Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Dolly Parton, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-8-2019

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. This one honors Dolly Parton.

I'm running out of MusiCares concerts to post. (I only have one more after this.) The problem is, these annual concerts have small audiences who have to pay big donations to get in, plus there are metal detectors. So audience bootlegs are almost unheard of. The reason we have a worthy recording of this one is that it was broadcast as a one-hour special on Netflix. I streamed the audio from that, and cut it into mp3s. Let's hope this isn't a one-off and other MusiCares will come out in similar ways.

This concert followed the usual format: guest stars singing covers of songs by the person being honored, then that person giving an acceptance speech, then that person playing a couple of songs. In this case though, it seems Parton only sang one song at the end.

Unfortunately, this album is quite short for such concerts at less than an hour. That's because some songs were not included in the Netflix special, and I couldn't find them elsewhere. I know at least Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood sang a duet version of  "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You." I'm not sure if there are others. (As usual, if anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know so I can include them.)

I also found it a bit surprising that Emmylou Harris didn't sing a song, since she was there. She and Linda Ronstadt gave a short introduction speech for Parton. Perhaps she did sing, and that's another missing song. Or it could be she didn't sing out of respect for Linda Ronstadt, who gave the introduction speech with her, but can no longer sing due to troubles with her vocal chords. Since Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt recorded two "Trio" albums together, it might have been rough on Ronstadt seeing the other two sing but not her. I don't know, that's just a guess. 

At least what we have here has excellent sound quality.

UPDATE: On February 19, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. When I first posted this, it was missing "Jolene," performed by Pink. In my original notes, I commented that this was a shame, because that's one of Parton's signature songs, along with "I Will Always Love You." But a kind person sent me this missing song. Unfortunately, the sound quality is rougher than the rest. Also, it got cut off at the end. The person who sent me the song said it was taped off the TV, and that's when the broadcast ended, so maybe that's all that's available. As a result, I put it at the end. I did my best to improve the sound quality. I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the rest and then I ran the vocal through a Reverb Removal filter. That helped a lot, but still, there was only so much I could do.  

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Islands in the Stream (Miley Cyrus & Shawn Mendes)
03 talk (Little Big Town)
04 Everything's Beautiful in Its Own Way (Brandi Carlile & Willie Nelson)
05 Here You Come Again (Katy Perry & Kacey Musgraves)
06 The Grass Is Blue (Norah Jones with Puss n Boots)
07 talk (Little Big Town)
08 9 to 5 (Chris Stapleton)
09 Not Enough (Mavis Staples & Leon Bridges)
10 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (Cam, Jennifer Nettles & Margo Price)
11 The Seeker (Lauren Daigle)
12 talk (emcee)
13 I Will Always Love You (Yolanda Adams)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris)
16 talk (emcee)
17 talk (Dolly Parton)
18 talk (Miley Cyrus)
19 talk (Dolly Parton)
20 Coat of Many Colors (Dolly Parton with Linda Perry)
21 Jolene [Edit] (Pink)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SnahZw7a

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Fty1I7Lp5donyob/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton. 

Various Artists - Fifty Years of Country Music, Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TN, 1-22-1978

Every now and then, I randomly stumble across some really interesting concerts on YouTube. (If you do as well, please let me know.) It seems there are many "various artists" concerts like this, often tributes, that one can find on video sometimes but have never been converted to an audio bootleg. I've seen a bunch of country-themed ones, such as annual awards ceremonies, that are just okay. But this one from 1978 stands out as exceptional. It was a three-hour TV special celebrating the last 50 years of country music. Just look at the names of all the stars in the song list and hopefully you'll see why I thought this was worth my time to convert this and post it here.

I'm not quite sure why the producers considered 1978 the 50th anniversary of country music. It was never explained in the banter of the show. I looked it up, and the first country records were recorded in 1922 and 1923. But a pivotal moment was the "Bristol sessions" in 1927, when both future country music legends Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family were recorded for the first time. That's probably what they were referring to here, since the special contained mini-tributes to country legends Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Bob Wills, and Hank Williams, so obviously they were thinking of Rodgers and the Carter Family specifically.

As I mentioned above, this TV special was three hours long, but if you remove the time spent on commercials, that leaves you with two and a half hours. That was divided into third. Glen Campbell hosted the first third, Dolly Parton hosted the middle third, and Roy Clark hosted the last third. So the three of them prominently feature in this, not just talking but singing lots of songs. At the end, all three of them came together to sing a final Hank Williams medley.

There are a couple of frustrations to watch out for. One is that to cram in as many songs as possible in the limited time allotted on TV, frequently shortened versions of songs were performed, often just a minute or two. Another is that although Gene Autry was still alive (he lived until 1998), a recording of him in his prime was used instead of a live recording. Normally, I edit out that kind of thing, but I kept it in here since it was short and I wanted to keep the banter talking about him.

Generally speaking, the recording I found of this on YouTube was complete and had pretty good sound quality. However, there were some exceptions. One problem was that the song "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell got abruptly cut off after about a minute. I found another live recording of Campbell singing that song from the 1970s and I used that to patch in the missing portion. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title. Also, most of "One Piece at a Time" by Johnny Cash was missing. Luckily, I found another YouTube video of that song from this exact concert, so I was able to fill that in. I ended up splicing the two versions together because the other version was missing some of the intro. 

There were some other problems here and there. For instance, sometimes the overall volume would fluctuate. So I had to make fixes for that. Also, there usually were "coming up next" type teasers before commercial breaks. I got rid of all of those. And when there were commercial breaks, that often meant abrupt cuts. I carefully edited each of those, usually patching in some more applause to smooth over where there was a start and stop gap due to commercials.

On the plus side, in my opinion country music was a lot better back in the 1970s than it is today, with many legends still alive and even in their primes. Remarkably, this really is a pretty good history of fifty years of country music. Also, it's interesting for the duets and combinations, such as Glen Campbell singing a song with Ray Charles and Johnny Cash singing a song with Roy Clark. This special remains unreleased on video and audio, but it shouldn't be forgotten. 

This album is two hours and 28 minutes long.

01 Stars [Edit] (Glen Campbell)
02 Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell)
03 emcee (Introduction)
04 talk (Glen Campbell)
05 Wabash Cannonball (Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys)
06 talk (Glen Campbell)
07 I'll Get Over You (Crystal Gayle)
08 talk (Glen Campbell)
09 That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine (Gene Autry)
10 talk (Glen Campbell)
11 Back in the Saddle Again (Glen Campbell)
12 Southern Nights (Glen Campbell)
13 talk (Glen Campbell)
14 Louisiana Man (Doug Kershaw)
15 talk (Glen Campbell)
16 I'll Go to My Grave Loving You (Statler Brothers)
17 You and Me (Tammy Wynette)
18 Love Put a Song in My Heart (Johnny Rodriguez)
19 talk (Glen Campbell)
20 Take These Chains from My Heart (Ray Charles)
21 talk (Ray Charles & Glen Campbell)
22 Bye Bye Love (Glen Campbell & Ray Charles)
23 talk (Glen Campbell)
24 Gentle on My Mind (Glen Campbell)
25 Honey Come Back (Glen Campbell)
26 By the Time I Get to Phoenix - Wichita Lineman [Edit] (Glen Campbell)
27 Galveston - Country Boy [You've Got Your Feet in L.A.] (Glen Campbell)
28 talk (emcee)
29 Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton)
30 talk (Dolly Parton)
31 Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys)
32 talk (Dolly Parton)
33 Muleskinner Blues (Dolly Parton & Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys)
34 talk (Dolly Parton)
35 Our Love Is Home Grown (Earl Scruggs)
36 talk (Dolly Parton)
37 Walking After Midnight (Loretta Lynn)
38 Sweet Dreams (Loretta Lynn)
39 Back in Baby's Arms - Crazy (Loretta Lynn)
40 talk (Dolly Parton)
41 I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love (Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers)
42 The Cowgirl and the Dandy (Dolly Parton)
43 talk (Dolly Parton)
44 Keep on the Sunny Side - Wildwood Flower (Carter Family)
45 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Carter Family)
46 Hello Stranger (Carter Family)
47 talk (Dolly Parton)
48 If You're Ever in Nashville (Carlene Carter)
49 talk (Dolly Parton)
50 talk (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
51 Ida Red (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
52 talk (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
53 Faded Love (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
54 Roly Poly (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
55 San Antonio Rose (Merle Haggard & the Texas Playboys)
56 talk (Dolly Parton)
57 The Seeker - All I Can Do (Dolly Parton)
58 Jolene (Dolly Parton)
59 Two Doors Down (Dolly Parton)
60 I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton)
61 talk (emcee)
62 Rocky Top (Roy Clark)
63 talk (Roy Clark)
64 In the Jailhouse Now - Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel [Women Make a Fool Out of Me] (Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours)
65 Waiting for a Train (Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours)
66 talk (Roy Clark)
67 talk (Roy Clark & Minnie Pearl)
68 It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (Kitty Wells)
69 You're the One (Oak Ridge Boys)
70 talk (Roy Clark & Mel Tillis)
71 Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town (Mel Tillis)
72 talk (Roy Clark & Charlie Rich)
73 Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich)
74 talk (Roy Clark & Johnny Cash)
75 Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)
76 One Piece at a Time [Edit] (Johnny Cash)
77 Orange Blossom Special (Johnny Cash & Roy Clark)
78 Ghost Riders in the Sky [Instrumental Version] (Roy Clark)
79 talk (Roy Clark)
80 Instrumental (Chet Atkins)
81 talk (Roy Clark)
82 Instrumental (Stoney Mountain Cloggers)
83 Hey Good Lookin' (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
84 Your Cheating Heart (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
85 Cold, Cold Heart (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
86 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
87 I Can't Help It [If I'm Still in Love with You] - You Win Again (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
88 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - I Saw the Light (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
89 Jambalaya [On the Bayou] (Roy Clark, Dolly Parton & Glen Campbell)
90 talk (Roy Clark)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VhNfssNn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/LzjSJer5qXloFoA/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. I made it from screenshots taken from the last medley in the concert, when Roy Clark, Dolly Parton and Glen Campbell were singing together. However, the YouTube video I was using was very low-res. So I had to resort to taking close up screenshots of each of their heads, plus one of all three of them together, and then putting it together in Photoshop. I used the Krea AI program to help clean it up. That's a big portrait of Hank Williams on the wall in the background.

Various Artists - A Country Music Celebration, Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, TN, 1-13-1993

There are so many interesting tribute concerts that have taken place over the years but then were largely forgotten because they didn't get an official release. Here's another one I happened to find recently. 

There have been many country music themed TV specials over the years. I'm not familiar with most of them. But in terms of sheer star power, I couldn't overlook this one. The vast majority of the biggest names in country music at the time performed, back before country music went downhill with "bro country," rap, Autotune, and so forth. I don't know how often the Country Music Association has put on shows like this. I did find their 25th anniversary concert on YouTube, but it's less than an hour long and not as impressive a line-up.

This concert crammed in a surprising number of songs in the amount of time it had. That's because it often only allowed for truncated versions of songs, meaning two minutes or less. In the worst case, Glen Campbell's version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was under a minute long. But the plus side is the show kept moving, so if there's a song you don't like, it wasn't long until the next one started.

I pretty much kept the show intact, until near the end. Very late in the show, around track 45, there was an extended tribute to Dolly Parton. I cut the vast majority of it out, because it was a video presentation, with short snippets of the recorded versions of her most famous songs. I cut all that because it was meant to be seen more than heard, with no live musical performances in it. However, immediately following that was a speech by Parton, and I kept all that.

The sound quality is excellent, even though this all remains unreleased. The only problem I had was with the last song, "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton (with Kenny Rogers assisting). Clearly, the time allotted for the TV show came to an end, because the song was cut short, at only about a minute long, and then faded out. But at least it seems the performers knew the version was going to be a short one, because they only sang the chorus over and over. However, even that short version was marred by an announcer speaking over part of it to hype up the next shows coming up on that TV channel. I managed to cut that out by largely repeating one of the choruses. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title. 

Oh, by the way, this website has a couple dozen nice photos from the event:

Nashville Then: A Country Music Celebration to honor CMA in 1993 

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 This Nightlife (Clint Black with Ricky Skaggs, Glen Campbell & Mark O'Connor)
03 talk (Clint Black)
04 Road Scholar (Lee Roy Parnell & Delbert McClinton)
05 talk (Clint Black)
06 Here I Am (Lyle Lovett)
07 talk (Clint Black)
08 Heartland (Bob Dylan & Willie Nelson)
09 One More Last Chance (Vince Gill)
10 talk (Vince Gill & Travis Tritt)
11 What Would Elvis Do (Pam Tillis)
12 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (Rodney Crowell)
13 T-R-O-U-B-L-E (Travis Tritt)
14 Devil in Disguise (Trisha Yearwood)
15 That's All Right, Mama (Vince Gill)
16 talk (Reba McEntire)
17 A Little Bit of Love (Wynonna Judd)
18 talk (Reba McEntire)
19 Goodbye Again (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
20 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
21 Take It Back (Reba McEntire)
22 talk (Randy Owen)
23 Old Time Rock and Roll (Little Texas)
24 talk (Randy Owen)
25 It's a Heartache (Lorrie Morgan)
26 talk (Randy Owen)
27 Hard Working Man (Brooks & Dunn)
28 Drive South (Suzy Bogguss)
29 I'm in a Hurry (Alabama)
30 talk (Vince Gill)
31 The Heart Won't Lie (Reba McEntire & Vince Gill)
32 The Whiskey Ain't Working Anymore (Travis Tritt & Marty Stuart)
33 Love Certified (Ronnie Milsap & Patti LaBelle)
34 Silver Bells [Instrumental] (Charlie Daniels, Mark O'Connor & Sam Bush)
35 talk (Charlie Daniels & Emmylou Harris)
36 Too Far Gone (Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill & Ricky Skaggs)
37 Two More Bottles of Wine (Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill & Ricky Skaggs)
38 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Glen Campbell)
39 talk (Glen Campbell)
40 The Ride (John Anderson)
41 Talking to Hank (Mark Chesnutt & Joe Diffie)
42 talk (Glen Campbell)
43 Midnight in Montgomery (Alan Jackson)
44 You Decorated My Life (Kenny Rogers)
45 talk (Kenny Rogers)
46 talk (Dolly Parton)
47 Full Circle (Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers & Glen Campbell)
48 talk (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton)
49 I Will Always Love You [Edit] (Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Eosyj9Qd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2l2znKTYkfdFKDm/file 

The cover photo is from the finale of this exact concert. From left to right: Emmylou Harris, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson.

Dolly Parton - Dominion Theatre, London, Britain, 5-21-1983

Dolly Parton can be a bit of a caricature, with her theme park, extreme hourglass figure, big hair, and the like. But she's actually a great songwriter as well as singer, writing classics like "Jolene," "I Will Always Love You," and "Coat of Many Colors" on her own. I figured she's worthy of a live album at this blog. I looked around and found this bootleg.

I believe this has never been shared as music files. I found a video of this concert, because it was once shown on cable TV. So I converted it to audio and broke it up into mp3s. I think it's from an ideal era, because she was still in her musical prime in 1983, but most of her big, classic songs had been released by then.

Unfortunately, one song that is missing is "Islands in the Steam," a smash Number One hit duet. It was released in 1983, but a few months after this concert.

The sound quality was excellent. There were no problems to speak of.

This album is one hour and 14 minutes long.

01 Baby I'm Burning (Dolly Parton)
02 Jolene (Dolly Parton)
03 Two Doors Down (Dolly Parton)
04 Coat of Many Colors (Dolly Parton)
05 talk (Dolly Parton)
06 Appalachian Memories (Dolly Parton)
07 Applejack (Dolly Parton)
08 talk (Dolly Parton)
09 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (Dolly Parton)
10 talk (Dolly Parton)
11 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind [Fast Version] (Dolly Parton)
12 talk (Dolly Parton)
13 Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show - I'll Fly Away - When the Saints Go Marching In - Old Time Religion (Dolly Parton)
14 talk (Dolly Parton)
15 Dueling Banjos - Orange Blossom Special [Instrumental] (Dolly Parton)
16 Rhumba Man [Rhumba Girl] (Dolly Parton)
17 talk (Dolly Parton)
18 All Shook Up (Dolly Parton)
19 talk (Dolly Parton)
20 Me and Little Andy (Dolly Parton)
21 Down from Dover (Dolly Parton)
22 Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton)
23 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton)
24 Great Balls of Fire (Dolly Parton)
25 I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton)
26 9 to 5 [Instrumental Version] (Dolly Parton)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16644232/DOLLYPRTN1983DmnonThetrLndnBrtin__5-_21-1983_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert she did at this very venue from this very month, but it was a few days later. Apparently, she did about a week's worth of concerts there.