Tom Jones with Alison Krauss - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 2-12-2016

Here's another episode of the great "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one stars Tom Jones, with a guest appearance by Alison Krauss.

I have to admit, I kind of want to dislike Tom Jones, because he's practically the epitome of 1970s show biz cheesiness. But he keeps surprising me with good music. In particular, he had an unexpected late career renaissance. Instead of turning into strictly an oldies act, he went in new directions. You can definitely see that here, starting with a Leonard Cohen cover as the first song. 

At the time of this concert, he was promoting his 2015 album "Long Lost Suitcase." It continues his critically acclaimed renaissance, with more of an emphasis on roots music, like blues and folk. That said, he also played some of the oldies hits, like "Thunderball" and "It's Not Unusual."

One thing I really like about this show is how it's encouraged the main act to have a guest star appearance. That tradition continues here with Alison Krauss. However, unlike some other episodes, her role is relatively minor. Instead of having a few songs to herself, she sang two duets with Jones in the middle of the concert, and then came back for a third one later.

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

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long.

01 Tower of Song (Tom Jones)
02 talk (Tom Jones)
03 Run On (Tom Jones)
04 talk (Tom Jones)
05 Strange Things (Tom Jones)
06 talk (Tom Jones)
07 Delilah (Tom Jones)
08 Take My Love [I Want to Give It] (Tom Jones)
09 talk (Tom Jones)
10 Opportunity to Cry (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
11 Raise a Ruckus (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
12 talk (Tom Jones)
13 Elvis Presley Blues (Tom Jones)
14 talk (Tom Jones)
15 Soul of a Man (Tom Jones)
16 talk (Tom Jones)
17 If I Give My Soul (Tom Jones)
18 Burning Hell (Tom Jones)
19 Don't Knock (Tom Jones)
20 talk (Tom Jones)
21 Didn't It Rain (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
22 talk (Tom Jones)
23 Green Green Grass of Home (Tom Jones)
24 'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone (Tom Jones)
25 Kiss (Tom Jones)
26 talk (Tom Jones)
27 I Wish You Would (Tom Jones)
28 talk (Tom Jones)
29 Thunderball (Tom Jones)
30 talk (Tom Jones)
31 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
32 talk (Tom Jones)
33 What Good Am I (Tom Jones)
34 talk (Tom Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ppbZ6i58

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gRJiLFTTeo8PoKN/file

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

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2012

Here's another MusiCares tribute show. This one celebrates Paul McCartney's music career. It's a bit short as far as these types of concerts go, but what's here is very good.

The usual format for these kinds of tribute concerts is a series of stars sing covers by the performer being honored, then there's an acceptance speech, and then the performer plays a couple of songs at the end. That's how this one went as well, except Paul McCartney performed two songs at the beginning as well as three at the end.

Actually, he did one more: a cover of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" performed as a duet with Diana Krall. However, this is sourced from a DVD, and that wasn't included, so I don't have it here. Also, Katy Perry sang "Hey Jude," and the Foo Fighters sang "Jet," and those aren't here either, for the same reason. If anyone has those missing songs, please let me know and I'll be happy to add them in. 

Additionally, Cirque du Soleil started the concert with a medley of "Get Back," "Hello Goodbye," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." But I edited that out because it was a visual performance done to the record versions. 

What's here is pretty great though, which isn't shocking considering McCartney was one of the best and possibly the most commercially successful songwriters of all time. Particularly interesting is the finale, a version of the Beatles medley "Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End" with McCartney, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl dueling on guitars.

As mentioned above, this has been officially released on DVD. However, there have been no audio releases. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Magical Mystery Tour (Paul McCartney)
03 Junior's Farm (Paul McCartney)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Alicia Keys)
06 Blackbird (Alicia Keys)
07 talk (emcee)
08 No More Lonely Nights (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 talk (emcee)
10 And I Love Her (Duane Eddy)
11 talk (emcee)
12 Oh, Darling (Norah Jones)
13 talk (emcee)
14 I Saw Her Standing There (Neil Young)
15 talk (emcee)
16 The Fool on the Hill (Sergio Mendes)
17 We Can Work It Out (Coldplay)
18 Yesterday (James Taylor with Diana Krall)
19 talk (James Taylor)
20 For No One (Diana Krall with James Taylor)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Neil Portnow)
23 talk (Paul McCartney)
24 My Valentine (Paul McCartney, Diana Krall & Joe Walsh)
25 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (Paul McCartney)
26 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
27 talk (Paul McCartney) 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KaZyTRqs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MaVF1LXhP4bCOhQ/file

The cover photo is from the finale of this exact concert. From left to right on guitars: Joe Walsh, Paul McCartney, and Dave Grohl. 

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

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

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

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

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

MusiCares Honors Singer James Taylor - CBS News 

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

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

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/T6dgDM1s

alternate:

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

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

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Paul Simon, Warner Theatre, Washington, DC, 5-23-2007

Here's another "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" concert. This one honors Paul Simon.

This was the very first Gershwin Prize to be awarded. In 1998, some entertainment producers and promoters came up with the idea of having an award for comedians, which resulted in the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, connected to the Library of Congress and with an annual concert broadcast on PBS TV stations. That idea turned out to be a big success, so in 2003 the same group came up with the same idea, but for musicians. Then I guess it took a few more years before the first prize was awarded in 2007. You can read more about the prize and its history here:

Gershwin Prize - Wikipedia 

In this concert, there weren't that many guest stars performing Simon's songs. But that meant that most of the bigger names there (Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Marc Anthony, and Stevie Wonder) got to perform two songs instead of the usual one.

As is usually the case with such concerts, it ended with a short set by the honoree, Paul Simon. Given the huge role Art Garfunkel had in Simon's music career as part of Simon and Garfunkel, I feel he got kind of dissed here, being only involved in one song, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." But the two of them had a turbulent relationship for decades. Their last tour together would take place in 2009, and their last performance together in 2010. After that, they had a more severe and prolonged falling out, though I was glad to see it reported that by 2024 they had reconciled as friends again.

This albums in unreleased in audio format. However, a DVD of it has been released. Strangely, it seems to be the only Gershwin Prize concert released on DVD. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 36 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 talk (Bob Costas)
03 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Lyle Lovett)
04 The Boxer (Alison Krauss, Shawn Colvin & Jerry Douglas)
05 Mother and Child Reunion (Stephen Marley)
06 Homeless (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
07 Slip Slidin' Away (James Taylor & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
08 Sunday Morning with the Sensational Nightingales (Billy Collins & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
09 That Was Your Mother (Lyle Lovett with Buckwheat Zydeco)
10 Still Crazy After All These Years (James Taylor)
11 El Condor Pasa (Marc Anthony)
12 Late in the Evening (Marc Anthony)
13 Gone at Last (Yolanda Adams & Jessy Dixon)
14 Something So Right (Dianne Reeves)
15 The 59th Street Bridge Song [Feelin' Groovy] (Grover & Elmo of the Muppets)
16 Graceland (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
17 talk (emcee)
18 talk (James H. Billingston)
19 talk (Paul Simon)
20 Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
21 talk (Paul Simon)
22 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
23 talk (Paul Simon)
24 Father and Daughter (Paul Simon)
25 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon with Stevie Wonder)
26 talk (Paul Simon)
27 Loves Me like a Rock (Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
28 The Sound of Silence [Instrumental Version] (Philip Glass)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/C2ct9sek

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3k0vX3n5GD90SUE/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Simon with Stevie Wonder and some members of the Dixie Hummingbirds when they performed "Loves Me like a Rock" together.

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Willie Nelson, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, 11-18-2015

Back in 2023, I posted a Joni Mitchell tribute concert. You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/04/various-artists-joni-mitchell-gershwin.html

The reason I mention that off the bat is because it turns out that was a "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" tribute concert, and I've found a few more of them. Here's one from 2015, honoring Willie Nelson. (By the way, I just redid the cover art of the Joni Mitchell one, so all of the ones I post will have the same font and so forth.)

This award is actually bestowed by a branch of the U.S. government, the Library of Congress. It was first awarded in 2007. It's been an annual thing since then, although four years were skipped. (One skip was due to the Covid pandemic, in 2021. I don't know why there weren't awards ceremonies in 2007, 2012, and 2017.)

Here's the Wikipedia page about the prize:

Gershwin Prize - Wikipedia 

Just in the past few days, I've managed to find several more of these concerts, and I plan to post all of them here soon. 

These are the ones I've found so far:

2007 Paul Simon
2009 Stevie Wonder
2010 Paul McCartney
2012 Burt Bacharach & Hal David
2014 Billy Joel
2015 Willie Nelson (here)
2020 Garth Brooks
2022 Lionel Richie
2023 Joni Mitchell (posted already)
2024 Elton John & Bernie Taupin

Meanwhile, here are the ones I can't find:
2013 Carole King
2016 Smokey Robinson
2017 Tony Bennett
2019 Gloria & Emilio Estefan

I'm calling on one of you out there to please help me find the rest. It seems videos of these other ones are available, via the PBS website. For instance, here's the Lionel Richie one:

Gershwin Prize | Lionel Richie: Gershwin Prize | Season 2022 | Episode 1 | PBS

However, to be able to watch them, one needs to pay for the KPBS Passport. So if anyone has that, and can record the audio and/or video of it and share that with me, then I'll be able to post the other ones as well. It would be a share if those remain out of reach, especially the Carole King, and Smokey Robinson ones.

Speaking of remaining out of reach, this Willie Nelson was very hard to find. For instance, it's not on YouTube, and everything like this is on YouTube. But I was able to find a single mp3 file of the entire concert. Then I broke it up into mp3s for each song.

One interesting thing about this concert, compared to the other Gershwin Prize concerts I've found so far, is that there weren't that many guest stars, but many of the guest stars got to perform two songs instead of one. For instance, that was the case with Neil Young, Paul Simon, and Alison Kraus. And in the cases of Neil Young and Paul Simon, I thought I'd seen just about every unique songs they've performed, but I've never seen any recordings or mentions of these.

However, the big star of the show, naturally, was Willie Nelson himself. He performed four songs at the end, including a duet with Cyndi Lauper.

By the way, if you look at the song list, you may wonder who "David Mao" is. He was the Librarian of Congress at the time. I've noticed that in all these concerts, the person in that position gets to give the introductory speech to the inductee. That must be an interesting perk for that government job.

Everything here is officially unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long.

alternate:

01 talk (emcee)
02 Stay All Night (Neil Young & Promise of the Real)
03 talk (Don Johnson)
04 Funny How Time Slips Away (Leon Bridges)
05 talk (Don Johnson)
06 Crazy (Raul Malo)
07 talk (emcee)
08 talk (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
09 Remember Me (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
10 talk (Don Johnson)
11 Pancho and Lefty (Rosanne Cash)
12 talk (Don Johnson)
13 Georgia on My Mind (Jamie Johnson)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Michael Feinstein)
16 talk (emcee)
17 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (Alison Krauss)
18 talk (Jamie Johnson)
19 Seven Spanish Angels (Alison Krauss & Jamie Johnson)
20 talk (Don Johnson)
21 I Never Cared for You (Anna Gabriel)
22 Whiskey River (Neil Young & Promise of the Real)
23 Man with the Blues (Paul Simon with Buckwheat Zydeco)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (David Mao)
26 talk (Willie Nelson)
27 Night Life (Willie Nelson)
28 talk (Willie Nelson)
29 Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (Willie Nelson & Cyndi Lauper)
30 talk (Willie Nelson)
31 Living in the Promised Land (Willie Nelson)
32 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/L2TUsCTY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fHU7DyaiBYIQjdb/file

The cover photo is from the point in the concert when Willie Nelson and Cyndi Lauper sang the song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" together.

Alison Krauss & Union Station - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-2003

Here's yet another from my flood of "PBS Soundstage" albums. This time, it's from Alison Krauss and her backing band Union Station. The band plays a pretty prominent role, with a couple of the songs here being sung by band members other than Krauss.

Alison Krauss is a star of bluegrass and country, and had her biggest success in the 1990s. Normally, I'm not a fan of bluegrass, but she does it in a very accessible way. Note for instance her cover of the song "Baby, Now that I've Found You," a Motown-styled 1960s song by the British band the Foundations, totally redone by her.

By the way, note that Krauss has a connection to the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" She appeared in the movie, singing the song "Down to the River to Pray." But also, probably the best known song from that movie was "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." Krauss, didn't sing that in the movie, but one member of Union Station, Dan Tyminski, did. So he sang it in this concert as well.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Let Me Touch You for a While (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
02 The Lucky One (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
03 Baby, Now that I've Found You (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
04 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
05 Bright Sunny South (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
06 Everytime You Say Goodbye (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
07 Stay (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
08 Forget about It (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
10 Maybe (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
11 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
12 We Hide and Seek (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
13 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
14 When You Say Nothing at All (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
15 Oh Atlanta (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
16 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
17 Down to the River to Pray (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
18 There Is a Reason (Alison Krauss & Union Station)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DUAQGoh6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/iu22cNFL8BAJ3NX/file

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

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - BBC in Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-24-2022

Robert Plant has performed often for the BBC over the course of his long solo career. I plan on posting much of that material someday, in chronological order. But I'd like to start with this. I recently found this concert on video, and then converted it to individual mp3 tracks.

Robert Plant has recorded two studio albums with bluegrass star Alison Krauss. This concert was in support of their 2021 album "Raise the Roof." Naturally, they mainly played songs from that, but also songs from their first album, and some Led Zeppelin classics.

It seems that just about everything from Britain's yearly Glastonbury Festivals gets played on the BBC at one time or another, although many of the recordings can't be found by me. This was a high quality webcast, so I took the audio from that. The sound quality is like an official album.

This concert is an hour and one minute long. It appears to be the full performance.

01 Rich Woman (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
02 talk (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
03 Quattro [World Drifts In] (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
04 Fortune Teller (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
05 The Price of Love (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
06 Rock and Roll (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
07 Please Read the Letter (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
08 Trouble with My Lover (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
09 High and Lonesome (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
10 It Don't Bother Me (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
11 talk (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
12 Gone, Gone, Gone (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
13 The Battle of Evermore (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
14 talk (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
15 When the Levee Breaks (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15124154/RobertPnAK_2022_BBConcertGlastonburyFestivl__6-24-2022_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is taken from a screenshot from this exact concert. The two singers were more separated, but I used Photoshop to move them closer together.