Forever Young (Rod Stewart)
12 talk (Rod Stewart)
13 You're in My Heart [The Final Acclaim] [False Start] (Rod Stewart)
14 You're in My Heart [The Final Acclaim] (Rod Stewart)
15 talk (Rod Stewart)
16 Rocks (Rod Stewart)
17 talk (Rod Stewart)
18 Having a Party (Rod Stewart)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17190977/RODSTWRT1998StrytllrsSupprClbNwYrkC__4-28-1998_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RZFxS1EH

The cover image is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. However, it was low-res and blurry, so I sharpened it up using the Krea AI program.

James Taylor - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 5-31-1997

Next up for "VH-1 Storytellers" is an episode featuring singer-songwriter James Taylor.

This one is twice as long as a typical episode of this TV show. I don't know if that's because it was broken into two episodes or if it's a bootleg that contained the full concert. But either way, we get lots of music.

In 1997, Taylor released the studio album "Hourglass," his first studio album in six years. It was seen as a comeback for him, both commercially and critically. It was his first Top Ten album in the U.S. in 16 years, selling over a million copies. It also won him a Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.

He performed six songs from his new album: "Line 'Em Up," "Hangnail," "Jump Up Behind Me," "Enough to Be on Your Way," "Little More Time with You," and "Another Day." His other songs were generally classics from older albums. On some songs he played solo acoustic, while on others he was backed by a small band.

Note that one song from this performance was officially released: "Mexico." It appeared on a various artists collection of Storytellers highlights.

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
03 talk (James Taylor)
04 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Jump Up Behind Me (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Mexico (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Mona (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor)
12 Enough to Be on Your Way (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Little More Time with You (James Taylor)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Steamroller (James Taylor)
17 Copperline (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 The Frozen Man (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 Riding on the Railroad (James Taylor)
22 talk (James Taylor)
23 Hangnail (James Taylor)
24 talk (James Taylor)
25 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
26 talk (James Taylor)
27 Another Day (James Taylor)
28 talk (James Taylor)
29 Line 'Em Up (James Taylor)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Valentine's Day (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon (James Taylor)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17187506/JAMSTYLR1997StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__5-31-1997_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h5zNseeB

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert. It was rather low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to sharpen it up.

More Picture Fixes with AI

I made a post a few days ago about how I've been making upgrades to some of the album covers thanks to a new computer program I've discovered called Krea AI. Since then, I've been using it some more to revamp some old album covers that I considered subpar. I was asked to put the results in a zip file so one can easily grab them all, so here they are. You can also download the individual albums and you'll get the improved covers there too.

This zip file contains 78 revised covers. Hopefully other zip files will follow as I fix more. These mostly contain covers from the recent "VH-1 Storytellers" albums I've been making, since many of the covers were low-res screenshots, and covers from the Covered series of singer-songwriters that I've made in the past. There were a lot of dodgy covers there, owing to the fact I highlighted many songwriters who very rarely were photographed well, especially songwriter duos pictured together. I'm much happier with the results now.

The Krea AI program isn't perfect by any means, but overall, I'm really impressed with the results. And I've learned a little trick, which is that I overlay the new version over the old version in Photoshop, and for any area where the new version doesn't look good, I partially or totally erase it, allowing the older version to dominate. This is especially helpful around the eyes. They say the eyes are the "windows to the soul." If the eyes are just a little bit different it doesn't look like the right person, so I often resort to using the "old" eyes while updating most everything else.

To show how much things can change, compare the original black and white version of a Chris Hillman album cover I found with the final version, after I colorized it, modified it, and ran it through Krea AI. I think the difference is pretty remarkable.

Here's the zip file. You'll have to figure out which ones go with which albums. But that shouldn't be hard since the album and artist names are always mentioned on the covers.

https://www.upload.ee/files/17187431/PictureFixeswithAIVolume01.zip.html 

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/a1AmMz3e

If anyone has specific covers they'd like to see upgraded, please let me know. Thanks.

By the way, also note that whenever I update a link now for whatever reason, I try to add in a Pixeldrain link as well.