Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 3: 1999-2025

Here's the third and final volume of the "Covered" series for Randy Newman.

Newman's usual solo albums have been released less frequently as he gets older, which is usually the case for songwriters. By now, 2026, he averages about one album a decade. But unlike a lot of aging songwriters, he's kept his standards high. Pretty much every album he's made has been critically praised. 

But he's been much busier and prolific with his other career, composing soundtracks for Hollywood movies. I mentioned in the write-up for "Volume 2" that his career got a big boost starting in 1995, when he composed the soundtrack for the first "Toy Story" movie. That led him to a new line of work making soundtracks for blockbuster movies for kids, such as the other "Toy Story" movies (including "Toy Story 6," released in 2026), "Cars," "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," and more. Most of those are a mix of songs with lyrics and background music. I didn't find a lot of songs from these movies sung by others that fit this collection, but there are a few in this volume. 

Some others are from earlier in his career. For instance, "Burn On," a 1972 song based on a true incident of the Cuyahoga River, which runs through Cleveland, Ohio, catching fire in 1969 due to excessive pollution. 

All the songs in all three volumes were officially released, except for the last two on this volume. "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)" is from Randy Newman's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2013. It's sung by Newman and Don Henley. The album ends with "I Love L.A.," one of Newman's better known songs. I had trouble finding a worthy version, until I found this one. It comes from the 2025 Grammy Awards ceremony, and features a bunch of stars singing together.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 When She Loved Me (Sarah McLachlan)
02 If I Didn't Have You (Billy Crystal & John Goodman)
03 Every Time It Rains (Joe Cocker)
04 Rider in the Rain (Reckless Kelly & Joe Ely)
05 Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father (Kim Richey)
06 Marie (Allison Moorer)
07 Our Town (James Taylor)
08 Burn On (Mason Williams)
09 I Will Go Sailing No More (Los Lobos)
10 Almost There (Anika Noni Rose)
11 Down in New Orleans (Dr. John)
12 Losing You (Mavis Staples)
13 It's Lonely at the Top (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy)
14 I'm Dead [But I Don't Know It] (Don Henley & Randy Newman)
15 I Love L.A. (Dawes, John Legend, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard, Brad Paisley & Sheryl Crow)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZoccZuhY

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/zKj0ZEWCA6LlgOM/file

The cover image is from 1995.

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Electric Proms, The Roundhouse, London, Britain, 10-24-2009

Smokey Robinson is a true soul music legend. He was the leader of the Motown band Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in the 1960s, and had a successful solo career after that. I found two concerts he did for the BBC. Both of them are well past his commercial prime, but he could still his songs very well. Here's the first of the two, from 2009.

In 2009, Robinson put out a new studio album, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun." In this concert, he performed three songs from the album: "Don't Know Why," "Girlfriend," and "Time Flies." The first one is a cover, and was a major hit for Norah Jones in 2002. The other two were written by Robinson. Other than that, the concert mostly leans on hits he did with the Miracles in the 1960s, with a couple of solo hits near the end, plus another cover, "Fly Me to the Moon."

A couple of songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. I fixed this album a while back, so I don't remember the problem with those. But given they are the first and last songs, I'll bet there were BBC DJs talking over the music. 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Going to a Go-Go [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second that Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
08 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
09 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
10 talk (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl [Reprise] (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Don't Know Why (Smokey Robinson)
14 talk (Smokey Robinson)
15 Fly Me to the Moon (Smokey Robinson)
16 talk (Smokey Robinson)
17 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
18 Girlfriend (Smokey Robinson)
19 Being with You (Smokey Robinson)
20 Time Flies (Smokey Robinson)
21 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
22 The Tracks of My Tears [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CZnhNBsp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/e5oitpiTHD5Y4rK/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Elton John - Cover Versions, Volume 6: 2008-2017

Here's the sixth and last album in a series of albums of cover versions by Elton John. I had started posted this series back in 2023, but I stopped for a couple of years due to problems with the copyright police. But they seem to be going easy on me lately, so I'm finally finishing off the series.

Only four of the songs here are unreleased. "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Birthday" are from a bootleg of a joint concert John did with Billy Joel in 2009. (He's done a lot of those over the years.) Unfortunately, the sound quality of those two songs are lower than the rest, despite my best efforts to make some audio editing improvements. "Streets of Philadelphia" is from a 2013 MusiCares tribute concert to Bruce Springsteen that I've posted in full on this blog. "Gravity," a duet with Sara Bareilles, is from a 2014 concert.

Pretty much all the other songs are from John's appearances on albums by other musical acts. Check the mp3 tags for more details. The one exception is "I Love You All the Time," which was released as an A-side in 2016.

This is probably going to be the last album in this series because, rather surprisingly, I can't find any good cover versions he did after 2017. Mind you, he's done lots of songs on his studio albums, but these albums only collect covers that aren't the versions from his studio albums. If anyone knows of covers I've missed from this time period, or after, let me know and I'll probably add them in to this album. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Joseph, Better You than Me (Killers, Elton John & Neil Tennant)
02 Back in the U.S.S.R (Elton John & Billy Joel)
03 Birthday (Elton John & Billy Joel)
04 Snowed In at Wheeler Street (Kate Bush & Elton John)
05 Oh Well, Part 1 (2Cellos & Elton John)
06 Streets of Philadelphia (Elton John with Raphael Saadiq)
07 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & Elton John)
08 Gravity (Sara Bareilles & Elton John)
09 I Love You All the Time (Elton John)
10 Where Do the Guilty Go (Elton John & Frankie Miller)
11 Alone Again, Naturally (Pet Shop Boys & Elton John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5co2GBbS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MyoGx6JEfwTVUTa/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Manchester Evening News Arena, in Manchester, Britain, on December 20, 2008.

Billy Idol - PBS Soundstage, Congress Theater, Chicago, IL, 7-1-2009

Despite the fact that I just got back from Peru last week, I am on the move again. A family thing has me in Seattle Washington for six days. I just arrived. But like my trip to Peru, I have some albums, ready to go, so I should be able to keep posting during this trip. They mostly consist of episodes of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. 

Here is one from 2009 featuring Billy Idol. Since I am traveling, I’ll keep my comments short. 

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long. 

01 Super Overdrive (Billy Idol)
02 Dancing with Myself (Billy Idol)
03 Flesh for Fantasy (Billy Idol)
04 Touch My Love (Billy Idol)
05 talk (Billy Idol)
06 White Wedding (Billy Idol)
07 talk (Billy Idol)
08 Scream (Billy Idol)
09 Eyes without a Face (Billy Idol)
10 Cry (Billy Idol)
11 Blue Highway (Billy Idol)
12 talk (Billy Idol)
13 Ready Steady Go (Billy Idol)
14 talk (Billy Idol)
15 Rebel Yell (Billy Idol)
16 talk (Billy Idol)
17 Kiss Me Deadly (Billy Idol)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HpiTYwra 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Z9oruJs6QmuEeUk/file

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

Chris Rea - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: 2004-2017

Over the past month or so (writing this in February 2026), I've posted a mini-flood of Chris Rea BBC albums. This is the last one. It's the only one in the series that's a collection of studio sessions, instead of a concert.

Originally, this was going to be Volume 10. However, at the last minute, I discovered a few extra songs from 2004 to put on this album. So that means the time range for this one begins before the 2006 concert I had previously posted at Volume 9. Thus, that one is now Volume 10. Here's the link to it, if you want to get that fix:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2026/02/chris-rea-bbc-sessions-volume-9.html

The first three songs come from an appearance on the Paul Jones Show in 2004. That's a blues-focused show. Rea's appearance on that show is a sign of how his music moved towards the blues around that time. The next five songs, tracks 4 through 8, are from the Ken Bruce Show in 2009. Tracks 9 and 10 are from "Later... with Jools Holland," also in 2009. Track 11, a cover of the rock and roll classic "Be-Bop-a-Lula," is from the Jools Holland radio show in 2015. That leaves the final three tracks, which are from the Ken Bruce Show again, in 2017. (As usual, if you want more details, check the mp3 tags for each song.) 

Rea died in 2025 at the age of 74. But he suffered lots of medical issues for the last few years of his life. So the BBC had him on pretty much until he stopped performing in public.

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent. There were a couple of songs with audience cheering, but I got rid of that with the help of the MVSEP program. One song, "Somewhere Between Highway 61 and 49," gave me more trouble. For some reason, there was a tremendous amount of pops and crackles on it, especially during the first minute. I did all I could to get rid of it. I ran the song through the MVSEP program four times, which is something I never do for a song. Each time, I got rid of more of noise. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title. But still, some stubbornly remains, especially in the first twenty seconds or so.

Note also the song "Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go" appears twice. I tried to move the two versions as far apart as possible while still keeping everything in chronological order by year.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Blue Street (Chris Rea)
02 The Beat Goes On (Chris Rea)
03 Long Is the Time, Hard Is the Road (Chris Rea)
04 Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go (Chris Rea)
05 The Road to Hell I and II (Chris Rea)
06 On the Beach (Chris Rea)
07 Josephine (Chris Rea)
08 Let's Dance (Chris Rea)
09 Somewhere Between Highway 61 and 49 [Edit] (Chris Rea)
10 Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go (Chris Rea)
11 Be-Bop-a-Lula (Chris Rea)
12 Stainsby Girls (Chris Rea)
13 Two Lost Souls (Chris Rea)
14 Ain't No Sunshine (Chris Rea)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2MU5rKhe 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/vuCcDmGmLfDnQA4/file

The cover photo shows Rea at the Mojo Awards at The Brewery in London, in 2009. There was a bunch of writing on the wall behind him, but I found that distracting so I got rid of it in Photoshop.

Robyn Hitchcock - Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 11-1-2009 (Abbey Road)

From 2003 to 2011, Robyn Hitchcock held yearly benefit concerts at a small venue in London called the Three Kings, with the funds going to various causes opposing the U.S. war in Iraq. Each year, he performed one of his favorite albums by the musical acts that most influenced him. In 2009, he tackled "Abbey Road" by the Beatles. Here it is.

Hitchcock is a massive Beatles fan. I've already posted his versions of "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and "The White Album," done in this series of benefit concerts. I waited on posting this one due to sound quality concerns. Namely, there was a fair amount of echo on the recording, which I find annoying. But, thanks to improving audio editing technology, I could finally fix that problem, so I did. First, I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the instruments. Then I used that program's "denoise" function on the vocals. Then I put the vocals and instruments back together again. I think it sounds much better now.

Hitchcock was backed by a full band, as he typically was in this series of concerts. He has a singing voice with lots of character, but he doesn't have an exceptionally high range. So, for a few of the songs that were more difficult to sing, he had other band members take the lead vocals. 

After playing the album straight though, in the correct album order, he played four more songs done by the Beatles in 1969. 

This music here is unreleased.

With this post, I believe I have posted all of the known recordings from these Three Kings benefit shows. However, there have been other occasions when Hitchcock has performed entire albums by other musical acts. So I'll keep working on posting those.

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long. 

01 talk by James Orbinski (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Come Together (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Something (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Oh, Darling (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Octopus's Garden (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 I Want You [She's So Heavy] (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Here Comes the Sun (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 Because (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 Because - Take 2 (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 You Never Give Me Your Money (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 Sun King (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 Mean Mr. Mustard (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Polythene Pam (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 She Came in through the Bathroom Window (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 Golden Slumbers (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 Carry That Weight (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 The End (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 Her Majesty (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 I've Got a Feeling (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 The Ballad of John and Yoko (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 Old Brown Shoe (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 Don't Let Me Down (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NjVRqZ2g

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mbFRvs1rGTzU3rb/file

For the cover image, I thought it would be interesting to post an outtake from the photo shoot that resulted in the iconic Beatles cover. This picture was probably taken a minute or less before the photo that was used for the cover. 

The J. Geils Band - The Fillmore, Detroit, MI, 4-25-2009

Here's an excellent concert by the J. Geils Band in 2009. The band broke up in the early 1980s, and only had occasional reunions up until this time. This concert was broadcast on the radio at the time, so the sound quality is excellent. 

The other day, I came across a YouTube video discussing the break-up of the J. Geils Band in the early 1980s. They'd been moderately commercially successful until 1981. That year, they released two singles, "Centerfold" and "Freeze-Frame," that were massive. "Centerfold" even was the Number One song in the U.S. for several weeks. This success proved their undoing. The band's lead singer Peter Wolf wanted to stick to the band's blues and R&B roots, but some other band members wanted to go into a pop direction. Wolf left the band before they could release a new album. The rest of the band released an album without him anyway, but it flopped and the band broke up.

After that, Peter Wolf had a successful solo career for a while, but that eventually petered down to a low level. Meanwhile, many other band members actually left the music business for some years. For instance, lead guitarist J. Geils opened a car shop restoring vintage cars, and bassist Danny Klein attended cooking school and then became a professional chef! But the band reunited for about a dozen concerts in 1999. Then they had another concert in 2005, and one in 2006. That takes us to 2009, when they had another short reunion tour, but only six concerts that year. There would be more short tours from 2011 to 2015, and then the band broke up for good. 

The band has only released three live albums. But the only one that includes most of their famous songs, "Showtime," from 1982, is short at only 45 minutes. And it was recorded when the band was falling apart, and has some issues. So, in my opinion, this is their definitive live concert recording to provide an overview of their entire career. Nothing here is from after 1981. But it has pretty much every essential song they did. And while nearly thirty years had passed since their hit-making days, you wouldn't know it at all from listening to this.

In terms of sound quality, there was one problem. Sometimes, a soundboard is so good at capturing what was happening on stage that it captures very little of the audience noise. That's what happened here. So when each song ended, it sounded like a small amount of applause from a tepid audience. To fix that, I just carefully boosted the volume on the applause after every song while keeping everything else the same. 

This album is two hours long. 

01 talk (J. Geils Band)
02 First I Look at the Purse (J. Geils Band)
03 Homework (J. Geils Band)
04 talk (J. Geils Band)
05 Hard Drivin' Man (J. Geils Band)
06 talk (J. Geils Band)
07 Pack Fair and Square (J. Geils Band)
08 Sanctuary (J. Geils Band)
09 Night Time (J. Geils Band)
10 talk (J. Geils Band)
11 Cruisin' for a Love (J. Geils Band)
12 talk (J. Geils Band)
13 So Sharp (J. Geils Band)
14 Detroit Breakdown (J. Geils Band)
15 talk (J. Geils Band)
16 Serves You Right to Suffer (J. Geils Band)
17 Give It to Me (J. Geils Band)
18 talk (J. Geils Band)
19 Musta Got Lost (J. Geils Band)
20 Love Stinks (J. Geils Band)
21 Looking for a Love (J. Geils Band)
22 talk (J. Geils Band)
23 Whammer Jammer [Instrumental] (J. Geils Band)
24 [Ain't Nothin' but A] House Party (J. Geils Band)
25 talk (J. Geils Band)
26 Just Can't Wait (J. Geils Band)
27 talk (J. Geils Band)
28 Freeze-Frame (J. Geils Band)
29 Start All Over (J. Geils Band)
30 Where Did Our Love Go (J. Geils Band)
31 talk (J. Geils Band)
32 Peachtree Street (J. Geils Band)
33 talk (J. Geils Band)
34 Centerfold (J. Geils Band)
35 Love-Itis (J. Geils Band)
36 talk (J. Geils Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VCtEKEmC 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/vwhQ7AJJRfEtJxf/file

The cover photo of lead singer Peter Wolf is from a concert at the House of Blues, in Boston, on February 19, 2009.

Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music - Third Version (2008-2009)

From about 2001 to 2009, Richard Thompson occasionally put on a special type of concert, called "1000 Years of Popular Music." The idea started for him around the year 2000, when Playboy Magazine asked him and a bunch of other famous musicians to list what they considered to be the best songs of the millennium. Thompson alone took them literally and gave them a list that genuinely covered 1000 years, whereas everyone else made lists just of the last century. That inspired him to perform this concerts where he played some of his favorite songs of the last 1000 years, with many going back centuries. 

In 2021, I compiled and posted two versions of these kinds of concerts. Those mostly were sourced from concerts between 2001 and 2004. At that time, I also made a third version, mostly consisting of concerts from 2008. But I never felt ready to post it until now. The reason was sound quality. Most of the songs from the first two versions came from soundboard bootlegs or a DVD video. But this one pretty much entirely comes from unreleased audience bootlegs. (As usual, you can find sourcing details in the mp3 tags.) I felt that didn't meet the sound quality standards I'd set for my music blog. I waited, hoping either better sources would be found, or audio editing technology would improve enough for me to make this sound worthy of posting.

Well, better sources never were found, but audio editing technology did improve. Now, in January 2026, I feel this one sounds nearly as good as the first two. I just recently discovered a relatively new filter the MVSEP program has called "denoise." It's great for getting rid of hiss. So I used that on all the songs. I also ran all the songs through MVSEP's reverb reduction. And I additionally ran all the talking tracks through Adobe's vocal enhancer, which does wonders adding clarity to talking.

I know a couple of commenters have been asking for this ever since I mentioned a third version back in 2021. Thanks for your patience! Sorry it took so long. 

Speaking about that Adobe vocal enhancer, since that works so well, I recently used that on many of the talking tracks in the first two versions. Many of those talking bits were from audience boots instead of soundboard boots, so they needed help too. They sound much better now. So I strongly recommend you redownload those albums, if you'd downloaded them before.

Here's the link to the first version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/05/richard-thompson-1000-years-of-popular.html

And the link to the second version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/06/richard-thompson-1000-years-of-popular.html

I was very careful to avoid duplicating any songs from version to version. Luckily, Thompson kept changing the songs on his different "1000 Years" tours. So this should be just as entertaining as the other two versions. Also, like those versions, I've included sourcing information in brackets in the song titles. That includes the songwriter or writers, when known, and the year the song was written, if known.

Actually, I believe the last time Thompson toured with this theme was 2008. I have one song here from 2009, "Substitute," that came from a different kind of concert. But it was done in acoustic mode, like all the songs here, and I thought it fit in nicely, so I included it. Let's hope he comes back to this tour concept someday, because it's a fun way to learn musical history. (Besides, I'd love to see what songs he would deem worthy from the 2010s and 2020s.)  

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long. 

01 Edi Beo Thu Hevene Quene [Praise to You, Queen of Heaven] [1200s] (Richard Thompson)
02 talk (Richard Thompson)
03 The Three Ravens [1400s or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
04 talk (Richard Thompson)
05 Ja Nus Hons Pris [King Richard, 1192] (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Richard Thompson)
07 Cutty Wren [1300s] (Richard Thompson)
08 talk (Richard Thompson)
09 False Knight on the Road [1820s or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
10 talk (Richard Thompson)
11 Pipe, Shepherd's Pipe [unknown] (Richard Thompson)
12 talk (Richard Thompson)
13 A Man Who Would Woo a Fair Maid [Gilbert and Sullivan, 1888] (Richard Thompson)
14 talk (Richard Thompson)
15 Down by the Salley Gardens [William Butler Yeats, 1889, set to music in 1909] (Richard Thompson)
16 talk (Richard Thompson)
17 Rigs of the Time [1905 or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
18 talk (Richard Thompson)
19 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime [Bing Crosby, 1932] (Richard Thompson)
20 talk (Richard Thompson)
21 Strange Fruit [Abel Meeropol, 1937] (Richard Thompson)
22 talk (Richard Thompson)
23 Parchman Farm [Mose Allison, 1957] (Richard Thompson)
24 talk (Richard Thompson)
25 Little Boxes [Malvina Reynolds, 1962] (Richard Thompson)
26 Hold Me Tight - There's a Place - I Want to Hold Your Hand [Beatles, 1963] (Richard Thompson)
27 talk (Richard Thompson)
28 All Right [I'll Sign the Papers] [Ray Price, 1964] (Richard Thompson)
29 Substitute [Who, 1966] (Richard Thompson)
30 talk (Richard Thompson)
31 Workin' Man Blues [Merle Haggard, 1969] (Richard Thompson)
32 talk (Richard Thompson)
33 Get Up, Stand Up [Bob Marley & the Wailers, 1973] (Richard Thompson)
34 talk (Richard Thompson)
35 Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime [Korgis, 1980] (Richard Thompson)
36 talk (Richard Thompson)
37 Beds Are Burning [Midnight Oil, 1987] (Richard Thompson)
38 talk (Richard Thompson)
39 Maneater [Nelly Furtado, 2006] (Richard Thompson) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wPFoeBMn

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ruKCZLQUli3nX0K/file 

The cover photo comes from a concert at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2008. I also used the same framing artwork that I used on the first two versions.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 3: 2004-2012 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's "Volume 3" out of four volumes made for the "Covered" series, showcasing the songs of Tom Waits.

Like the other volumes in this series, this was mostly put together by Fabio from Rio. He did all the heavy lifting in finding the source material, and I only helped to winnow down the songs to a reasonable number. Fabio also wrote the notes for each volume, so here's his notes for this one:

In the nineties and early 2000s, Waits fused experimental sounds with stark American roots music—blues, gospel, field hollers, and folk. Themes of death, sin, redemption, and rural myth dominate. This allows for covers that, while highlighting their folk or country origins (sometimes deeply buried at the original recordings, but more perceptible when reinterpreted by performers from diverse backgrounds), still keep their darker spirits through melancholic or nihilistic lyrics.

In this volume, the country side of Waits' music is quite perceptible via covers by Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, and Claudia Bettinaglio. One may also feel the sexiness and smoky-room cabaret ambiance at Diana Krall's "Temptation", Monique Maion's "Walking Spanish," and Clara Bellino's "Swordfishtrombone." 

Traces of rockabilly and R&B can be found with Mark Lemhouse's "No One Can Forgive Me" and English seventies folk with Plant and Krauss' "Trampled Rose", along with blues and rock tracks like Hart and Bonamassa's "Chocolate Jesus" and Goldheart Assembly's "Clap Hands." Overall, this makes for an eclectic selection, much like the average Tom Waits album. An acoustic, home-demo-like version of "In the Neighborhood" by Peter Gabriel, recorded in 2012 for a benefit album for war-torn regions, closes the volume on a poignant note.

--- 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 Innocent When You Dream (Elvis Costello)
02 Temptation (Diana Krall)
03 Long Way Home (Norah Jones)
04 Big in Japan (Shane Nicholson)
05 Swordfishtrombone (Clara Bellino)
06 Eyeball Kid (Michael Stanley)
07 Cold Cold Ground (Claudia Bettinaglio)
08 Trampled Rose (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
09 All the Time in the World (Southside Johnny)
10 No One Can Forgive Me (Mark Lemhouse)
11 Walking Spanish (Monique Maion)
12 Chocolate Jesus (Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa)
13 Clap Hands (Goldheart Assembly)
14 In the Neighborhood (Peter Gabriel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yUHGi7qy 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/i96wIB252GpXMcV/file

The cover photo shows Waits at a movie premiere in Leicester Square, in London, on October 6, 2009. (As usual with this series of course, I replaced the background with blank light blue).

Death Cab for Cutie - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-9-2009

Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. It stars American indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie.

I gave this a listen, and it didn't do much for me. But I'm trying to post all the "Soundstage" episodes that are at least decent, and this certainly gets over that bar. In order to be the subject of one of these episodes, I've noticed the musical act needs to be pretty commercially successful. At the time of this concert, the band's previous album had gone Gold (sales of over 500,000) in the U.S., and their two prior albums had gone Platinum (sales of over a million), so one can see how they qualified. Their biggest hit was "I Will Follow You into the Dark," which went double Platinum as a single, but curiously, the band didn't perform that song in this concert. (Or at least it didn't make the final cut in the editing room.)

If you want to know more about this act, here's their Wikipedia page:

Death Cab for Cutie - Wikipedia 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Employment Pages - Your Heart Is an Empty Room (Death Cab for Cutie)
02 New Year (Death Cab for Cutie)
03 Crooked Teeth (Death Cab for Cutie)
04 My Mirror Speaks (Death Cab for Cutie)
05 Summer Skin (Death Cab for Cutie)
06 Soul Meets Body (Death Cab for Cutie)
07 I Will Possess Your Heart (Death Cab for Cutie)
08 Cath (Death Cab for Cutie)
09 Long Division (Death Cab for Cutie)
10 Sound of Settling (Death Cab for Cutie)
11 Transatlanticism (Death Cab for Cutie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HMRUGkty

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/SDHLTHvQpYhy5ey/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. 

Diana Krall - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: Friday Night Is Music Night, Maida Vale Studios, London, Britain, 5-31-2009

Here's another BBC concert by Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall.

I haven't posted a lot of music like this on my blog so far. I'm not a big jazz fan, but I like vocal jazz of the "Great American Songbook" variety. I enjoyed the first Diana Krall BBC album I posted, so when I saw musical associate Progsprog had another one, I asked him if he could pass that one to me too. If people know of other good jazz vocalists like her you think I should be posting albums from, I'm open to suggestions.

We're very lucky Progsprog had this one in his collection, because this has been a very rare one. While I found some photos from this exact concert, there was no sign of this ever being shared at any of the usual musical sharing sites. So I'm glad to put this into public circulation.

This concert was part of a tour supporting the studio album "Quiet Nights," released earlier in 2009. It consisted entirely of cover versions. It reached Number Three on the U.S. albums chart, her highest album ranking so far.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On December 16, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same, but I changed the title after finding material for an earlier volume. That means the cover art and mp3 tags changed as well. 

01 I Love Being Here with You (Diana Krall)
02 Let's Fall in Love (Diana Krall)
03 talk (Diana Krall)
04 The Girl from Ipanema (Diana Krall)
05 talk (Diana Krall)
06 Exactly like You (Diana Krall)
07 talk (Diana Krall)
08 'Deed I Do (Diana Krall)
09 talk (Diana Krall)
10 Corcovado [Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars] (Diana Krall)
11 talk (Diana Krall)
12 Summer Samba [So Nice] [Samba de Verao] (Diana Krall)
13 talk (Diana Krall)
14 You're My Thrill (Diana Krall)
15 Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye (Diana Krall)
16 talk (Diana Krall)
17 I Don't Know Enough about You (Diana Krall)
18 talk (Diana Krall)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SSHXZF6v

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/6B2mvEOcyNVuFy9/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-30-2009

I just posted the first day of the two-day long 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, in 2009. Here's the second day.

This second day concert followed the same format as the one on the first day. Read my write-up for more details about this two-day concert in general. Suffice to say that for this day, four major musical acts were chosen: Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2. Each of them hosted one fourth of the concert, and each had special guests join them during their sections. 

I was a bit surprised by the choice of Jeff Beck, since his record sales weren't nearly as big as the others. It turns out that section was supposed to be for Eric Clapton, but he got sick at the last minute and had to back out. So Beck was another "guitar hero" to fill a similar role.

I detailed in my write-up for the first day of this concert how I put a longer concert out of material from a DVD, plus the HBO broadcast, plus an audience bootleg. That's the same case here, except I didn't find an audience boot for all the otherwise missing songs. I did find such a boot for some of the Metallica songs, but that didn't even have the entire Metallica set. But it did get me "You Really Got Me," with Ray Davies of the Kinks as the guest. 

The Wikipedia page for this concert lists all the songs that were performed, in their correct order. Here's that page:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

Based on that, it looks like I'm missing five songs. Here are the songs that I couldn't find:

Drown in My Own Tears - Jeff Beck (or possibly Aretha Franklin, I'm not sure)
Cause We've Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck
Rough Boy - Jeff Beck & Billy Gibbons
One - Metallica
Stone Cold Crazy - Metallica 

That's too bad, but at least the vast majority is here. If anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know. The first day concert that I posted is a little over four hours long, whereas this one is two and a half hours long. If you add in the missing songs, this probably totals about three hours, not four. So I think the first day one is a little longer, and better. I'll bet some of that was due to Bruce Springsteen, as his section on the first day was extra long.

One interesting note about this concert is that the collaboration of Metallica with Lou Reed - a very unexpected pairing - eventually led to the recordings of the album "Lulu," a joint Metallica and Lou Reed release, in 2011. 

A couple of performers who appeared in the first day concert also appeared in this one. Jeff Beck played a song on the first day, and had his own section here. Sting sang duets on both days. And Bruce Springsteen had his own section on the first day, and sang two songs with U2 here. Jerry Lee Lewis also opened both days with a song.

The sound quality is generally excellent. The quality is actually higher here than on the first day, because I only have one song sourced from an audience boot this time ("You Really Got Me," as mentioned above). I ran into many of the same problems with the first day, such as having to smooth over the transitions between songs by adding extra cheering noises. Read my write-up about the other concert for more details on all that. 

This album is two hours and 33 minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Baby, I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
04 Don't Play That Song [You Lied] (Aretha Franklin)
05 Make Them Hear You (Aretha Franklin)
06 talk (Aretha Franklin)
07 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox)
08 Theme from New York, New York (Aretha Franklin)
09 Think (Aretha Franklin & Lenny Kravitz)
10 [I Never Loved a Man] The Way I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
11 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
12 People Get Ready (Sting & Jeff Beck)
13 Freeway Jam [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
14 talk (Jeff Beck)
15 Let Me Love You Baby (Buddy Guy & Jeff Beck)
16 Big Block [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
17 Rice Pudding [Instrumental] (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
18 Foxy Lady (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
19 A Day in the Life [Instrumental Version] (Jeff Beck)
20 For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica)
21 talk (Metallica)
22 Turn the Page (Metallica)
23 talk (Metallica)
24 Sweet Jane (Lou Reed & Metallica)
25 talk (Metallica)
26 White Light-White Heat (Lou Reed & Metallica)
27 talk (Metallica)
28 Iron Man (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
29 Paranoid (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
30 talk (Metallica)
31 You Really Got Me (Ray Davies & Metallica)
32 All Day and All of the Night (Ray Davies & Metallica)
33 Enter Sandman (Metallica)
34 Vertigo (U2)
35 Magnificent (U2)
36 talk (U2)
37 Because the Night (U2, Bruce Springsteen & Patti Smith)
38 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2 & Bruce Springsteen)
39 Mysterious Ways (U2)
40 Where Is the Love - One (U2 & the Black Eyed Peas)
41 talk (U2)
42 Gimme Shelter (U2, Mick Jagger, Fergie & will.i.am)
43 talk (U2)
44 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2 & Mick Jagger)
45 Beautiful Day (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UZjACSG5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mtktsXHvZPk8rgE/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: Bono, The Edge, Fergie, and Mick Jagger.

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-29-2009

Here's a really great concert filled with lots of big stars performing classic songs. It was a two-day concert in New York City, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm posting both days of the concert, and this is the first one. I highly recommend this.

This two-day long concert had an unusual and interesting format: eight major artists were chosen: Crosby, Stills and Nash, Paul Simon (with and without Art Garfunkel), Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen for the first day, and Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2 for the second day. Each of those major stars were hosts for one fourth of the days they were on. Then they invited other stars to join them, to play a song or two. For instance, the first major artist, Crosby, Stills and Nash, had Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor as their guests. The result was that, between the major stars and their guests, most of the major areas of rock and roll going back to the 1950s were represented. 

There were some key gaps though. For instance, although Mick Jagger was a guest on the second day to represent the Rolling Stones, there really wasn't any special representation of the Beatles, the most important musical act of all. (Although there were occasional covers of Beatles songs, at least.) Bob Dylan was also very missed. But then again, you can only do so much in two concerts containing about four hours each. 

I spent a long time putting this together. It was quite tricky. I was able to find all the songs from this, the first night, but only two and a half hours from the second night, even though that one probably lasted about four hours as well. The main source I used was an officially released DVD. But the longest version of that was only about three hours for both concerts combined. Plus, many of those were bonus tracks, which meant they were out of order and often had the starts and ends cut off.

Luckily for me, Wikipedia came through for me particularly well, with a list of all the songs performed in the correct order, including lots of details. You can see that, and more info about the concert, here:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

From that, I was able to figure out the songs I was missing, and try to find them. It turns out four hours of highlights were shown on HBO the year the concert happened. That was longer than the DVD, so I found some extra songs there. Then I found an audience bootleg of the entire first day. That's why I was able to include all the songs. However, the sound quality of the songs from the audience bootleg was significantly poorer than the songs from the DVD and the HBO broadcast. But, luckily, I was able to clean things up quite a lot, by putting a lot of effort into audio editing. I ran all the audience boot sourced songs through two processes that I use in cases like this. For one thing, I used the MVSEP audio editing program to raise the volume of the lead vocals in contrast to the instruments. (That is such a common problem for concert bootlegs.) Then I also used MVSEP to wipe out the crowd noise during the songs, while keeping the cheers at the beginnings and ends of songs. In my opinion, that made the quality gap between the different sources a lot smaller, though still noticeable. ("Marrakesh Express" is an example of one of the audience boot sourced songs, and the songs just before and after it are not, if you want to make a comparison.)

However, I still had a lot of work to do. Another problem with the audience boot-sourced song is that the cheering at the ends of songs sounded quite different, with the sound of clapping of individual people near the taper more prominent. I mostly fixed this by copying and pasting cheering from the ends of DVD-sourced songs, and slathering it over the cheering of the audience boot-sourced songs. I also had a lot of transition issues. It was rare to have two songs in a row from the same source. I generally fixed that by patching in more generic cheering. Yet another problem was the banter between songs. The ones from the audience boot-sourced songs sounded really weak. So I did extra editing to pull the actual talking out from the background noise. 

I could go on and on. There were lots of little tweaks. But I'm hoping that the end result is this will sound like one coherent concert from one source, more or less, and you won't notice the "making of the sausage" with all the editing to get it to sound that way. It would be really great if this whole thing gets officially released one day, in top quality. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that.

One thing that makes this concert special is all the collaborations. There are too many to count. Lots and lots of big names performing songs together, and usually the only time they ever did that for the songs. There were some interesting cover versions as well, as an attempt to have some inclusion of famous musician who died or otherwise didn't attend. Stevie Wonder singing the Michael Jackson song "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Paul Simon with Crosby and Nash singing "Here Comes the Sun" are just two examples of that.

This should particularly delight Bruce Springsteen fans. He dominated this first night, which his section of the concert lasting an hour and a half, easily the longest. And he assisted Jerry Lee Lewis on the first song of the night as well. (Plus, he showed up on the second night as well, as we shall see later.)

This album is four hours and eight minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On (Jerry Lee Lewis with Bruce Springsteen)
04 Woodstock (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
05 Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
06 talk (Graham Nash)
07 Almost Cut My Hair (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
08 talk (David Crosby)
09 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
10 Love Has No Pride (Bonnie Raitt & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
11 Midnight Rider (Bonnie Raitt & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
12 talk (Graham Nash)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 The Pretender (Jackson Browne & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Mexico (James Taylor & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
17 Love the One You're With (James Taylor & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 Rock and Roll Woman (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
19 talk (Graham Nash)
20 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills & Nash & Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne & James Taylor)
21 Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon)
22 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
23 You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon)
24 talk (Paul Simon)
25 Here Comes the Sun (Paul Simon with Crosby & Nash)
26 talk (Paul Simon)
27 The Wanderer (Dion & Paul Simon)
28 Late in the Evening (Paul Simon)
29 talk (Paul Simon)
30 Two People in the World (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
31 The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)
32 Mrs. Robinson - Not Fade Away (Simon & Garfunkel)
33 The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel)
34 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
35 Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel)
36 Blowin' in the Wind (Stevie Wonder)
37 talk (Stevie Wonder)
38 Uptight [Everything's Alright] (Stevie Wonder)
39 I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder)
40 For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder)
41 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
42 Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder)
43 talk (Stevie Wonder)
44 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & Stevie Wonder)
45 talk (Stevie Wonder)
46 Mercy Mercy Me [The Ecology] (Stevie Wonder & John Legend)
47 The Way You Make Me Feel (Stevie Wonder with John Legend)
48 talk (Stevie Wonder)
49 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King & Stevie Wonder)
50 Living for the City (Stevie Wonder)
51 Higher Ground - Roxanne - Higher Ground (Sting & Stevie Wonder)
52 Superstition (Stevie Wonder & Jeff Beck)
53 10th Avenue Freeze-Out (Bruce Springsteen)
54 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
55 Hold On, I'm Comin' (Bruce Springsteen & Sam Moore)
56 Soul Man (Bruce Springsteen & Sam Moore)
57 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
58 The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
59 Fortunate Son (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
60 Proud Mary (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
61 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
62 Oh, Pretty Woman (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
63 Jungleland (Bruce Springsteen)
64 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
65 A Fine, Fine Boy (Darlene Love & Bruce Springsteen)
66 Do Run Run Run (Darlene Love & Bruce Springsteen)
67 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
68 London Calling (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
69 Badlands (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
70 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
71 You May Be Right (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
72 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
73 Only the Good Die Young (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
74 New York State of Mind (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
75 Born to Run (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
76 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher (Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QU2h1WV1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/7oTCzzonspG0GVX/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: John Fogerty, Darlene Love, Bruce Springsteen, and Sam Moore.

Willie Nelson - PBS Soundstage, Park West, Chicago, IL, 9-28-2009

Yesterday, I noticed that out of the dozens of "PBS Soundstage" episodes I have yet to post, three of them are of musical acts that performed at the Farm Aid 40 concert a couple of days ago. So yesterday I posted a Soundstage episode with Bob Dylan in it, and today I'm posting episodes of Wynonna Judd and Willie Nelson. Here's the Willie one, from 2009.

In 2009, Nelson was 76 years old. That sounds pretty old for a singer, but age seems to have little meaning for him. He's currently 92 years old as I write this in 2025, and he's still going strong. Maybe all that pot he famously smokes helps his health, who knows. 

Anyway, he put on a fine performance here, with a lot of interesting song selections instead of just the big hits. Heck, he didn't even play his signature song, "On the Road Again."

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 Whiskey River (Willie Nelson)
02 talk (Willie Nelson)
03 Man with the Blues (Willie Nelson)
04 talk (Willie Nelson)
05 You Done Me Wrong (Willie Nelson)
06 talk (Willie Nelson)
07 Cry, Cry, Darlin' (Willie Nelson)
08 talk (Willie Nelson)
09 Dark as a Dungeon (Willie Nelson)
10 talk (Willie Nelson)
11 Your Poison Love (Willie Nelson)
12 talk (Willie Nelson)
13 Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down (Willie Nelson)
14 talk (Willie Nelson)
15 Freight Train Boogie (Willie Nelson)
16 talk (Willie Nelson)
17 Drinking Champagne, Feelin' No Pain (Willie Nelson)
18 talk (Willie Nelson)
19 Dream of Me (Willie Nelson)
20 talk (Willie Nelson)
21 You Asked Me To (Willie Nelson)
22 talk (Willie Nelson)
23 Trouble in Mind (Willie Nelson)
24 Whiskey River [Reprise] (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iDPHBBXs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pkwLR2f4JehW6D6/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Covered: Hank Williams, Volume 2: 1995-2017

Here's the second part to the "Covered" series about country music legend Hank Williams.

As I said in my write-up for Volume 1, I wanted to make these albums accessible to more than just country music fans. So that's why I mostly chose covers from recent decades, and by the likes of Beck, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Norah Jones, and so on. 

The vast majority of these were hits when Williams did them before his death in 1953. While there were a lot of hit cover versions of his songs, these generally were not hits. As I just mentioned, I was striving to get away from country versions, and those were most of the hit versions.

As always with these "Covered" albums, the songs are in loose chronological order, based on the year of release. And, as always, check the mp3 tags for the details. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 I'm a Long Gone Daddy (The The)
02 I Can't Help It [If I'm Still in Love with You] (Cat Power)
03 [I Heard That] Lonesome Whistle (Beck)
04 I Can't Get You Off of My Mind (Bob Dylan)
05 Alone and Forsaken (Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler)
06 You're Gonna Change [Or I'm Gonna Leave] (Tom Petty)
07 Cold, Cold Heart (Norah Jones)
08 Lost Highway (Lee Rocker)
09 Ramblin' Woman (Cat Power)
10 Take These Chains from My Heart (Rosanne Cash)
11 A House of Gold (Patty Griffin)
12 How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart (Norah Jones)
13 Mansion on the Hill (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pJcuyMJv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/RhHR0FUCJasCzLZ/file

I don't know the details of where or when the cover photo was from. However, it was in color, so I didn't need to change anything. 

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Stevie Wonder, White House, Washington, DC, 2-25-2009

Here's another "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" concert, honoring Stevie Wonder in 2009. It was the first one with President Barack Obama's direct involvement, and the second one overall.

This concert followed a typical format of a number of guest stars performing songs made famous by the winner, Stevie Wonder, then a short induction ceremony, then a short set by the winner. The one bummer in my opinion is that the concert was rather short. This one is a half hour shorter than the concert honoring Paul McCartney a year later. One nice bonus though is not only President Obama's involvement, but also a short introduction by First Lady Michelle Obama. 

This album remains unreleased. I got lucky and found an mp3 of the entire show. Then I broke it into individual mp3s for each song. (I could still use help from anyone who has a PBS pass that allows them to watch PBS shows on the Internet in order to get some of the other Gershwin Prize concerts!)

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 talk (Michelle Obama)
02 Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder)
03 talk (emcee)
04 Overjoyed (Esperanza Spalding)
05 talk (emcee)
06 For Once in My Life (Tony Bennett)
07 talk (emcee)
08 Blame It on the Sun (Diana Krall)
09 talk (emcee)
10 Higher Ground (Mary Mary)
11 talk (emcee)
12 Summer Soft (India.Arie)
13 talk (emcee)
14 You and I (Martina McBride)
15 talk (emcee)
16 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Anita Johnson)
17 talk (emcee)
18 If It's Magic (Paul Simon)
19 talk (Barack Obama)
20 talk (Stevie Wonder)
21 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
22 Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
23 talk (Barack Obama)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZbWEnVNS

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/0Yh30jfYQR6JITn/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

B.B. King with Richie Sambora - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 1-29-2009

Here's yet another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This time, it's blues legend B.B. King. He's joined by three special guests: Terrence Howard, Solange, and Richie Sambora.

I was reluctant at first to post this, due to B.B. King's advanced age. He was about 83 years old at the time. And if you watch the video, he sat the entire time, and it looks like that's because he had to. However, I gave it a listen and his vocals and guitar playing were still very good, so I'm posting it. He would finally pass in 2015, at the age of 89.

It's pretty remarkable to consider that he did another episode of this show in 1976 (with Bobby 'Blue' Bland), 33 years earlier, and his music career had already been going for four decades prior to that!

The first guest was Terrence Howard. That was a rather strange choice, considering that Howard was famous for being a movie star, not a musician. He only released one album, in 2008. Since that was right before this concert, I guess he was trying to branch out into having a music career too, but gave it up not long thereafter. His singing was good, certainly nothing to be embarrassed about, as is the case with many other movie stars trying to be musicians. 

The second guest was Solange. She's a neo-soul singer (and a sister to Beyonce). At the time of this concert, her music career was just getting started, but she would later have a couple of very critically acclaimed albums. Her singing was very good also.

The third and final guest was Richie Sambora, the long-time lead guitarist for the band Bon Jovi. His appearance was all about jamming on guitar with King. It's a bit unfortunate that both Solange and Sambora wanted to play on King's signature song, "The Thrill Is Gone," so that song appears twice in relatively close proximity.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Every Day I Have the Blues (B.B. King)
02 See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (B.B. King)
03 How Many More Years (B.B. King)
04 How Blue Can You Get (B.B. King)
05 I Need You So (B.B. King & Terrence Howard)
06 talk (B.B. King & Terrence Howard)
07 I Got Some Outside Help [I Don't Really Need] (B.B. King & Terrence Howard)
08 talk (B.B. King)
09 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King & Solange)
10 talk (B.B. King)
11 Let the Good Times Roll (B.B. King with Richie Sambora)
12 talk (B.B. King with Richie Sambora)
13 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King with Richie Sambora)
14 Blues (B.B. King)
15 When the Saints Go Marching In (B.B. King with Solange, Richie Sambora & Terrence Howard)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gdZFhsi7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KqvxLt8efGBDDw9/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a YouTube video of this exact concert. That's King, sitting, with Sambora.

Seal - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 2-2009

Next, it's Seal's turn for a "PBS Soundstage" episode. This is from 2009. It's an unusual concert for him since it's nearly all cover versions.

In November 2008, Seal released a studio album called "Soul." It was his first covers album, consisting entirely of covers of soul classics. It did pretty well, selling about half a million copies in the U.S. and another half a million in Britain. Apparently, this was his first concert in which he performed songs from that album. He went all in, playing only songs from that album until the last two.

I couldn't find the audio or video of this at YouTube or any of the usual places one finds bootlegs. However, I tracked down a streaming service that has it. I recorded that to my computer and then converted it to audio and broke it into mp3s. The last two songs, the only two originals, are presented as bonus tracks, and are separated from the rest of the concert. But I think it's likely they actually were played in that order. One can tell because he announced that the horn section was leaving, and the two "bonus tracks" were then done without the horn section. I edited things a bit so those two fit into the show without any obvious gaps.

Seal's "Soul" album was criticized for sounding too slick and overproduced. I suspect the songs sound better done live here.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 A Change Is Gonna Come (Seal)
02 talk (Seal)
03 I Can't Stand the Rain (Seal)
04 talk (Seal)
05 It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World (Seal)
06 Knock On Wood (Seal)
07 talk (Seal)
08 If You Don't Know Me by Now (Seal)
09 talk (Seal)
10 I've Been Loving You Too Long (Seal)
11 talk (Seal)
12 Here I Am [Come and Take Me] (Seal)
13 talk (Seal)
14 People Get Ready (Seal)
15 Stand by Me (Seal)
16 talk (Seal)
17 Kiss from a Rose (Seal)
18 Crazy (Seal)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/73SWxVCv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/To2JaFvMz4rsTXq/file

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 7: 2005-2018

Here is the seventh and last volume of Stevie Wonder's "Covered" series. Just as a reminder, like all the "Covered" albums I post, the emphasis is on the songwriting. So these are all songs written or co-written by Wonder, but performed by others.

By the time period of this album, 2005 to 2018, Wonder's songwriting had slowed way down. In fact, writing this in 2025, Wonder still hasn't released a new studio album since 2005. So all the songs here are covers from earlier years, especially from his golden era of the 1970s. "You Met Your Match" is the oldest song here, from 1968.

Finally, with this volume, the full scope of Wonder's songwriting genius can be seen. Some of his best songs don't show up until this volume. So all seven volumes should be seen as a whole. 

Just by chance, I didn't find any covers that I liked best from after 2018. But I'm sure more great covers will emerge in the years to come.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 I'm Going Left (Eric Clapton)
02 You Haven't Done Nothin' (Joe Cocker)
03 Village Ghetto Land (Jen Chapin)
04 You Met Your Match (Tower of Power)
05 Sir Duke (Devon Allman)
06 Do I Do (Cuban Jazz Combo)
07 True to Your Heart (Wailing Souls)
08 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Phil Collins)
09 Part-Time Lover (Hyannis Sound)
10 Jesus Children of America (Michele Thomas)
11 Master Blaster [Jammin'] (Minnie Driver)
12 Happier than the Morning Sun (Venice)
13 Another Star (Denise King & Massimo Farao Trio)
14 He's Misstra Know It All (Beverley Knight)
15 I Just Called to Say I Love You (John Prine)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hHACZWCK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/h1RStCF8XSMhnvi/file

The cover photo is from 2003.

Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 10-29-2009

Here's an unusual episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. It's the only episode I've found that follows the same format as the "Songwriters' Circle" BBC TV show episodes I've been posting: four singer-songwriters took turns presenting their songs. In this case: Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller.

However, the BBC TV show put together different artists for a single concert. In this case, the four singer-songwriters had joined forces on their own, calling themselves "Three Girls and Their Buddy." They never released any music that I know of, but they toured together for most of 2009.

The four of them had previous ties. Buddy Miller led the Buddy Miller Band back in the early 1980s. Shawn Colvin, just starting her music career, was a member of that band. Miller was the lead guitarist in Emmylou Harris's band in the late 1990s. Then, in 2004, a similar group to this one was formed, called the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue. It starred Harris, Miller, Patty Griffin, and the duo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. But that group, like this group, never officially released any music.

Generally speaking, each of the singer-songwriters performed acoustically on their own. But sometimes they were assisted by others, especially by Miller on guitar. They came together to sing on the last song.

I was very familiar with the careers of Harris and Colvin, but I'd missed Griffin and Miller. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought all four of them impressed with their singing and songwriting, and they worked well as a group. I liked them so much that I found another concert by the same foursome and I plan on posting that here eventually. It's too bad they only toured together in 2009.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
02 Blackhawk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
03 Love Throws a Line (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
04 Poloroids (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
05 Shelter Me (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
06 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
07 Michelangelo (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
08 Heavenly Day (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
09 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
10 Summer Dress (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
11 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
12 Poison Love (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
13 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
14 Love and Happiness (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
15 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
16 Get Ready Marie (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
17 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
18 Hold On (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
19 talk (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)
20 Gasoline and Matches (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin & Buddy Miller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/M9ryEscs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AwB6wr9loL6ttAz/file

I found the cover photo by Googling the names of all four of these musicians together. I don't know exactly where or when it's from, but it must be from their 2009 tour. It was a small and low-res picture though, so I enlarged it then used the Krea AI program to improve the picture quality. It worked pretty well, but I thought Harris's face didn't look like her. So I found a different face at the same angle and pasted it in.