Covered: Neil Young, Volume 8: 2016-2020

As I write this, I’m sitting in an airplane, about to fly back to the U.S. I’m glad to see my plan to keep posting albums while on vacation has worked out. 

Here’s the next album in the Neil Young “Covered” series. There are two albums to go after this one. Once more, thanks to Fabio from Rio from doing most of the heavy lifting for these albums. Here is the intro to his notes:

By the late 2010s, Neil Young's songwriting had fully entered the digital age of reinterpretation. Covers were no longer limited to traditional tribute albums or major-label releases. Many now emerged through independent recordings, Bandcamp releases, streaming platforms, and fan communities online. At the same time, a younger generation of indie-folk, Americana, and roots musicians continued to rediscover Young's catalog, often gravitating toward the emotional honesty and melodic simplicity that have always defined his best work. Meanwhile, Young himself remained active both musically and politically, releasing albums that addressed environmental and social issues while also opening vast portions of his archival material through the Neil Young Archives project. The performances collected here reflect that ecosystem: established artists, roots musicians, and independent performers revisiting both classics and deep cuts from across his remarkable career.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 Country Girl (Sanford Markley & Paul Cronin)
02 Hangin' on a Limb (Lars Hall & Saga Eserstam)
03 Don't Be Denied (Norah Jones)
04 Long May You Run (Sarah Jane Scouten & the Paperboys)
05 My My, Hey Hey [Out of the Blue] (Keller Williams)
06 Alabama (Tedeschi Trucks Band)
07 Nothing Is Perfect (Change Partners)
08 Time Fades Away (Harrison Clock)
09 Heart of Gold (Charles Bradley)
10 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Kelley Suttenfield)
11 Vampire Blues (Rayland Baxter)
12 Sample and Hold (Joi Noir)
13 Buffalo Springfield Again (Danielle Brilo)
14 Everybody's Alone (Cajsalisa Ejemyr)
15 Through My Sails (Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson)
16 Light a Candle (Scott the Hoople)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AFArzv51

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/GG7osrRgekL0szG/file

The cover photo is from 2008.

Bettye LaVette - Soulville - Non-Album Tracks (2017-2023)

I've been posting a few Bettye LaVette albums lately. Here's another one. It's another collection of non-album tracks, from 2017 to 2023. This gets us caught up to current day, since I didn't find any non-album tracks worthy of inclusion since 2023.

Six of the songs here are unreleased: tracks 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 12. All of them are from concert bootlegs. They generally come from tribute concerts. I removed the audience cheering from all of them so they'd fit in better with the studio tracks.

Tracks 1 and 3 come from the deluxe edition of "Music from The American Epic Sessions." Track 4 is from the Todd Rundgren album "White Knight." Tracks 8 and 11 are from tribute albums. For more details, look at the mp3 tags for each song, as usual.

This album is 52 minutes long. 

01 Nobody's Dirty Business (Bettye LaVette)
02 Jingle Bells - White Christmas - This Christmas (Bettye LaVette)
03 When I Woke Up This Morning (Bettye LaVette)
04 Naked and Afraid (Todd Rundgren & Bettye LaVette)
05 Person to Person (Bettye LaVette)
06 Ain't No Way (Bettye LaVette)
07 Soulville (Bettye LaVette)
08 Loser (Dave McMurray with Bettye LaVette & Bob Weir)
09 On Your Way Down (Little Feat & Bettye LaVette)
10 A Apolitical Blues - Long Distance Call (Little Feat & Bettye LaVette)
11 Call It Stormy Monday (Count Basie Orchestra with Bettye LaVette)
12 The Man I Love (Bettye LaVette)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cgPapJ5S

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/9QsaHww5PLK38MI/file

The cover photo was taken at the Apollo Theater in New York City on April 4, 2019. I used Photoshop to remove some writing on the wall behind her head.

Covered: Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly: 1980-2019

I don't keep a close eye on music news, but yesterday I happened to hear that songwriter Billy Steinberg died. Specifically, he died on February 16, 2026, at the age of 75. That probably doesn't mean anything to most people, because I don't think he's very well known as far as songwriters go. But it meant something to me, because I had already made a "Covered" album of the songs he and songwriting partner Tom Kelly made. (It's one of several dozen "Covered" albums I've made but haven't gotten around to posting yet.) Due to his death, I decided to post this sooner rather than later.

Steinberg and Kelly wrote a lot of hits from the 1980s to the 2000s that you probably know without ever knowing who wrote them. Even though they were male, somehow they had the most success with females covering their songs. They had five Number One hits in the U.S., all sung by women: "Like a Virgin" by Madonna (1984), "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper (1986), "Eternal Flame" (co-written with Susanna Hoffs and recorded by the Bangles in 1989), "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston (1987), and "Alone" by Heart (1987).

Billy Steinberg was born in Fresno, California, though his family moved to Palm Springs when he was a teenager. After graduating from college, he formed a band called Billy Thermal. However, they didn't have any success, and one album they recorded around 1980 wasn't released until decades later, after he made a name for himself as a songwriter. He had his first songwriting success with "How Do I Make You," which was a hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1980.  

Tom Kelly was born in a small town in Illinois in 1952. He went to a college in that state, but dropped out to pursue a music career. He was a backing musician for Dan Fogelberg in 1976 and 1977. He also did a lot of session work, for instance singing backing vocals on Toto albums. He had his first songwriting success with "Fire and Ice," a minor hit for Pat Benatar in 1981.

Both Steinberg and Kelly independently had songs on Benatar's 1981 album, "Precious Time." They met at a party that year, and soon began writing together. Previously, both of them had written lyrics and music. But they soon fell into a pattern where Steinberg generally wrote the lyrics while Kelly wrote the music. Their really big break as a songwriting team was "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. After that, they were in high demand. What's on this album is just the cream of the crop of the many dozens of songs they wrote for well-known musical acts.

Their partnership continued very fruitfully until the mid-1990s. At that point, Kelly tired of songwriting and dropped out of the music business. He'd already had enough success to live on the royalties he'd made. However, Steinberg kept going with new songwriting partners. From the mid-1990s until the mid-2000s, he mostly wrote with Rick Newels, who already was a successful professional songwriter. From the mid-2000s to about the mid-2010s, he mostly wrote with Josh Alexander.

Steinberg had a lot of songwriting success after he stopped working with Kelly. But I listened to his big hits and, to be honest, didn't like them very much after about 2000. They suffer the same problems as most popular pop music since about 2000: formulaic and forgettable. So I generally didn't include most of those. To be honest, even a lot of their earlier stuff was formulaic and forgettable, but sometimes, in fact many times, they had some real winners.

But in case you're curious, Steinberg's biggest later hits include "I Turn to You" by Melanie C (2000), "Love Doesn't Have to Hurt" by Atomic Kitten (2003), "Too Little Too Late" by JoJo (2006), "Don't Hold Your Breath" by Nicole Scherzinger (2011), and "Give Your Heart a Break" by Demi Lovato (2012). After that, the hits petered out, although some older songs keep getting rerecorded and making the charts again, especially "Alone" and "I Drove All Night." For instance, Alyssa Reid went all the way to Number Two in the British charts with "Alone" in 2012, although it was titled "Alone Again" and had the now practically obligatory rap section.

I'm not a fan of Whitney Houston's version of "So Emotional." But since it was a massive Number One hit, I wanted to include it in some form. I found a radically different cover version by Jon McLaughlin from 2019 that I like much better, so I used that instead. Had it not been for that song, this album would end in 2000.

Here are their Wikipedia pages: 

Billy Steinberg - Wikipedia

Tom Kelly (musician) - Wikipedia  

That album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 How Do I Make You (Linda Ronstadt)
02 Fire and Ice (Pat Benatar)
03 Like a Virgin (Madonna)
04 Sex as a Weapon (Pat Benatar)
05 True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
06 Eternal Flame (Bangles)
07 Alone (Heart)
08 In Your Room (Bangles)
09 I Touch Myself (Divinyls)
10 My Side of the Bed (Susanna Hoffs)
11 I Drove All Night (Roy Orbison)
12 Night in My Veins (Pretenders)
13 Lucky Love [Acoustic Version] (Ace of Base)
14 I'll Stand by You (Pretenders)
15 Falling into You (Celine Dion)
16 California (Belinda Carlisle)
17 One and One (Edyta Gorniak)
18 Everytime It Rains (Ace of Base)
19 The Consequences of Falling (k.d. lang)
20 So Emotional (Jon McLaughlin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/4xNLLW9p 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/uxa5jlpb5sQPr8t/file

I don't know the details of the cover photo. But that's Tom Kelly on the left and Billy Steinberg on the right. There are patches of white in Steinberg's hair, which went completely white in later photos of him. 

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 4: 2013-2023 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the fourth and last album in the Covered series celebrating the songs of Tom Waits by collecting cover versions.

Once again, I have to thank Fabio from Rio for being the prime mover behind putting these Waits albums together. He selected a large number of songs, and I narrowed it down to a reasonable amount. And one again, Fabio was nice enough to do the write up. So, take it away, Fabio:

--- 

Waits released his last studio record to date ("Bad as Me") in 2011. His later works revisit all earlier phases in fragmented, refined form. Waits alternates tender ballads with abrasive rhythm experiments, presenting a distilled, self-aware summary of his artistic language rather than a new stylistic break.

This last volume with performances from the 2010s and 2020s is mostly filled with female voices, hinting that, musically, Waits has become something of a ladies' man — at least for a younger generation of singers.

Here again we have a wild range of different styles, from forties-like doo-wop (Ice Cream Man) to eighties-drum-machine-electro-pop ("All Stripped Down"), from jazz and blues rock ("Fumblin' with the Blues", "Shore Leave") to americana and alt-country ("Walk Away", "Blue Skies").

We will also find adult contemporary ("In-Between Love"), dark cabaret ("Little Drop of Poison", "Starving in the Belly of a Whale"), R&B ("Such a Scream"), and confessional ballad ("Martha") in the mix.

Tom Jones makes "Bad as Me" his own. "Emotional Weather Report" is a deep cut taken from the little-known jazz and spoken-word Waits seventies album "Nighthawks on the Radio", which highlights Tom Waits' deadpan humor. 

Other standouts are Rosanne Cash's "Time" and Aimee Mann's version for "Hold On" - which kind of reminded me, in spirit if not in sound, of the acappella version sung by Emily Kinney as Beth Greene in "The Walking Dead" - one of the most poignant moments of the entire series(*). 

(*) You can check it out (along with Tom Waits' original version) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNeGLUAUbgQ&list=RDGNeGLUAUbgQ 

---

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Walk Away (Steel Wheels)
02 Bad as Me (Tom Jones)
03 Emotional Weather Report (Marissa Mulder)
04 All Stripped Down (Lisa Bassenge)
05 Ice Cream Man (Hazelnuts)
06 Blue Skies (Lisa Bassenge)
07 In Between Love (Jennifer Porter)
08 Such a Scream (Good Paper of Rev. Rob Mortimer)
09 Fumblin' with the Blues (Natascha & the Spy Boys)
10 Little Drop of Poison (Ellie Gunn and the Firethornes)
11 Hold On (Aimee Mann)
12 Time (Rosanne Cash)
13 Starving in the Belly of a Whale (Belladone)
14 Martha (Jackie Greene)
15 Shore Leave (Nickel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QwFCJsny 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/qn4qIm97mvtE5WO/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a video of an interview he did around 2020.

Covered: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Volume 3: 2012-2024

Here is the third and final Covered album celebrating the songwriting of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

I didn't get around to writing about the basics of Jobim's life with the first two volumes in this series, so let me do that now. Jobim was born in 1927 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the 1940s, he made a living playing piano in bars and nightclubs in Rio. His first song to be recorded by someone happened in 1953. But he didn't have significant success until 1958, when Joao Gilberto recorded what would become one of his most famous songs, "Desafinado (Out of Tune)." Then, in 1964, he really hit it big with "The Girl from Ipanema." A version of that song by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto reached the Top Five in the U.S. singles chart. But its success went way beyond that. In fact, it has become the second most recorded song of all time, behind only "Yesterday" by the Beatles.

This song led many people to discover not only other songs written by Jobim, but songs from Brazil in general, especially bossa nova music. For a couple of years, there was a sort of bossa nova craze in Western countries, especially in the jazz world. Jazz musicians in particular fell in love with Jobim's songs, because they were both musically complicated and interesting while being tuneful and catchy. Many of his songs became standards. Looking at the website secondhandsongs.com in 2025, which tallies cover versions, I count 34 songs written or co-written by Jobim that have been covered over 100 times. It may not sound like a lot, but that's a crazy amount. By comparison, only 18 songs by Bob Dylan have been covered over 100 times. Or consider Carole King, one of the most successful songwriters of all time. Only eight of her songs have been covered over 100 times.

Jobim released several dozen albums, with about half of them being collaborations with other famous musicians. He often collaborated with singers, since he wasn't much of a singer himself. His own albums didn't sell that well, but his collaboration albums often did. Overall, he had much more success with other musicians covering his songs. 

Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Antônio Carlos Jobim - Wikipedia 

He died in 1994 at the age of 67. As a result, all of the songs here are from well after his death. Most of them were written in the 1950s to 1970s, and it just so happens these are the versions that Fabio from Rio and I liked the best (since all three of these albums were put together by Fabio and myself). As with the two previous volumes in the series, the focus was on songs sung in English, when in fact there are even more covers of his songs in other languages, especially Portuguese, which is spoken in his home country of Brazil.

Thanks again to Fabio of Rio for his helping putting this Jobim albums together. I already had plans to make Covered albums from Jobim on my own. But they wouldn't have been nearly as good without Fabio's input, since he's much more familiar with this type of music than I am. 

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 I Love You [Eu Te Amo] (Alessandra Maestrini)
02 Somewhere in the Hills [O Morro Nao Tem Vez] (Lisa Sanchez & Jon Eriksen Quartet)
03 Forever Green [Sempre Verde] (Trudy Kerr)
04 Photograph [Fotografia] (Stephanie Patton)
05 Little Bird [Passarim] (Daniel Vincke)
06 Once I Loved [O Amor em Paz] (Baila Nova)
07 This Happy Madness [Estrada Branca] (Delicatessen)
08 Useless Landscape [Inutil Paisagem] (Emma Pask)
09 Meditation [Meditacao] (Nicole Magolie)
10 One Note Samba [Samba de Uma Nota So] (Arpi Alto)
11 Wave (Natalie Jacob, Tamir Hendelman, Anthony Wilson & Kevin Winard)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uUAZTVi5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/kSoOFxh4c0rb9Nm/file

The cover photo is cropped from a photo of Jobim with Sting. I don't know when it was taken, but I'd guess it's from the 1990s, because the two of them collaborated on a song around then which was released in 1996. The original version was black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Dolly Parton, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-8-2019

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. This one honors Dolly Parton.

I'm running out of MusiCares concerts to post. (I only have one more after this.) The problem is, these annual concerts have small audiences who have to pay big donations to get in, plus there are metal detectors. So audience bootlegs are almost unheard of. The reason we have a worthy recording of this one is that it was broadcast as a one-hour special on Netflix. I streamed the audio from that, and cut it into mp3s. Let's hope this isn't a one-off and other MusiCares will come out in similar ways.

This concert followed the usual format: guest stars singing covers of songs by the person being honored, then that person giving an acceptance speech, then that person playing a couple of songs. In this case though, it seems Parton only sang one song at the end.

Unfortunately, this album is quite short for such concerts at less than an hour. That's because some songs were not included in the Netflix special, and I couldn't find them elsewhere. I know at least Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood sang a duet version of  "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You." I'm not sure if there are others. (As usual, if anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know so I can include them.)

I also found it a bit surprising that Emmylou Harris didn't sing a song, since she was there. She and Linda Ronstadt gave a short introduction speech for Parton. Perhaps she did sing, and that's another missing song. Or it could be she didn't sing out of respect for Linda Ronstadt, who gave the introduction speech with her, but can no longer sing due to troubles with her vocal chords. Since Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt recorded two "Trio" albums together, it might have been rough on Ronstadt seeing the other two sing but not her. I don't know, that's just a guess. 

At least what we have here has excellent sound quality.

UPDATE: On February 19, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. When I first posted this, it was missing "Jolene," performed by Pink. In my original notes, I commented that this was a shame, because that's one of Parton's signature songs, along with "I Will Always Love You." But a kind person sent me this missing song. Unfortunately, the sound quality is rougher than the rest. Also, it got cut off at the end. The person who sent me the song said it was taped off the TV, and that's when the broadcast ended, so maybe that's all that's available. As a result, I put it at the end. I did my best to improve the sound quality. I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the rest and then I ran the vocal through a Reverb Removal filter. That helped a lot, but still, there was only so much I could do.  

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Islands in the Stream (Miley Cyrus & Shawn Mendes)
03 talk (Little Big Town)
04 Everything's Beautiful in Its Own Way (Brandi Carlile & Willie Nelson)
05 Here You Come Again (Katy Perry & Kacey Musgraves)
06 The Grass Is Blue (Norah Jones with Puss n Boots)
07 talk (Little Big Town)
08 9 to 5 (Chris Stapleton)
09 Not Enough (Mavis Staples & Leon Bridges)
10 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (Cam, Jennifer Nettles & Margo Price)
11 The Seeker (Lauren Daigle)
12 talk (emcee)
13 I Will Always Love You (Yolanda Adams)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris)
16 talk (emcee)
17 talk (Dolly Parton)
18 talk (Miley Cyrus)
19 talk (Dolly Parton)
20 Coat of Many Colors (Dolly Parton with Linda Perry)
21 Jolene [Edit] (Pink)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SnahZw7a

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Fty1I7Lp5donyob/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton. 

Ron Sexsmith - Reasons to Believe, Volume 8: 2016-2023

Back in early 2024, I started posting this series of non-album tracks by Ron Sexsmith. This was the idea of a musical associate, Pete the Greek, and I wouldn't have done it without his instigation and continual help. Finally, after a year and a half, the series comes to an end with this eighth volume. (Or at least it's ending until Sexsmith puts out another albums' worth of stray tracks, but that could take years.)

This album is a fairly even split between released and unreleased songs. The released ones are tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10 and 11. One of those, "Flowers All Along the Pathway," is a bonus track from the Sexsmith album "The Vivian Line." Most of the rest are appearances on albums by other musical acts, or on various artists compilations.

That leaves the unreleased songs, which are the remaining six. These are all from concerts, home concerts, or radio shows. For the ones that had audience applause, I got rid of that using the MVSEP program to help them fit in with the other songs without applause. 

Thanks again to Pete the Greek for all his help with this series, and sorry it took so long to post it all.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

Here's a list of the original artists for each song: 

01 Twilight of the Season - Hidden Cameras with Ron Sexsmith
02 Don't Make Promises - Tim Hardin
03 Stay Loose - Gordon Lightfoot
04 Sorrow Town - Jamie Lawson & Ron Sexsmith
05 Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
06 Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea
07 How're You Holding Up - Humanist with Ron Sexsmith
08 If Not for You - Bob Dylan
09 The Faith - Leonard Cohen
10 Flowers All Along the Pathway - Ron Sexsmith
11 Granddad's Song - SunYears
12 I'll Never Fall in Love Again - Dionne Warwick
13 Dirty Life and Times - Warren Zevon
14 You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon

Here's the usual song list: 

01 Twilight of the Season (Hidden Cameras with Ron Sexsmith)
02 Don't Make Promises (Hidden Cameras with Ron Sexsmith)
03 Stay Loose (Ron Sexsmith)
04 Sorrow Town (Jamie Lawson & Ron Sexsmith)
05 Suzanne (Ron Sexsmith)
06 Driving Home for Christmas (Ron Sexsmith)
07 How're You Holding Up (Humanist with Ron Sexsmith)
08 If Not for You (Ron Sexsmith)
09 The Faith (Ron Sexsmith)
10 Flowers All Along the Pathway (Ron Sexsmith)
11 Granddad's Song (SunYears with Ron Sexsmith)
12 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Ron Sexsmith)
13 Dirty Life and Times (Ron Sexsmith)
14 You Can Call Me Al (Ballroom Thieves & Ron Sexsmith)  

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KVari7Y6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bwFSMMo5FWin5lc/file

The cover photo is from 2017. That's all I know about it.

John Fogerty - Weeping in the Promised Land - Non-Album Tracks (2013-2022)

I recently got a request from a commenter to post more of my non-album track albums by John Fogerty. I only have one more by him before we get to the present day, more or less. So here it is. (And by the way, I still have lots of these stray track albums to post by various musical acts, but they've been on the backburner compared to BBC albums and other things recently.)

In 2013, the year of the first song in this album, Fogerty was 68 years old. In 2022, the year of the last song in this album, he was 77 years old. As I write this in 2025, he still has a strong voice and plays lead guitar very well, but it's obvious his songwriting creativity has slowed way down. He hasn't released an album of new original songs since 2007. So the songs here mostly consist of cover versions, plus acoustic versions of songs from earlier in his career, with only a couple new originals ("The Holy Grail" and "Weeping in the Promised Land").

The first song, "Sharp Dressed Man," is a ZZ Top song done with Billy Gibbons, the lead vocalist and lead guitarist in ZZ Top. Both Fogerty and Gibbons sang and played lead guitar on it. It's unreleased, from a bootleg. "New Orleans" is a cover of a 1960s hit performed in concert for a Dr. John tribute album. "Give Peace a Chance" and "In My Life" are John Lennon songs done for a Lennon tribute concert in 2015. They come from an official album of highlights of that concert. Tracks 5, 6, 11, and 12 are unreleased acoustic versions of hits Fogerty had earlier in his career, mostly from when he a member of Creedence Clearwater Revival. They're from radio or Internet shows. "Long as I Can See the Light" is particularly interesting since it was played on piano instead of guitar as usual. 

"Love and War" is a song performed with country star Brad Paisley from his 2017 album, also called "Love and War." "I Won't Back Down" is a cover of the classic Tom Petty song. This is from an concert bootleg, and the sound quality is a little poorer than the other songs. "The Holy Grail" is a single from 2018, and "Weeping in the Promised Land" is a single from 2021. 

"With a Little Help from My Friends" is a cover of the Beatles song from the 2019 official live album "50 Year Trip: Live at Red Rocks." However, it is done in the same style as Joe Cocker's famous hit cover version. "Walk, Don't Run," is a cover on the famous instrumental hit by the Ventures. Fogerty only performed it once in concert, on January 22, 2022, because it was done in honor of the lead guitarist for the Ventures, Don Wilson, who died earlier in the day. Finally, "The City of New Orleans" is yet another cover song of a classic, done from a various artists collection of train songs in 2022.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Sharp Dressed Man (John Fogerty & Billy Gibbons)
02 New Orleans (John Fogerty)
03 Give Peace a Chance (John Fogerty)
04 In My Life (John Fogerty)
05 Have You Ever Seen the Rain [Acoustic Version] (John Fogerty)
06 Centerfield [Acoustic Version] (John Fogerty)
07 Love and War (Brad Paisley & John Fogerty)
08 I Won't Back Down (John Fogerty)
09 The Holy Grail (John Fogerty with Billy Gibbons)
10 With a Little Help from My Friends (John Fogerty)
11 Bad Moon Rising [Acoustic Version] (John Fogerty)
12 Long as I Can See the Light [Piano Version] (John Fogerty)
13 Weeping in the Promised Land (John Fogerty)
14 Walk, Don't Run [Instrumental] (John Fogerty)
15 The City of New Orleans (John Fogerty)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QmbAsD2Q

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/F6uTZi3doqx4Kvi/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 8, 2013.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 18: 2018-2024

Here's another album of Paul Weller performing for the BBC. This is a collection of BBC studio sessions, from 2018 to 2024.

I'm finally getting close to the end of the BBC albums from him that I want to post. I'm caught up to the present day with studio sessions (since I'm writing this in early 2025). However, I still have two more BBC concerts to post. And I assume he'll keep performing for the BBC in the future, since he's been doing so ever since he first started getting widespread attention back in 1977.

Everything here is officially unreleased, from lots of different sessions. The first four songs are from 2018. The next one is from 2019. Tracks six and seven are from 2020. Track eight is from 2021. The remainder are from 2024. A couple of the songs had some audience applause. But I used the MVSEP audio program to get rid of all of the applause, so everything sounds like a studio recording.

For the most part, the songs are originals from Weller's then-current albums, or occasionally from earlier in his music career. However, he included some covers he didn't put on albums. For instance, "Days" is the Kinks classic. "Nobody's Fool" is an obscure track also by the Kinks, only later released as a bonus track. This version was performed with Suggs, who is the lead singer of the band Madness. "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" is a classic 1970s soul song first done by Jr. Walker and the All-Stars. "Say You Don't Mind" was a minor hit in 1967 by Denny Laine, who was the first lead singer for the Moody Blues back in the 1960s.

This album is an hour and one minute long.

UPDATE: On August 11, 2025, I added two songs I'd previously missed, "Flying Fish" and "I Woke Up." 

01 Days (Paul Weller)
02 What Would He Say (Paul Weller)
03 Movin On (Paul Weller)
04 Gravity (Paul Weller)
05 Nobody's Fool (Suggs & Paul Weller)
06 More (Paul Weller)
07 Village (Paul Weller)
08 What Does It Take [To Win Your Love] (Paul Weller)
09 Jumble Queen (Paul Weller)
10 Soul Wandering (Paul Weller)
11 Flying Fish (Paul Weller)
12 I Woke Up (Paul Weller)
13 What Was I Made For (Paul Weller)
14 Have You Ever Had It Blue (Paul Weller)
15 Rise Up Singing (Paul Weller)
16 Say You Don't Mind (Paul Weller)
17 Burn Out (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QoZeVZPE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/N1iS0XVnSZ0LEIz/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Later... with Jools Holland" TV show in 2024.

Electric Light Orchestra - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Radio 2 in Concert, BBC Radio Theatre, London, Britain, 11-7-2019

Here's the fifth, and possibly last, album of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) performing for the BBC.

By this point, ELO was basically Jeff Lynne plus backing musicians. He formed the band in 2014 (again) and started regularly going on tour. There are a couple more BBC shows ELO did in the late 2010s, but I don't think I'll bother with them because they're all pretty similar to each other and to the original records.

However, I think this one is more interesting, because it's the only concert of a tour that never happened. Note the timing: this show took place in November 2019. It was the warm up show for a tour that was supposed to start in early 2020 - but that's when the Covid 19 pandemic hit, so the tour was cancelled. The tour was meant to promote the 2019 ELO album "From Out of Nowhere." Three songs from that album were performed in this concert: "From Out of Nowhere," "All My Love," and "Time of My Life." Due to the canceled tour, I believe this concert was the only time ELO performed them in concert.

Otherwise, it's a rather short concert, with the usual ELO hits.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Evil Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 All Over the World (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 Handle with Care (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 From Out of Nowhere (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 All My Love (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 Eldorado Overture - Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 Time of Our Life (Electric Light Orchestra)
16 Rockaria (Electric Light Orchestra)
17 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
18 Turn to Stone (Electric Light Orchestra)
19 Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/d8a956Wc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DR0dgiidgBuAvx6/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Freedonia - The Secret Side Project of Christopher Cross, 2018-2021- Freedonia (2018-2021) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

With my big VH-1 Storytellers project done, this is a good time for another Mike Solof guest post. He actually has a handful of albums that he's getting ready, but this is the first one to be finalized.

Do you remember singer-songwriter Christopher Cross? He had some big hits in the early 1980s, like "Sailing," "Ride like the Wind," and "Arthur's Theme (Best You Can Do)." His commercial sales declined quite a lot after that, but he kept putting out new music and touring. In 2018, he joined a local band in Austin, Texas, called Freedonia. This band put out a studio album in 2018, another one in 2019, and an EP in 2021 (though it was actually recorded back in 2018 and 2019). Mike has noted this has basically been a secret side project for Cross, because he hasn't put his name on the record covers (even though he does all the lead vocals and most of the songwriting), and the band apparently only performs concerts in the Austin area. It seems to be a labor of love.

Mike has put together a compilation of what he considers the best of Freedonia's music. So if you haven't heard of this band, and you probably haven't, this is a good way to check them out. It's a kind of jazz rock that sounds a lot like Steely Dan. As usual, Mike has included a PDF file that gives his thoughts plus some photos.

Oh, and there's an interesting bonus track. Most people don't know that Cross is actually a really talented lead guitarist too. His 1980 hit "Ride like the Wind" has a ripping guitar solo at the end of the song that was buried deep down in the mix. But with advances in audio software, that solo has been brought up in the mix. So that's the bonus track. (By the way, there's a whole YouTube video by Rick Beato taking about that very solo that you should check out.)

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Enjoy the Show (Freedonia)
02 Leaving It Up to the Moon (Freedonia)
03 Firefly (Freedonia)
04 Bring Back the Dinosaurs (Freedonia)
05 The Lost River [Instrumental] (Freedonia)
06 Gone So Long (Freedonia)
07 The World Is Broken (Freedonia)
08 Van the Bluesman (Freedonia)
09 Westeros [Instrumental] (Freedonia)
10 When All is Said and Done (Freedonia)
11 You'll Go It Alone (Freedonia)
12 Soweto (Freedonia)
13 FBI (Freedonia)
14 Ride like the Wind [Remix] (Christopher Cross)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17209091/CHRISTPHRCRSS2018-2021ScrtSdePrjctFredna_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gH1tkEuk

The cover photo was taken from a Christopher Cross website. It shows the Freedonia band playing in a small club. Cross is the one wearing the hat.

Sara Bareilles - What's Not Inside - Songs from the Musical Waitress (2015-2019) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's a special album posting, courtesy of guest poster Mike Solof. A few weeks ago, we posted an album of cover versions by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles. That was just a warm-up, to get newbies to appreciate the fact that she has a great singing voice. Here's the album that Mike was most interested in sharing.

Bareilles is best known for her hits "Love Song" and "Gravity" in 2007 and "Brave" in 2013. In 2015, she released an album of songs meant for a musical version of the 2007 Hollywood movie "Waitress." It was called "What's Inside: Songs from Waitress." This post does not include that album, but it includes all the important music related to her involvement in that musical. 

Probably the central focus here is a concert. She never toured in a way that matched the "Waitress" musical. But in 2015, she did exactly one concert like that. It was held at the New York City Center in New York City, on November 5, 2015. That concert is included here. This first song list is from that concert. It remains unreleased, but it was broadcast on the Internet at the time and bootlegged, so the sound quality is excellent.

But that's not all. Bareilles is very talkative, and there is a ton of between-song banter from that concert. So Mike made a "Music Only" version of the concert without any of the banter.

But wait, there's more. He also included an exact version of the concert, but as one huge mp3 for people who would prefer that. 

And there's still more. He included an .mp4 track of video footage of the entire concert. That's the first time this blog has included any video.

But wait, there's even more than that! In 2019, Bareilles released an album of songs related to the musical that didn't make the album, called "What's Not Inside - The Lost Songs from Waitress (Outtakes and Demos)." Since that's very obscure to find these days, Mike included that too.

On top of all that, Mike made a PDF file with lots more information and plenty of nice photos. So be sure to check that out.

Everything is included in one zip file. It's the largest file ever posted here, mostly due to the video of the concert. The total size is over 1 GB.

The full concert is an hour and 33 minutes long. The "music only" version of the concert is one hour long exactly. The 2019 EP is 22 minutes long.

Here's the track list to the full 2015 concert discussed above:

Songs from the Waitress Concert, New York City Center, New York City, 11-5-2015

01 What's Inside (Sara Bareilles)
02 Opening Up (Sara Bareilles)
03 talk (Sara Bareilles)
04 Door Number Three (Sara Bareilles)
05 talk (Sara Bareilles)
06 When He Sees Me [Dawn's Song] (Sara Bareilles)
07 talk (Sara Bareilles)
08 I Didn't Plan It [Becky's Song] (Sara Bareilles)
09 talk (Sara Bareilles)
10 Soft Place to Land (Sara Bareilles)
11 talk (Sara Bareilles)
12 Never Ever Getting Rid of Me (Sara Bareilles)
13 talk (Sara Bareilles)
14 Bad Idea (Sara Bareilles with Drew Gehling)
15 talk (Sara Bareilles)
16 You Matter to Me (Sara Bareilles with Drew Gehling)
17 talk (Sara Bareilles)
18 She Used to Be Mine (Sara Bareilles)
19 talk (Sara Bareilles)
20 Everything Changes (Sara Bareilles)
21 talk (Sara Bareilles)
22 King of Anything (Sara Bareilles)
23 Love Song (Sara Bareilles)
24 talk (Sara Bareilles)
25 Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay (Sara Bareilles)
26 talk (Sara Bareilles)
27 Brave (Sara Bareilles)
28 talk (Sara Bareilles)
29 Gravity [Acappella Version] (Sara Bareilles)
30 talk (Sara Bareilles)

Here's the track list from the "music only" version of that same concert:

01 What's Inside (Sara Bareilles)
02 Opening Up (Sara Bareilles)
03 Door Number Three (Sara Bareilles)
04 When He Sees Me [Dawn's Song] (Sara Bareilles)
05 I Didn't Plan It [Becky's Song] (Sara Bareilles)
06 Soft Place to Land (Sara Bareilles)
07 Never Ever Getting Rid of Me (Sara Bareilles)
08 Bad Idea (Sara Bareilles with Drew Gehling)
09 You Matter to Me (Sara Bareilles with Drew Gehling)
10 She Used to Be Mine (Sara Bareilles)
11 Everything Changes (Sara Bareilles)
12 King of Anything (Sara Bareilles)
13 Love Song (Sara Bareilles)
14 Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay (Sara Bareilles)
15 Brave (Sara Bareilles)
16 Gravity [Acappella Version] (Sara Bareilles)
17 talk (Sara Bareilles)

Finally, here's the song list from the EP "What's Not Inside - The Lost Songs from Waitress (Outtakes and Demos)," released in 2019.

01 Happy Enough (Sara Bareilles)
02 Door Number Three (Sara Bareilles)
03 Knocked Up You (Sara Bareilles)
04 Without a Believer (Sara Bareilles)
05 I Can't Wait (Sara Bareilles)
06 Falling in Love Pie (Sara Bareilles)
07 She Used to Be Mine (Sara Bareilles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8MGBHV5B

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/TBdPA3Cy1Erfe0i/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/kZwNW

The cover art is taken from promotional material related to the 2015 "Waitress" musical. That's Bareilles holding the pie. The text and artwork at the top and bottom of the image is mostly based on a playbill for that musical. 

Sara Bareilles - Non Sequiturs, Volume 1 (2007-2023) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Have you heard of Sara Bareilles? Up until recently, I had not. But frequent guest poster Mike Solof came to me recently with a proposal to post an album of original, unreleased songs by her. I listened to it and thought it was good, so I approved posting it. But I also wondered how many people will download it if they hadn't heard of it before, like me. So I suggested to Mike that he make an album of cover songs she's done, all from stray tracks, so people who just love good music can listen to her and discover she has a great voice. So that's what this is.

As usual with Mike's post, you can find a lot more information in his PDFs he writes and includes in the downloads. So check that out. And the other Sara Bareilles album I mentioned is in the works and should be posted here too.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

01 I Want You Back (Straight No Chaser & Sara Bareilles)
02 Single Ladies [Put a Ring on It] (Sara Bareilles)
03 Oh Darling (Sara Bareilles)
04 I Can Let Go Now (Sara Bareilles)
05 In Your Eyes (Sara Bareilles)
06 I've Had the Time of My Life (Sara Bareilles)
07 Fuck You (Sara Bareilles)
08 Truly Brave [Mash-Up of Brave and True Colors]] (Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper & Hoda Kotb)
09 I Don't Know How to Love Him (Sara Bareilles)
10 River (Sara Bareilles)
11 What's Going On (Sara Bareilles, Clarence Bekker & Titi Tsira)
12 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Sara Bareilles)
13 When You Wish upon a Star (Sara Bareilles)
14 Chandelier (Sara Bareilles)
15 Stoney End (Sara Bareilles)
16 You've Got a Friend (Sara Bareilles)
17 California (Sara Bareilles, Brandi Carlile & Lucius)
18 Come On Eileen (Sugarland & Sara Bareilles)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16631634/SARBARLLES2007-2023NnSqitrsVlum1_atse.zip.html

I have no idea when or where the cover photo is from, and I doubt Mike does either. But he presented a bunch of options to me for the cover photo, and I liked this one the best, so here we are. I'm guessing there are different colors on her because she was sitting near a stained glass window, which I think is a cool effect.

Natalie Merchant - Cover Songs, Volume 3: 2007-2019

This is the third and last album of cover versions by Natalie Merchant, former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs. I really enjoyed the music here, she has a very interesting and enjoying voice.

This album takes us as close to the current day as I could get. Although it ends in 2019, I didn't find any worthy covers from the next few years. (She has done some in her latest concert tour, but sound quality is an issue.) 

As Merchant's solo career went on, she got increasingly interested in older, more traditional music forms. For instance, in 2003, she released the album "The House Carpenter's Daughter," with entirely consisted of cover songs, the vast majority of them traditional, with the composer or composers unknown. Her next album, "Leave Your Sleep" in 2010, consisted entirely of poetry from the 19th and 20th centuries put to music. I should mention I haven't included any cover songs from albums such as these, just her non-album stuff.

Given all that, it's not surprising that some of her non-album covers are traditional too. Indeed, that's the case with five of the songs here. But she mixes that with a good number of better known songs from the 1960s to more current times.

Only two of the songs here are unreleased. There would have been more, but again I wanted to keep the sound quality standard high. The two happen to both be Beatles covers: "Let It Be" and "I'm Only Sleeping." They're both from concert bootlegs.

As for the rest, most are from a mix of appearances on other artists' albums, various artists compilations, and two songs from an E.P. Additionally, four of the songs (tracks 11 to 14) are from her 2017 album "Rarities (1998-2017)." They were probably recorded at unknown earlier years, but that's when they were released. I've included them because this album is generally only available as part of a ten album box set called "The Natalie Merchant Collection."

This album is 53 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 To Love Is to Bury - Cowboy Junkies
02 If I Only Had a Brain - Judy Garland & Ray Bolger (from "The Wizard of Oz")
03 Political Science - Randy Newman
04 Order 1081 - David Byrne
05 Learning the Game - Buddy Holly
06 Child of a Blind Man - Hazmat Modine
07 Joseph and Mary [The Cherry Tree Carol] - traditional
08 Let It Be - Beatles
09 The Butcher's Boy - traditional
10 Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier - traditional
11 The Village Green Preservation Society - Kinks
12 My Little Sweet Baby - traditional
13 Too Long at the Fair - Joel Zoss / Bonnie Raitt
14 Sit Down, Sister - traditional
15 I'm Only Sleeping - Beatles

Here's the usual song list:

01 To Love Is to Bury (Cowboy Junkies with Natalie Merchant)
02 If I Only Had a Brain (Natalie Merchant)
03 Political Science (Natalie Merchant)
04 Order 1081 (David Byrne & Fatboy Slim with Natalie Merchant)
05 Learning the Game (Natalie Merchant)
06 Child of a Blind Man (Hazmat Modinet with Natalie Merchant)
07 Joseph and Mary [The Cherry Tree Carol] (Natalie Merchant)
08 Let It Be (Natalie Merchant)
09 The Butcher's Boy (Kronos Quartet with Natalie Merchant)
10 Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier (Kronos Quartet with Natalie Merchant)
11 The Village Green Preservation Society (Natalie Merchant)
12 My Little Sweet Baby (Natalie Merchant)
13 Too Long at the Fair (Natalie Merchant)
14 Sit Down, Sister (Natalie Merchant)
15 I'm Only Sleeping (Natalie Merchant)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16391905/NATLIMERCHNT2007-2019CvrSngsVlum3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2015.

Fiona Apple - Cover Songs, Volume 4: 2016-2022

Here's the last of four volumes of Fiona Apple performing cover versions. I particularly enjoyed this series, and I wish it could keep going, but this is all I could find with worthy sound quality. This last volume gets us caught up to the present day, more or less (as I write this in early 2024).

All but four of the songs here have been officially released. They're from the usual mix of movie soundtracks, appearances on other artist's albums, and various artists compilations. 

As for the unreleased ones, those are tracks 1, 2, 3, and 9. The first one, "Ain't That a Shame," was done for an Internet show. The next two are from another Internet show, this one hosted by musician Andrew Bird (and they're duets with Bird). I included three other songs from that same show on the previous album in this series. Finally, the ninth song, "The Whole of the Moon," was done for the TV show "The Affair," but it only appeared in the show, not on a soundtrack for it or anything like that.

There are two bonus tracks, "All Night Thing" and "You Don't Own Me." They're both from audience concert bootlegs. Their quality was good enough for bonus tracks (some others didn't even make that cut), but not good enough for the album proper.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 Ain't That a Shame - Fats Domino
02 Why - Andrew Bird
03 Oh, Sister - Bob Dylan
04 I Can't Wait to Meet You - Solangie Jimenez & Thomas Cabaniss
05 Your Molecular Structure - Mose Allison
06 It Won't Be Wrong - Byrds
07 In My Room - Beach Bosy
08 Don't Worry 'Bout Me - Katherine Perry
09 The Whole of the Moon - Waterboys
10 7 O'Clock News - Silent Night - Simon & Garfunkel medley, including "Silent Night" by Franz Xaver Gruber & Joseph Mohr
11 Love More - Sharon Van Etten
12 [Remember Me] I'm the One Who Loves You - Stuart Hamblen
13 Where the Shadows Lie - Bear McCreary

All Night Thing - Temple of the Dog
You Don't Own Me - Leslie Gore

And here's the usual song list:

01 Ain't That a Shame (Fiona Apple)
02 Why (Fiona Apple & Andrew Bird)
03 Oh, Sister (Fiona Apple & Andrew Bird)
04 I Can't Wait to Meet You (Fiona Apple)
05 Your Molecular Structure (Tippo All Stars & Fiona Apple)
06 It Won't Be Wrong (Fiona Apple & Jakob Dylan)
07 In My Room (Fiona Apple & Jakob Dylan)
08 Don't Worry 'Bout Me (Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra with Fiona Apple)
09 The Whole of the Moon (Fiona Apple)
10 7 O'Clock News - Silent Night (Phoebe Bridgers, Fiona Apple & Matt Berninger)
11 Love More (Fiona Apple)
12 [Remember Me] I'm the One Who Loves You (Watkins Family Hour with Fiona Apple)
13 Where the Shadows Lie (Fiona Apple & Bear McCreary)

All Night Thing (Fiona Apple)
You Don't Own Me (Shirley Manson & Fiona Apple)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16345640/FONAAPPL2016-2022CvrSngsVlum4_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the Ohana Fest in Dana Point, California, on September 9, 2017.

Marshall Crenshaw - The Human Jukebox, Volume 9: 2019-2023

We come to the end of my long series of Marshall Crenshaw cover songs albums. This is the ninth and last. 

Sadly, you should know this series ends with a bit of a disappointment, because the sound quality isn't up to my usual standards for many of these songs. The problem is, nearly all these songs come from concert bootlegs, and in Crenshaw's later years he's been playing fewer concerts and his popularity has declined some. As a result, there aren't a bunch of soundboard and/or radio broadcast concerts like there were in earlier years, so these generally come from audience boots. Thus, I've had to lower my standards some. I still do have standards, mind you. I rejected a bunch of songs for this. But I also included some that probably would have been demoted to bonus tracks on some earlier volumes.

Only the first song is officially released. It comes from a various artists compilation. As I mentioned above, most, or maybe all, of the rest are from audience bootlegs. 

Crenshaw's song selections are less obscure for this time around. I know most of the songs already, and I'd guess you know most of them too. But he still had a couple of obscurities. For instance, "Lindbergh" is a Woody Guthrie song about Charles Lindbergh and other pro-fascists in the U.S. in the 1930s and 40s. As Crenshaw commented before the song, it's message is a timely one with fascist sentiments on the rise again.

This album is 47 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 What the Hell I Got - Michel Pagliaro
02 Beware of Darkness - George Harrison
03 Tight Rope - Leon Russell
04 No Matter What - Badfinger
05 Rock and Roll - Velvet Underground
06 Kicks - Paul Revere & the Raiders
07 Something - Beatles
08 Rain on the Roof - Lovin' Spoonful
09 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream - Bob Dylan
10 What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
11 I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time - Third Bardo
12 Lindbergh -Woody Guthrie

Here's the usual song list:

01 What the Hell I Got (Marshall Crenshaw)
02 Beware of Darkness (Rich Pagano & Friends with Marshall Crenshaw & Brian Mitchell)
03 Tight Rope (Rich Pagano & Friends with Marshall Crenshaw)
04 No Matter What (Marshall Crenshaw & the Smithereens)
05 Rock and Roll (Marshall Crenshaw & the Smithereens)
06 Kicks (Marshall Crenshaw & the Smithereens)
07 Something (Marshall Crenshaw & the Smithereens)
08 Rain on the Roof (Marshall Crenshaw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream (Marshall Crenshaw)
10 What a Wonderful World (Marshall Crenshaw)
11 I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time (Golden Jubilee Band with Marshall Crenshaw)
12 Lindbergh (Marshall Crenshaw)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16303129/MARSHLLCRNSHW2019-2023ThHmnJkebxVlum9_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken in Maplewood, New Jersey, on April 12, 2019.

Andy Sturmer - Scooby Songs - Non-Album Tracks (1999-2023)

Here's a strange album, probably one of the strangest I've ever posted on this blog. It mostly consists of songs about the Scooby Doo TV show and movies!

The only reason I care about such songs is due to the person who wrote and sang them: Andy Sturmer. If you're not familiar with his name, he was one of two main co-writers for the power pop group Jellyfish, and he sang most of their songs. In my opinion, he is a pop songwriting genius, and has a great voice. But after Jellyfish broke up in the early 1990s, he decided he didn't want to be in a band and live the rock and roll lifestyle. In all the years since then, he's kept a very, very low profile.

But that's not to say he hasn't still done music. He recorded an album's worth of demos around 1999, but never released him. Luckily, they were leaked to the public and you can find them here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/11/andy-sturmer-holding-out-for-something.html

He also got deeply involved with Japanese pop music. He's had a long association with the Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi, writing many hit songs for them and producing even more. I like a lot of their music, despite the fact that the vast majority of their songs are sung in Japanese, even most of the ones written by Sturmer. (I have to assume he learned to speak Japanese since he has such a deep connection the Japanese music. He even sang a song in Japanese back when he was in Jellyfish.) I may post a Puffy AmiYumi compilation, if there's enough interest and if I get around to it.

Sturmer's relationship with AmiYumi blossomed in the late 1990s and continued into the 2000s. But increasingly after 2000, he found more work applying his ability to write catchy pop songs for commercials, TV shows, and the like. The vast majority of these had him write the songs but other people would sing them. However, by and by, he developed a deeper relationship with the people making new Scooby Doo TV shows and TV movies, especially TV movies. 

Frankly, these sound pretty bad, with titles like "LEGO Scooby Doo! Haunted Hollywood" and "Scooby Doo and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon." (Keep in mind WWE is the name of a professional wrestler association.) Even so, songs were needed, and Sturmer has such a magic touch that even songs about the Scooby Doo gang sound pretty good to me.

The vast majority of the songs here are from various Scooby Doo related projects. However, the first three songs are from different projects, including a song for a Winnie the Pooh project and one for a Batman one. Also, the fifth song, "Himawari," sounds very different from all the rest. It's sung entirely in Japanese. It comes from a 2007 tribute album to the Japanese band Unicorn, another band that he has connections to, including production work.

On the downside, these songs are often short, and about Scooby Doo related themes. They also sometimes have weird noises over them, because none of these have been officially released on record as far as I know (other than "Himawari"), so sounds from the TV show or movie often overlapped with the music. I tried to clean that up as best I could (that's why four of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles, because those had more editing done than the others), but I couldn't clean everything.

On the upside, if you like the power pop hooks of Jellyfish, you should like this. It's somewhat different, more commercial and less rocking, for instance. But the songs are nothing if not catchy. Plus, I only selected the ones actually sung (or co-sung) by Sturmer, and he has a great voice. Furthermore, I don't think anyone has ever put together a collection of these songs before, so this should be new to just about everyone.

This album is pretty short, at only 31 minutes. However, Sturmer is still at it. The last two songs are from 2023. So I hope more songs will emerge and I'll be able to add to this album. Better yet, I hope he puts out some original music that doesn't consist of Scooby Doo songs!

01 Fourth of July Parade (Andy Sturmer)
02 The Little Things You Do (Andy Sturmer)
03 Batman, the Brave and the Bold [Instrumental] (Andy Sturmer)
04 When the Circus Comes to Town (Andy Sturmer)
05 Himawari (Andy Sturmer)
06 On the Case (Andy Sturmer)
07 I Don't Know about You (Andy Sturmer)
08 Appetite (Andy Sturmer)
09 Wake Me Up to Say Goodnight [Edit] (Andy Sturmer)
10 Brand New World [Edit] (Andy Sturmer)
11 Hollywood (Andy Sturmer)
12 No Pain, No Gain (Andy Sturmer)
13 Scooby-Doo, Scooby Don't [Edit] (Andy Sturmer)
14 Scoobystition [Edit] (Andy Sturmer)
15 Go Big (Andy Sturmer)
16 Where Only Heroes Go (Andy Sturmer)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16227824/ANDYSTRMR2003-2023_ScobySngs_atse.zip.html

I put the album cover together. I found a photo of Sturmer, but I have no idea where or when it's from. It's probably from his Jellyfish days, because he hasn't been photographed much (or at all) since then. I scattered some Scooby Doo characters around him, in keeping with the music content.

Rosanne Cash - Crawl into the Promised Land - Non-Album Tracks (2019-2024)

I've posted a lot of Rosanne Cash stray tracks albums in recent years. I believe I've posted nine before this one. Finally, I get caught up to the present day.

All but three of the songs here have been officially released in one way or another. Three songs, "We’re All in This Together Now," "Crawl into the Promised Land," and "The Killing Fields," were A-sides of singles not connected to any Rosanne Cash albums. "Time" is from a Tom Waits tribute album. "I've Got a Crush on You" is from a George Gershwin album. "I Am a Pilgrim" is from a Doc Watson tribute album. "Loving Her Was Easier" is from a Willie Nelson live album.

Cash has been married to John Leventhal since 1995. Leventhal is mostly a producer and back-up musician, but in early 2024, he released a rare solo album. The final two songs here are from that.

That just leaves the three unreleased songs: "Tryin' to Get Home," "Farewell Angelina," and "Crescent City." They're all from concert bootlegs. But the sound is generally close to the studio stuff.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Time (Rosanne Cash)
02 We’re All in This Together Now (John Paul White & Rosanne Cash)
03 Tryin' to Get Home (Rosanne Cash)
04 Farewell Angelina (Rosanne Cash)
05 Crawl into the Promised Land (Rosanne Cash)
06 The Killing Fields (Rosanne Cash)
07 Crescent City (Rosanne Cash & Lucinda Williams)
08 I've Got a Crush on You (Michael Feinstein & Rosanne Cash)
09 Loving Her Was Easier [Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again] (Rosanne Cash with Kris Kristofferson)
10 I Am a Pilgrim (Rosanne Cash)
11 If You Only Knew (John Leventhal & Rosanne Cash)
12 That's All I Know about Arkansas (John Leventhal & Rosanne Cash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16224168/ROSNNECSH2019-2024_CrwlntothPrmsedLnd_atse.zip.html

 The cover is almost identical to the cover for Cash's "Crawl into the Promised Land." All I did was remove John Leventhal's name, which had been under Cash's, and cropped it a little.

Sheryl Crow - The Good Fight - Non-Album Tracks (2018-2020)

Phew. Sheryl Crow has sooo many stray tracks. This is the nineteenth album of non-album tracks I've posted so far, and I still have two more to go to get caught up to the present day.

By now, you probably know the drill. This is the usual mix of released and unreleased tracks. There are six released tracks this time, and in four cases they're from Crow appearing on albums by other artists. The two others are A-sides ("Woman in the White House" and "Lonely Town, Lonely Street").

As for the three unreleased tracks, those are "Tumbling Dice," "Walk Away," and "Redemption Day." "Tumbling Dice" sounds a bit rough, and just barely made the cut. Everything else on the album sounds very good though. As for the song "Redemption Day," Crow has done versions just by herself and also as a duet with Johnny Cash. This is another duet version, but with Bruce Springsteen singing Cash's part.

There are two bonus tracks, both from bootlegs. The sound quality wasn't good enough for those.

This album is 39 minutes long, not counting the bonus tracks.

01 My Sweet Love (Reef & Sheryl Crow)
02 The Good Fight (Timothy B. Schmit & Sheryl Crow)
03 Tumbling Dice (Sheryl Crow)
04 Turn Off the News [Build a Garden] (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real & Sheryl Crow)
05 Walk Away (Sheryl Crow & Joe Walsh)
06 Redemption Day (Sheryl Crow & Bruce Springsteen)
07 Everywhere You Go (Ziggy Marley & Sheryl Crow)
08 Woman in the White House [2020 Version] (Sheryl Crow)
09 Lonely Town, Lonely Street (Sheryl Crow with Citizen Cope)

Black Dog (Robert Plant & Sheryl Crow)
When Will I Be Loved (Sheryl Crow)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16054504/SherylC_2018-2020_ThGoodFght_atse.zip.html

This time, I used a concert poster for the album cover. I had to cut off a lot of the bottom part of the poster to get it to fit. I also write the album name over where the name of her back up band had been. (It used to say "and the Thieves.")

Robbie Robertson - The Right Mistake - Non-Album Tracks (2011-2019)

I just posted an album of stray tracks by Robbie Robertson, to mark his recent passing (as I write this in August 2023). I prepared two such albums at the same time to make sure their lengths were reasonable, so I might as well post the other one while I'm at it.

The first four songs are all bonus tracks from different versions of his 2001 studio album "How to Be Clairvoyant." "I Shall Be Released" was played with Eric Clapton at the 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival. The next song, "The Money Chant," is from "The Wolf of Wall Street" movie, but apparently it's never been officially released. "Hiawatha and the Peacemaker" comes from a record that was included with a book. "Happy Holidays" was only released on the Internet. The last song, "Theme from 'The Irishman,'" naturally comes from "The Irishman" movie soundtrack. It continues his long involvement with Martin Scorsese movie soundtracks.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 He Don't Live Here No More [Demo] (Robbie Robertson)
02 This Is Where I Get Off [Demo] (Robbie Robertson)
03 The Right Mistake [Demo] (Robbie Robertson)
04 In the War Zone (Robbie Robertson)
05 I Shall Be Released (Robbie Robertson with Eric Clapton)
06 The Money Chant (Robbie Robertson with Matthew McConaughey)
07 Hiawatha and the Peacemaker (Robbie Robertson)
08 Happy Holidays (Robbie Robertson)
09 Theme for 'The Irishman' [Instrumental] (Robbie Robertson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15577813/RobbieR_2011-2019_TheRghtMstake_atse.zip.html

The cover photo looks to me like it was taken in a church, but apparently it's from the Village Studios in Los Angeles, taken in 2011.