Showing posts with label Doc Watson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doc Watson. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Various Artists - The Best of the Rest, Volume 1, Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1973-1974

I previously said I was almost done with posting music from Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, but I'm not quite done. I've made two compilations of all the songs that are available with excellent sound quality, from a variety of musical acts. Here's the first of those compilations.

The reason we have these songs is because in the 2000s, KCUV-FM, a Colorado radio station, released four albums containing songs from Ebbets Field concerts. The first one was called "Live From Ebbets Field Vol. 2: 1973-1976," and the others just changed volume numbers. These were obscure, local releases to begin with, and then soon went out of print, so now they're almost impossible to find as albums. But luckily, someone put all the songs on the Internet, so I was able to get them. I went through all the albums, and removed the songs that I included on full concert albums. Then I sorted the remainder chronologically.

It's remarkable to think that all of these concerts were broadcast in full on Colorado radio stations in the 1970s, yet those concert recordings now seem to be lost. Then there's an equal number on "The Best of the Rest, Volume 2," plus still more radio broadcasts that weren't even selected for these compilations. In fact, it's known that about 300 such concerts from that venue were broadcast in the 1970s! I've posted 70 concerts from there. This volume and the following one contain songs from another couple dozen. So that leaves recordings for another 200 concerts that must exist somewhere, in excellent sound quality. The fact that two previously unknown Ian Matthews concerts came out on an archival box set this year (2026) is an encouraging sign that somebody out there still has at least some of them and could release them if someone pays the licensing fees. Let's hope more get to the public somehow.

By the way, if any of you have any recordings from this venue that I've missed, please step forward with them, so I can post them! A commenter recently said they have a full Wendy Waldman concert and offered to share it with me, but since then I never heard back from that person. (If you're out there, please do share, it's never too late.) 

If you want the dates of the concerts for these songs, please check the mp3 tags. All that information is there. The only thing I want to say about the below songs is that although I've posted a Peter Frampton concert from Ebbets Field, the Frampton song here is not from that. The one I posted is a 1975 concert, but the song here is from a 1974 concert. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 A Whiter Shade of Pale (New York Rock Ensemble)
02 The Lodger (Peter Frampton)
03 Hello, Hello (Sopwith Camel)
04 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
05 Ridgetop (Jesse Colin Young)
06 Wild Thing (Chip Taylor)
07 Carolina Day (Livingston Taylor)
08 Wabash Cannonball (Doc & Merle Watson)
09 Blackbird (Kenny Rankin)
10 The Ballad of Curtis Loew (Al Kooper)
11 Fare Forward Voyagers (John Fahey)
12 Down Drinking at the Bar (Loudon Wainwright III)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uF3yCdFz

alternate:

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

Since this is a "various artists" album, I wanted to do something different for the cover art. I was able to find very, very few photos from inside the Ebbets Field venue. Here is one. Instead of looking at the stage, it shows the audience in their bleacher seats covered with the venue's notorious orange shag carpet. I'm not sure which concert this is from exactly, but I think it's from one by the Ramones in early 1977.

Unfortunately, I don't have any audio recording from any Ramones concert held here, just this photo.  

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Doc Watson - Philadelphia Folk Festival, Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, PA, 8-23-1968

If you've been following this blog a while, you may have noticed that I put a special emphasis on trying to post music from big rock festivals. Here's another example of that, though it's a folk festival this time.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival is one of the longest running folk festivals in the U.S., along with the Newport Folk Festival. It started in 1962, and it continues to this day (as I write this in January 2026). I've noticed that big portions, if not all, of these festivals have been professionally recorded. However, it seems only a few sets here and there leak out to the public, and almost none of it has been officially released. I noticed that there was an unusually big amount of recordings available to the public for the 1968 festival. I found enough material for six albums, all with soundboard quality, when most years I might find zero, one, or two. So I decided to focus on 1968, especially since I think it's important to try to save and share recordings of this quality that go all the way back to the 1960s. So here's the first album, a set by Doc Watson.

Here's the Wikipedia entry about him: 

"Arthel Lane 'Doc' Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His fingerpicking and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. Blind from a young age, he performed publicly both in a dance band and solo, as well as for over 15 years with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm."

Note that this is the time period in which Merle Watson was supporting him, so he's on this recording too. 

Here's the link to the rest of the entry:

Doc Watson - Wikipedia 

This album is 26 minutes long. 

01 talk (Doc Watson)
02 When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland (Doc Watson)
03 talk (Doc Watson)
04 Anniversary Blue Yodel [Blue Yodel No. 7] (Doc Watson)
05 talk (Doc Watson)
06 Spikedriver Blues (Doc Watson)
07 talk (Doc Watson)
08 Otto Wood the Bandit (Doc Watson)
09 talk (Doc Watson)
10 Open Up Them Pearly Gates (Doc Watson)
11 talk (Doc Watson)
12 Southbound (Doc Watson)
13 talk (Doc Watson)
14 Bill Cheatham (Doc Watson)
15 talk (Doc Watson)
16 Blackberry Rag (Doc Watson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qGTCSydV 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/9Qg0i1qOYAxstWO/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.