Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to James Taylor, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-6-2006

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. I only have a couple more of these after this one, and I want to post them in the next days. This one honors James Taylor.

This concert followed the usual format for these kinds of things: a bonus of famous musical acts sang covers of his songs, then he accepted an award and gave a speech, and finally he played a couple of his songs. If you look at the song lists, a lot of big names showed up to perform his songs, including Bruce Springsteen. 

Another big name also played one of his songs at the concert: Paul Simon sung "Sweet Baby James." But unfortunately, this is sourced from a DVD, but that song wasn't included, and I couldn't find any version of it anywhere. If anyone has it, please let me know so I can add it in.

I know Simon played that song in this concert, because it's mentioned in this article, which is a good summary of the concert in general:

MusiCares Honors Singer James Taylor - CBS News 

Also, while trying to find a good photo for the cover art, I went through a stash of hundreds of photos from the concert, and noticed that other big names like Neil Young and Brian Wilson attended. But I doubt they performed, or they probably would have been mentioned in that news article I just linked to. 

As mentioned above, this is sourced from an official DVD, so the sound quality is excellent. No version is any audio format has been released. As I sometimes do, I converted the video to audio, then broke it into mp3s.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 talk (Bill Clinton)
02 talk (emcee)
03 talk (Dixie Chicks)
04 Shower the People (Dixie Chicks)
05 talk (emcee)
06 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
07 Rainy Day Man (Bonnie Raitt)
08 talk (emcee)
09 talk (India.Arie)
10 Secret o' Life (India.Arie)
11 talk (emcee)
12 talk (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
13 Mexico (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Sting)
16 You Can Close Your Eyes (Sting)
17 talk (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
18 Everybody Has the Blues (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
19 talk (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
20 Carolina in My Mind (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Keith Urban)
23 Country Road (Keith Urban)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Millworker (Bruce Springsteen)
27 talk (Carole King)
28 You've Got a Friend (Carole King with James Taylor)
29 talk (Neil Portnow)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Shed a Little Light (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (James Taylor)
34 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/T6dgDM1s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5ezYaz8DOi7Zc9L/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Taylor receiving the award from Neil Portnow, the head of MusiCares at the time. 

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Billy Joel, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, 11-19-2014

Here's another "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" award concert. This one from 2014 honors Billy Joel.

This follows the usual format of these concerts. First, some guest stars performed cover versions of songs by the honoree. Then there was an award presentation, and a speech by the honoree. Finally, the honoree performed a couple of songs to end the concert. There were a couple of twists this time, however. One is that the person to give a speech leading to Joel's speech was none other than Sonia Sotomayor, one of the justices of the U.S. supreme court. That's pretty unusual behavior for a supreme court justice, but I guess she must be a really big Billy Joel fan. The other twist is that Joel played five of his own songs, instead of the usual two or three.

It's unfortunate that the emcee for the concert was Kevin Spacey, due to his sex scandals that pretty much destroyed his career. But those scandals weren't reported on until 2017, three years after this concert. Another disappointment is that Paul McCartney didn't actually perform a song. Instead, he just sent a video message praising Joel. I noticed he would do the exact same thing for the Gershwin Prize concert for Elton John and Bernie Taupin in 2024.

Sadly, this may be the last of these Gershwin concerts I post until I can find more of them. I have most of the concert honoring Burt Bacharach, but I'm missing a couple of songs, so I'm still waiting on posting that. Otherwise, if anyone has any of the others, please let me know so I can share them. That especially goes for the two (Carole King and Smokey Robinson) that seem to only be available to people who pay for a PBS pass that's only available in you live in Wisconsin.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 talk (Kevin Spacey)
02 The Longest Time (Boyz II Men)
03 Lullaby [Goodnight, My Angel] (LeAnn Rimes)
04 It's Still Rock and Roll to Me (Gavin DeGraw)
05 talk (emcee)
06 She's Always a Woman (Josh Groban with Sharon Isbin)
07 talk (Michael Feinstein)
08 She's Got a Way (Natalie Maines)
09 talk (John Mellencamp)
10 Allentown (John Mellencamp)
11 talk (Paul McCartney)
12 talk (emcee)
13 New York State of Mind (Tony Bennett)
14 talk (Sonia Sotomayor)
15 talk (Billy Joel)
16 Movin' Out [Anthony's Song] (Billy Joel)
17 Vienna (Billy Joel)
18 talk (Billy Joel)
19 Miami 2017 [I've Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway] (Billy Joel)
20 You May Be Right (Billy Joel)
21 talk (Kevin Spacey)
22 Piano Man (Billy Joel & Everyone [Edit])

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zGtLvUp6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cQJZPngXIkAhzJX/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I'm not sure who the two men behind him are. If anyone knows, let me know so I can add that information.

The (Dixie) Chicks - VH-1 Storytellers, Los Angeles Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 9-2006

Next for the VH-1 Storytellers series is an album by the Dixie Chicks. Note that in 2020 this band changed their name to just "the Chicks." But I'll still call them "the Dixie Chicks" for the music they did prior to the name change.

In 2003, lead singer Natalie Maines told an audience that she didn't approve of the U.S. involvement in the Iraq War and she was ashamed President Bush Jr. was from her home state of Texas. Many country music fans tend to be politically conservative, so the band had a hard time getting played on country radio after that. Even so, in 2006, they put out the successful album "Take the Long Way." This concert was from the tour to support that album, and about seven of the songs performed here were from it. After the tour was over, the band would go on a very long hiatus. They would eventually tour some, but they wouldn't release another studio album until 2020. 

In 2011, the video of this concert was officially released. However, there never was an album release, which is why I'm posting this here. Thanks to the video, we get the full show, which is about twice as long as the TV episode.

By the way, I don't know the exact date of this concert. If anyone does know, please tell me and I'll update the album title.

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long.

01 talk (Dixie Chicks)
02 The Long Way Around (Dixie Chicks)
03 talk (Dixie Chicks)
04 Truth No. 2 (Dixie Chicks)
05 talk (Dixie Chicks)
06 Silent House (Dixie Chicks)
07 talk (Dixie Chicks)
08 Cowboy Take Me Away (Dixie Chicks)
09 talk (Dixie Chicks)
10 Lullaby (Dixie Chicks)
11 talk (Dixie Chicks)
12 Lubbock or Leave It (Dixie Chicks)
13 talk (Dixie Chicks)
14 Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks)
15 talk (Dixie Chicks)
16 Easy Silence (Dixie Chicks)
17 talk (Dixie Chicks)
18 So Hard (Dixie Chicks)
19 talk (Dixie Chicks)
20 Wide Open Spaces (Dixie Chicks)
21 talk (Dixie Chicks)
22 Sin Wagon (Dixie Chicks)
23 talk (Dixie Chicks)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17115261/TDIXICHKS2006StrytllrsLsAnglsThetrLsAnglesCA__9-2006_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v4uErA1U

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

The Chicks (a.k.a. The Dixie Chicks) - BBC In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-25-2023

This is the first album I've posted from the Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. I have to admit that I'm not that familiar with their music, but they are the best selling female band of all time. And I was very impressed with their 2020 protest song "March, March," which I put on my "Rock Trump Out" compilation. So when I found a video of their performance at the annual Glastonbury Festival last month (as I write this in July 2023), I decided to convert that to mp3s and post it here.

I had previously tried to find any BBC material by the Dixie Chicks. (They changed their name in 2020 because they didn't like the association between the word "Dixie" and the Confederacy.) They did do a BBC concert in 1999, and I may post that at some point. But I want to post this now, since this concert is only a few weeks old as I write this.

The sound quality is very good, though not amazing. The set list is what you'd expect, a mix of songs from their most recent album ("Gaslighter," released in 2020), and older hits. The one surprise was they did a cover of the Miley Cyrus song "Rainbowland" in honor of Pride Month.

This concert is an hour and one minute long.

01 talk (Chicks)
02 Sin Wagon (Chicks)
03 Gaslighter (Chicks)
04 talk (Chicks)
05 Ready to Run (Chicks)
06 Landslide (Chicks)
07 Wide Open Spaces (Chicks)
08 Cowboy Take Me Away (Chicks)
09 Tights on My Boat (Chicks)
10 talk (Chicks)
11 White Trash Wedding (Chicks)
12 talk (Chicks)
13 Long Time Gone - Daddy Lessons (Chicks)
14 talk (Chicks)
15 Rainbowland (Chicks)
16 March, March (Chicks)
17 Not Ready to Make Nice (Chicks)
18 talk (Chicks)
19 Goodbye Earl (Chicks)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15433333/TChcks_2023_BBInConcrtGlastnbryFestivlWrthyFrmPiltnBitain__6-25-2023_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from this exact concert.