Bruce Hornsby with Bonnie Raitt - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 4-20-1993

In recent days, I haven't posted that many albums from the PBS Soundstage show, but I still have dozens and dozens of great ones to post. Here's another one, featuring Bruce Hornsby.

Hornsby first hit it big with his album "The Way It Is," in 1986. That went on to sell about four million copies worldwide. Each succeeding album did less well though, because Hornsby liked to try new things instead of just pursuing a hit-making formula. His last album to have significant sales was "Harbor Lights," released in April 1993. That's the same month as this concert. So that's a good time for a live album, since he could include some of his best known songs.

Bonnie Raitt did take part in two songs, "Rainbow's Cadillac" and "A Night on the Town." However, her impact was relatively minor compared to some other Soundstage guest appearances. She played slide guitar and sang backing vocals on those two songs, never taking lead vocals herself. 

Note that this concert took place during the one year the program was called "Center Stage" instead of "Soundstage." But I'm sticking with Soundstage for consistency's sake.

Unfortunately, this episode was one of the ones were some editor thought it was smart to have some narration over instrumental parts of songs. I got rid of that, as I usually do for such things, using the UVR5 audio editing program. That's why five songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Talk of the Town (Bruce Hornsby)
02 The Valley Road [Edit] (Bruce Hornsby)
03 Harbor Lights [Edit] (Bruce Hornsby)
04 Fields of Grey [Edit] (Bruce Hornsby)
05 The Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby)
06 talk (Bruce Hornsby)
07 Rainbow's Cadillac (Bruce Hornsby with Bonnie Raitt)
08 A Night on the Town [Edit] (Bruce Hornsby with Bonnie Raitt)
09 The End of the Innocence (Bruce Hornsby)
10 China Doll (Bruce Hornsby)
11 Across the River [Edit] (Bruce Hornsby)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sdzVdJeg

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/S4XZJUrPmSJBGp5/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Woodstock '94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY, 8-12-1994 to 8-14-1994 - Day 2, Part 6: Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman

As I mentioned in my write-up to the last album in the Woodstock '94 Festival, I believe this technically was a continuation of that set by the Band. For instance, I don't believe there was a separate billing for this. But as a practical matter, the Band left the stage and Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman took over, so I've made this a separate album.

Bob Weir is best known as one of the two main singer-songwriters in the Grateful Dead along with Jerry Garcia. At the time of this festival, the Dead were near the end of their long, strange trip due to Garcia dying, though nobody knew that at the time. 

Although was very busy with the Dead, he'd had occasional solo side projects since the early 1970s. Around this time period, he was doing some touring with bassist Rob Wasserman. In early 1994, Wasserman put out a studio album called "Trios" that had many famous guest artists on it. Weir was on it, singing his original song "Easy Answers." That's performed here. In 1998, Weir and Wasserman would release a live album as duo simply called "Live." It would feature many of the songs here.  

Bruce Hornsby guested on at least two songs during the Band set, and he guested on at least four more here. I say "at least" because it's very possible that he played on some others here in a low key way. He sang one of his hits with "The Valley Road."

It seems most of the musicians from the Band set returned for the encore here, "I Shall Be Released." I didn't carefully check the YouTube video to see who was on stage. But I could hear some lead vocals from Rick Danko of the Band, and Roger McGuinn formerly of the Byrds. Additionally, blues singer and guitarist Rory Block was mentioned by name and could be heard singing a portion of the lead on that song too. 

Weir and Wasserman mostly did cover songs in this set. The only well known Grateful Dead song performed here was "Throwing Stones." "Eternity" and "Easy Answers" were performed by the Dead a few dozen times in 1994 and 1995, but the band ended with Garcia's death before studio versions of those could be recorded.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Fever (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
02 Eternity (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
03 talk (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
04 Throwing Stones (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman with Bruce Hornsby)
05 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction [Instrumental] (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
06 Easy Answers (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman with Bruce Hornsby)
07 talk (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
08 The Valley Road (Bruce Hornsby with Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
09 Take Me to the River (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman with Bruce Hornsby)
10 talk (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman)
11 I Shall Be Released (Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman, Rick Danko, Roger McGuinn & Rory Block) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tpDqpGqc

The cover photo shows Weir on guitar and Wasserman (with beard) on bass. It's from this exact concert.

Woodstock '94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY, 8-12-1994 to 8-14-1994 - Day 2, Part 5: The Band

The next act at the Woodstock '94 Festival is the Band.

The Band were one of the few acts that played both at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969 and at this 25th anniversary one. However, their popularity diminished somewhat in the intervening years because they lost two out of the five original members. Robbie Robertson, the band's main songwriter, left in the later 1970s. Singer Richard Manuel died in the 1980s. That left just singers Rick Danko and Levon Helm plus keyboardist Garth Hudson of the original five. Three new band members were replacements.

This is kind of a strange set because in my opinion it seems like a spot to put various acts from the original Woodstock era but weren't popular enough to have their own sets. Roger McGuinn joined in at least one song and sang lead vocals on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Hot Tuna then took over and performed the famous acoustic instrumental "Embryonic Journey" by themselves. (They first did it when they were a part of Jefferson Airplane.) Then they collaborated on the song "Java Blues" with the Band. Later on, Bruce Hornsby joined for at least two songs, "The Weight" and "Willie and the Hand Jive." Note that it's very possible that these guest artists stayed to take part in more songs. But I was too lazy to watch the YouTube video of this set to check. Perhaps someone else can tell me.

Then, from what I can tell, the Band left the stage and were replaced by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, along with bassist Rob Wasserman. But as far as I could tell, this was essentially a separate set led by Weir with the Band no longer there until the final song, even though it wasn't billed as such. So I've made that portion into a separate album. 

This portion works as a complete concert without the Weir and Wasserman part. In fact, at nearly two hours, it was one of the longest sets of the festival. I believe only the Santana and Aerosmith sets were longer.

This album is an hour and 49 minutes long.

01 talk (Band)
02 Caldonia (Band)
03 talk (Band)
04 Remedy (Band)
05 Blind Willie McTell (Band)
06 It Makes No Difference (Band)
07 Atlantic City (Band)
08 Rag Mama Rag (Band)
09 Caledonia Mission (Band)
10 Crazy Mama (Band)
11 Baby Don't You Do It [Don't Do It] (Band)
12 Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Band & Roger McGuinn)
13 talk (Band)
14 Embryonic Journey [Instrumental] (Hot Tuna)
15 talk (Band)
16 Java Blues (Band & Hot Tuna)
17 talk (Band)
18 The Weight (Band with Bruce Hornsby)
19 Mystery Train (Band)
20 talk (Band)
21 Stuff You Gotta Watch (Band)
22 Stage Fright (Band)
23 Ophelia (Band)
24 Life Is a Carnival (Band)
25 talk (Band)
26 Willie and the Hand Jive (Band with Bruce Hornsby)
27 The Shape I'm In (Band)
28 The Genetic Method [Instrumental] (Band)
29 Chest Fever (Band)
30 talk (Band)
31 [I Don't Want To] Hang Up My Rock 'n' Roll Shoes (Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vJf18nYn

I don't know all the people in the cover photo, but that's Roger McGuinn in glasses on the left, and Rick Danko of the Band on the right. It's from this exact concert.