Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 8: Dave Matthews

This is the eighth album from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is a set by Dave Matthews.

At the time of this concert, Matthews hadn't released a new studio album since 2023. However, he did play one new, unreleased song, "Peace on Earth." He was backed by Tim Reynolds for the whole set. The last three songs also featured Jake Renick Simpson on fiddle.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 talk by Margo Price (Dave Matthews)
02 talk (Dave Matthews)
03 Oh (Dave Matthews)
04 talk (Dave Matthews)
05 Grey Street (Dave Matthews)
06 talk (Dave Matthews)
07 Peace on Earth (Dave Matthews)
08 talk (Dave Matthews)
09 Don't Drink the Water - This Land Is Your Land (Dave Matthews)
10 talk (Dave Matthews)
11 Crush (Dave Matthews)
12 talk (Dave Matthews)
13 Warehouse (Dave Matthews)
14 Ants Marching (Dave Matthews) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fPy1fLjv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/94EfrRULzARPQ0o/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 5: Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell

Here's the fifth album from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This one stars Lukas Nelson. I've included Sierra Ferrell in a supporting role in the title as well. She wasn't officially named as part of this musical act, but she had a prominent role in five out of the six songs, and that seems pretty significant to me. Note also that the one song without Ferrell is a duet with Dave Matthews.

Lukas Nelson is one of the children of country music legend Willie Nelson who has pursued a career in music. He has had success leading the Promise of the Real as the backing band for both Neil Young and Willie Nelson for many years. He also had a prominent role writing and producing songs for the 2018 movie "A Star Is Born."

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Lukas Nelson - Wikipedia 

Here's a music bigger entry about him and the Promise of the Real: 

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real - Wikipedia 

And here's the entry for Sierra Ferrell:

Sierra Ferrell - Wikipedia 

This album is 30 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Lukas Nelson)
02 talk (Lukas Nelson)
03 Ain't Done (Lukas Nelson with Dave Matthews)
04 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
05 The Maker (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
06 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
07 Friend in the End (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
08 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
09 [Forget About] Georgia (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
10 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
11 Unknown Legend (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
12 Find Yourself (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mXLaVS7m

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/9qc6H0vYJIJKtFr/file

The cover photo of Nelson and Ferrell is from this exact concert.

Various Artists- MusiCares Tribute to Neil Young, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-29-2010

So far, I've posted three MusiCares tribute concerts. I recently got a request to post this one honoring Neil Young sooner rather than later, so here it is. I still have five more to post after this, so look for those eventually as well.

Tons of talented stars showed up to sing their favorite Neil Young songs. There's a lot of great music here. Unfortunately, there's also some that's missing. This comes from a DVD of the event. Generally speaking, only a small crowd of the rich and famous attend these MusiCares concerts, so bootlegs of them are very rare. We know from media accounts that three songs were performed that weren't included on the DVD. Those are:

"Long May You Run" by Stephen Stills & Sheryl Crow 
"Comes a Time" by Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin & Lucinda Williams
"A Man Needs a Maid" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

If anyone has any of those so I can add them, please let me know. I found a video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song recorded on a cell phone and posted on YouTube, but the sound quality is terrible. I'm guessing a lot of the banter between songs was cut out as well. Actor Jack Black was the emcee, but he's not really heard at all in the recording.

Typically, the person honored in these tributes performs a couple of songs at the end of the concert. But while Neil Young was there, and gave a short speech, it seems he didn't perform any songs. 

Here's a good account of the concert by someone who attended:

https://tinnitist.com/2023/08/11/back-stories-neil-youngs-musicares-tribute-jan-29-2010/

And Rolling Stone Magazine published a bunch of photos from it, here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/musicares-person-of-the-year-tribute-to-neil-young-210831/red-hot-chili-peppers-2-19005/

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 Down by the River (John Mellencamp & T-Bone Burnett)
02 Mr. Soul (Ozomatli)
03 Don't Let It Bring You Down (Jackson Browne)
04 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Lady Antebellum)
05 Tell Me Why (Norah Jones)
06 Broken Arrow (Wilco)
07 Harvest Moon (Josh Groban)
08 Revolution Blues (Everest)
09 Cinnamon Girl (Dierks Bentley & Booker T. Jones)
10 Ohio (Ben Harper)
11 Rockin' in the Free World (Keith Urban, John Fogerty & Booker T. Jones)
12 The Losing End [When You're On] (Elvis Costello)
13 Lotta Love (Jason Mraz & Shawn Colvin)
14 The Needle and the Damage Done (Dave Matthews)
15 Heart of Gold (James Taylor)
16 Helpless (Elton John, Leon Russell, Neko Case & Sheryl Crow)
17 Human Highway (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 talk (Neil Young)
19 Rockin' in the Free World [Reprise] (Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BNxSXgS9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/UhnFSv0eArgOnvZ/file

The cover is from this exact concert. From left to right: Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, and James Taylor.

Various Artists - Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon, Hollywood Pantages Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 4-6-2022

I've recently discovered a bunch of tribute concerts. I find these really interesting, but they seem to often slip through the cracks in terms of being shared bootlegs. So I'm going to try to make posting these a higher priority. Here's a Grammy-related tribute to Paul Simon from 2022. It took place just three days after the annual Grammy Awards ceremony that year, and in the same city, so many of the stars who attended that could attend this one as well.

It goes without saying that Simon is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, so he deserves a tribute like this. In fact, I've found a MusiCares tribute concert from 2001 and a Gershwin Prize tribute concert from 2007 both celebrating his songs that I plan on posting too. Like those, this one features many big stars playing his most beloved songs.

It also features Simon performing a couple of songs of his own at the end of the concert. This is especially significant because he was 80 years old at the time of this concert, and his voice was noticeably weakening with age. He announced a farewell tour in 2018, so this seemed like one of his last public performances. Since then, though, he decided to have one more tour in 2025, with about 20 concerts. Be that as it may, one can hear the change in his voice in this performance. Thankfully, he realized his limitations and had another singer tackle the vocally challenging song "American Tune" while he just played guitar on it.

The music here remains officially unreleased. However, it was broadcast on television, so there are video files of it. I took a high quality version, converted it to audio format, and broke it into mp3s. The sound quality is excellent. I kept most everything, except I cut out some talk from the unnamed female emcee every time there was a commercial break, which happened every few songs. Hopefully this now sounds seamless, without any hints of those commercial breaks.

Some of the banter between songs were little speeches by famous non-musicians, such as Woody Harrelson, Dustin Hoffman, and Oprah Winfrey. Famous rock star Elton John also only talked. In his case, his talk was a video broadcast, so he probably didn't sing as well because he wasn't there in person.

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Kodachrome (Brad Paisley)
03 talk (Woody Harrelson)
04 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Jonas Brothers)
05 talk (Garth Brooks)
06 The Boxer (Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood)
07 talk (Elton John)
08 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
09 A Hazy Shade of Winter (Susanna Hoffs)
10 talk (Herbie Hancock)
11 talk (Sting)
12 America (Sting)
13 talk (Billy Porter)
14 Loves Me like a Rock (Billy Porter)
15 talk (Dustin Hoffman)
16 talk (Stevie Wonder)
17 Mrs. Robinson (Stevie Wonder with Sheila E. & the Jonas Brothers)
18 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
19 Something So Right (Bonnie Raitt & Brad Paisley)
20 talk (Stevie Wonder)
21 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Stevie Wonder & Ledisi)
22 talk (Sofia Carson)
23 Mother and Child Reunion (Jimmy Cliff & Shaggy)
24 Take Me to the Mardi Gras (Trombone Shorty & Irma Thomas)
25 talk (Eric Church)
26 Homeward Bound (Eric Church)
27 Slip Slidin' Away (Little Big Town)
28 talk (Folake Olowofoyeku)
29 Homeless (Take 6)
30 Under African Skies (Angelique Kidjo with Dave Matthews)
31 You Can Call Me Al (Dave Matthews with Angelique Kidjo)
32 talk (Oprah Winfrey)
33 Graceland (Paul Simon)
34 talk (Paul Simon)
35 American Tune (Rhiannon Giddens with Paul Simon)
36 The Sound of Silence (Paul Simon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5j4GUcC1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Vz5ALstXCYeahHB/file 

The cover shows Paul Simon about to receive a hug from Oprah Winfrey. It's from this exact concert.

The Dave Matthews Band - VH-1 Storytellers, Harvey Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City, 5-17-2005

The next episode in the "VH-1 Storytellers" series features the Dave Matthews Band.

The Dave Matthews Band had the most success in the 1990s. Their first two albums sold a combined 13 million copies in the U.S. But at the time of this concert, the band was still having plenty of success. Their 2005 album they were touring to support at the time of this concert, "Stand Up," reached Number One in the U.S. album charts and sold over a million copies in the U.S.

Four of the songs here come from the "Stand Up" album: "American Baby," "Dreamgirl," "Louisiana Bayou," and "Steady as We Go." "American Baby" was the band's highest charting single in the U.S., reaching the Number 16 spot. The rest of the songs are originals from earlier albums, except for "All Along the Watchtower," which is the classic Bob Dylan song.

I'm somewhat regretful that I prepared this album for release. I'm not much of a fan of this artist in the first place, and this one was a real pain in the butt to make presentable. The main problem is that it seems around 2005 and 2006, the Storytellers show got in the habit of putting voiceovers in the middle of songs. Generally, these were portions of interviews done with band members, which were then placed in sections of the songs where there weren't lead vocals, such as solos. That happened in all but two songs here! Ugh. I used the UVR5 audio editing program to separate the vocals from the instruments. Then I completely deleted the voiceover talking. The volume of the instrumentation was drastically lowered during these sections, so I then tried to boost the volume of those parts to match the rest of the songs. That much worked okay, but sometimes there was some damage to these sections, due to either lingering bits of the voiceovers or loss of some music from the volume being turned way down on those parts. But, by and large, the songs sound pretty decent and you hopefully won't notice any problems.

Another problem was that the lead vocals were too low in the mix. So I had to use UVR5 again, this time to boost the vocals relative to the instruments. But at least this wasn't a case where part of the first song was missing, as is typical for this TV series.

This album is an hour long.

01 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
02 American Baby [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)
03 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
04 Crush [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)
05 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
06 Dreamgirl [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)
07 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
08 Where Are You Going (Dave Matthews Band)
09 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
10 Louisiana Bayou [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)
11 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
12 Ants Marching [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)
13 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
14 Steady as We Go (Dave Matthews Band)
15 Too Much [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)
16 talk (Dave Matthews Band)
17 All Along the Watchtower [Edit] (Dave Matthews Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17157447/TDAVMATTWSBND2005StrytllrsHrvyThetrBroklynAcdmyofMsicNwYrkC__5-17-2005_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/URdw1VWD

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - Farm Aid on the Road 2020, 9-26-2020

Here's another recent live stream benefit concert with lots of big names. Farm Aid has been happening every year since 1985, funding a non-profit that benefits Americans with family farms. Of course, the 2020 concert has had to be a virtual event, with artists prerecording their songs from their homes. This is a particularly long concert, almost three hours, after the many cuts I made.

Speaking of those cuts, I didn't cut any of the music. But there was lots of talking between songs, including testimonials from farmers and even some commercials. I cut all that out. Musician Jon Batiste introduced each of the other musicians, and I cut all those intros out too. I also frequently edited down the comments from the artists themselves to the bare bones. My thinking there was I wanted this to be focused on the music, with repeat playability.

In terms of the music, this differs from some other similar benefit concerts during the pandemic in that the big name artists got to play up to four songs instead of just one or two. Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews all got to play four songs each, and most of the others played two. Willie Nelson and his two sons Lukas and Micah ended the show with eight songs, with them rotating who did the lead vocals. (Particle Kid is the name of Micah Nelson's band.)

the sound is generally excellent. The only exception to that is Neil Young's set. Neil, being weird as he often is, decided to play his songs in a chicken coop in a farm. So there's a lot of ambient noise, especially the clucking of chickens. There was nothing I could do to improve the sound there, but it still sounds okay.

As I mentioned yesterday when posting the "A Night for Austin" benefit concert, there are a lot of these sorts of concerts in 2020, but I pass on most of them. However, like the Austin one, I was impressed by the consistently high quality of music in this one. I encourage you to give it a listen.

01 Home (Jack Johnson)
02 Better Together (Jack Johnson)
03 And It's Still Alright (Nathaniel Rateliff)
04 Time Stands (Nathaniel Rateliff)
05 Where Rainbows Never Die (Chris Stapleton)
06 Starting Over (Chris Stapleton)
07 To Live (Norah Jones)
08 Sunrise (Norah Jones)
09 The Movie Song (Record Company)
10 Black Patch (Kelsey Waldon)
11 Colors (Black Pumas)
12 Confines (Black Pumas with Jack Johnson)
13 Don't Drink the Water (Dave Matthews)
14 Rye Whiskey (Dave Matthews)
15 Grey Street (Dave Matthews)
16 Shadows on the Wall (Dave Matthews)
17 Drink Up and Go Home (Valerie June)
18 Lonesome Valley (Valerie June)
19 Longest Days (John Mellencamp)
20 Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp)
21 Easy Target (John Mellencamp)
22 Rain on the Scarecrow (John Mellencamp)
23 The Eye (Brandi Carlile)
24 The Mother (Brandi Carlile)
25 Field of Opportunity (Neil Young)
26 Homegrown (Neil Young)
26 talk (Neil Young)
27 Harvest (Neil Young)
28 Old Man (Neil Young)
29 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
30 You Don't Know like I Know (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
31 All My Tears [Be Washed Away] (Jamey Johnson)
32 Every Night Is Saturday Night in New Orleans (Jamey Johnson)
33 Far Away (Edie Brickell with Charlie Sexton)
34 Jubilee (War & Treaty)
35 Little Boy Blue (War & Treaty)
36 Letting Me Down (Margo Price)
37 Prisoner of the Highway (Margo Price)
38 American Life (Particle Kid)
39 Focus on the Music (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
40 King Harvest [Has Surely Come] (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
41 Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (Willie Nelson with Micah Nelson & Lukas Nelson)
42 I Thought about You, Lord (Micah Nelson with Lukas Nelson & Willie Nelson)
43 Hands on the Wheel (Lukas Nelson with Micah Nelson & Willie Nelson)
44 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson & Micah Nelson)
45 I'll Fly Away (Jon Batiste)
46 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Willie Nelson & Jon Batiste)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/p27jfimd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q4dteikU0RLjn9p/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/inCmM

For the album cover, I decided to use the official logo for the concert. This appeared at the very start of the concert video when it appeared on YouTube. I made some adjustments to the date at the bottom, but otherwise left it unchanged.