America with Christopher Cross - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 3-24-2005

Here's another episode of the great TV series "PBS Soundstage." This one features the band America.

Note that there's a guest star on this, like there are on many episodes of this show. This time, it's Christopher Cross. However, his role is relatively minor compared to other guest appearances on the show. He didn't sing any songs on his own. Instead, he helped sing two big America hits, "Lonely People" and "A Horse with No Name."

When the band was formed in 1970, it consisted of three singer-songwriters: Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek. But Peek left in 1977 never to return, concentrating on a career with Christian music instead. So by the time of this concert, the band was a duo of Beckley and Bunnell. By 2005, their hits were long behind them and they'd turned into a well-honed oldies act. They would have a comeback with a well-received new album in 2007, but that hadn't happened at the time of this concert.

So one gets all the expected hits from the band's heyday in the 1970s and 80s. Although this show is unreleased as an audio album, it has been released on DVD, which is why this episode is longer than the show's usual one hour time. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long. 

01 Riverside (America)
02 Ventura Highway (America)
03 You Can Do Magic (America)
04 talk (America)
05 Don't Cross the River (America)
06 Daisy Jane (America)
07 talk (America)
08 The Last Unicorn (America)
09 I Need You (America)
10 Head and Heart (America)
11 Till the Sun Comes Up Again (America)
12 Tin Man (America)
13 talk (America)
14 Muskrat Love (America)
15 talk (America)
16 The Border (America)
17 talk (America)
18 Woman Tonight (America)
19 Only in Your Heart (America)
20 talk (America)
21 California Dreamin' (America)
22 talk (America)
23 Lonely People (America with Christopher Cross)
24 Sandman (America)
25 Sister Golden Hair (America)
26 All My Life (America)
27 A Horse with No Name (America with Christopher Cross) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2xwcW7Gx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/EeqBz8ePGjYm0CA/file 

The cover image is from this exact concert. 

America - Musikladen, Bremen, Germany, 11-13-1974

America had a series of soft rock hits, mainly from 1971 to 1975. There has never been an official live album from their prime early 1970s one, so I'm posting the best bootleg I could find. (There is a live album, simply called "Live," recorded and released in 1977. But it has some problems, including the fact that it was recorded just after the band turned from a trio to a duo.) Because this took place near the end of their most successful era, it contains pretty much all of their big hits with the exception of 1975's "Sister Golden Hair."

This is kind of a strange recording because it's not exactly a concert. The band had a chance to appear on the German TV show "Musikladen." They played a bunch of songs without any audience. There was very little talking between the songs because I think they had the impression that just the songs would be broadcast. 

In the end, from what I could figure out, I think just one song was actually broadcast on the show, "Mad Dog." This is ironic because it's not included here. One can see from video footage that it was recorded at the same time and place, but I haven't included it because fake audience noise was added, and even worse, some announcer talked over much of the song in German. I found it too annoying to even include as a bonus track.

What we do have here is about 40 minutes of music with excellent sound quality. The lack of any audience really helps allow one to hear every note of their songs. The band consists of just the main trio of the band, plus a bassist and drummer.

01 Ventura Highway (America)
02 talk (America)
03 I Need You (America)
04 talk (America)
05 Don't Cross the River (America)
06 A Horse with No Name (America)
07 Moon Song (America)
08 talk (America)
09 Lonely People (America)
10 Wind Wave (America)
11 Rainbow Song (America)
12 talk (America)
13 Tin Man (America)
14 California Revisited (America)
15 Green Monkey (America)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288722/Amerca_1974_MuskldenBremnGermany__11-13-1974_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I took a screenshot from the video of this show, which can be found on YouTube. To that, I added the band name, using the exact font used on many of their albums. I also threw in the Musikladen logo, since I found that too.