Various Artists - Woody Guthrie All-Star Tribute Concert, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, 9-12-1970

In 1967, legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie died after being bedridden with health problems for many years. In early 1968, there was a tribute concert for him in New York City. Then, in 1970, there was a second tribute concert for him in Los Angeles, which is presented here. I'm not sure why it was thought a second concert was needed, but perhaps it was for people on the West Coast. Highlights of both concerts were combined onto one album, which was released in 1972. 

Like the 1968 show, this one had spoken word recitations between many of the songs. In my opinion, the music bears many repeat listenings, but I get bored with the spoken word parts. So this is a version of just the music, exactly the same as I did with my earlier post of the 1968 concert. Decades later, both concerts were officially released in full, so this recording comes from that.

Many of the musical acts in this concert were the same as the one in the 1968. Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Pete Seeger, and Odetta took part in both. However, the undoubted biggest name of the 1968 concert was Bob Dylan, and he wasn't present here. But another big star in the folk music world, Joan Baez, was only present here. That was also the case for Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Country Joe McDonald, and Earl Robinson. This concert also was half an hour longer.

If you prefer always listening to this with the spoken word recitations, you have the official album version for that. I'm just giving you a different option.

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long.

01 Oklahoma Hills (Arlo Guthrie)
02 So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh [Dusty Old Dust] (Pete Seeger & Joan Baez)
03 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie)
04 Hobo's Lullaby (Joan Baez)
05 Ramblin' Round (Odetta)
06 I Ain't Got No Home (Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie)
07 Pretty Boy Floyd (Country Joe McDonald)
08 Nine Hundred Miles (Richie Havens)
09 Plane Wreck at Los Gatos [Deportee] (Joan Baez)
10 John Hardy (Odetta)
11 Hard Travelin' (Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Country Joe McDonald, Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie & Joan Baez)
12 Vigilante Man (Richie Havens)
13 1913 Massacre (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
14 Do Re Mi (Arlo Guthrie)
15 Pastures of Plenty (Joan Baez)
16 Roll On Columbia (Earl Robinson & Pete Seeger)
17 Mail Myself to You (Earl Robinson)
18 Howdido (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
19 Woman at Home (Country Joe McDonald)
20 The Sinking of the Reuben James (Pete Seeger)
21 Jesus Christ (Arlo Guthrie)
22 I've Got to Know (Arlo Guthrie & Joan Baez)
23 This Train Is Bound for Glory (Country Joe McDonald, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez & Odetta)
24 This Land Is Your Land - So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh [Dusty Old Dust] (Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NPeRiSD5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/eVOGzmZgFPw3LgA/file 

The cover image is from this exact concert. From right to left, that's Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Odetta, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie. It's from the final encore. However, I had to do some Photoshop editing to get everyone to fit in with a decent size. The singers were standing with some big gaps of empty space between the microphones, so I moved them much closer together.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 4 - Mississippi Fred McDowell, Joan Baez & Ramblin' Jack Elliott

In the fourth volume of the 1968 Newport Folk Festival, things get increasingly folky. The two main performers here are from before the rock era, the kinds of musicians that almost never got bootlegged.

Mississippi Fred McDowell in particular went way back. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Wikipedia

He was born in 1904 and died in 1972, just a few years after this festival. He actually was a farmer most of his life. But about ten years before this, musicologists discovered him while doing field recordings in the Southern U.S. Only then did he become a professional musician and start putting out records.

Joan Baez was the featured musician of the previous album in this festival series. But this album took place one day later. She had performed solo acoustic, but she came back on stage at this time to play a couple of classic country songs with a band. It seems she only did two songs.

The remainder of the album is Ramblin' Jack Elliott's set. Here's his Wikipedia page:

Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Wikipedia

Elliott truly was a ramblin' guy. He ran away from home at age fifteen to join the circus. Before long he connected with legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie. He essentially became his young apprentice for many years, traveling with him and learning his songs. He kept playing for a long time, for instance having a role in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour in 1975 and 1976, and even playing with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the 2000s. As I write this in late 2023, he's still alive, at the age of 92.

At some points, this wind problem mentioned in previous albums happened here too. But I fixed that using the "de-wind" feature of the Izotope 10 audio editing program.

Also, Elliott's set was quite short, only three songs, and had big problems. Parts of the songs "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "If I Were a Carpenter" were missing. Luckily though, he did studio versions a year earlier for an album in the same acoustic style done here. So I used the studio versions to fill in the missing parts. Even though live and studio versions are combined, I'd be surprised if you can find where the edits took place. I'm guessing there could have been more songs to his set that might not have been properly recorded at all.

But that was just the first three songs of his set. You may notice he did an additional five songs. That's because of the special set I previously mentioned with the Arlo Guthrie set, the one dedicated to Woody Guthrie. Since Elliott was so close to Woody, it was only natural that he was a part of that, and that he played a bunch of songs. So those last five songs are all Woody Guthrie covers done as part of that set.

This album is 46 minutes long. The McDowell set is 10 minutes long, the Baez one is eight minutes, and the Elliott one is 29 minutes.

033 talk by George Wein (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
034 Fred's Worried Life Blues (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
035 Shake 'Em on Down (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
036 Write Me a Few Lines (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
037 talk by Ralph Rinzler (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
038 talk by Bob Siggins (Joan Baez)
039 Green, Green Grass of Home (Joan Baez)
040 talk (Joan Baez)
041 The Banks of the Ohio (Joan Baez)
042 talk by Unknown Emcee (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
043 talk (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
044 912 Greens (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
045 talk (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
046 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright [Edit] (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
047 If I Were a Carpenter [Edit] (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
048 Ramblin' Round (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
049 How'd You Do (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
050 Why Oh Why (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
051 Car, Car (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
052 Talking Merchant Marine (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17205343/VA-NEWPRTFLKFESTIVL196804MssissippFrdMcDowlJnBaez_RmblinJckEllott.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/A782uTtf

For the cover, that's McDowell on the left and Elliott on the right. Both photos were taken during this festival.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Bob Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue - Night of the Hurricane: Madison Square Garden, New York City, 12-8-1975

In 1975 and 1976, Bob Dylan put on a concert tour called "the Rolling Thunder Revue." It's something he's never done before or since, because instead of putting on regular concerts with himself as the main musician and one or more opening musicians, this was more like a traveling road show. Yes, Dylan was the main star, but he shared the spotlight with other big stars too, as well as lesser knowns.

There have been two official releases related to the Rolling Thunder Revue: "The Bootleg Series, Volume 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue," and "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings." The first one contains selected songs from various concerts, and the second one contains no less than five complete Dylan sets from the tour, as well as rehearsals, and more. Yet all of these releases ignore the other musicians who played with Dylan (except for the duets he did with Joan Baez). I've always wanted to hear a complete show from this tour, with Dylan AND all the other musicians.

Here it is, in all three hours and 50 minutes of it! 

If you want to hear just one full Rolling Thunder Revue concert, this is the one, for several reasons. For starters, this concert had a special purpose, to help free professional boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter from prison. Dylan (and many others) felt Carter was unjustly imprisoned, so he wrote a song about it, "Hurricane," which would be included on his 1976 album "Desire." I don't want to go into the full story, but if you want to know more, I suggest watching the 1999 movie "The Hurricane" starring Denzel Washington. Although the concert was still part of the tour, it was given the special name "Night of the Hurricane." Many famous people attended it, and there was a lot of press about it, helped by the fact that it was held in New York City.

Given all that, it's a lucky break that there's a soundboard bootleg of this entire concert with fantastic sound quality. This sounds just as good as any of the officially released material from the tour. Also, it's from a sweet spot in the tour where the musicians had found their groove but hadn't grown bored or fatigued (as would happen with many of the 1976 shows on the tour). 

Furthermore, many of the musicians here played for all or most of the tour, like Roger McGuinn and Joan Baez. But this concert gets an extra lift with the special guests Joni Mitchell and Roberta Flack. Mitchell did play on some other shows during the tour, but this is as good as it gets in terms of sound quality for her set. And this was the only show with Roberta Flack. Also, Robbie Robertson from the Band played guitar on "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and possibly a couple other Dylan songs.

Another special guest was boxing legend Muhammad Ali. During the show's intermission, Ali came out on stage and gave a speech about the point of the show, raising public awareness and pressure to release Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter from prison. During this speech, Ali spoke on the phone to Carter from his prison cell. Some other lesser knowns spoke as well, including some politicians. All in all, this segment took up half an hour. It's fine to listen to it once, but I don't think it stands up to repeat listenings. So I've brutally edited than half an hour down to just five minutes, focusing on Ali's phone call with Carter. 

A lot of the what is cut out is unnecessary fluff. For instance, Ali got sidetracked and spent a few minutes praising a politician friend of his, who he claimed was going to run for president. (I looked it up, and that person did run for many offices, but never won anything.) Later on it the concert, Dylan, with his great sarcastic wit, makes a reference to this by introducing another musician and commenting that person is NOT running for president.

At nearly four hours, this is probably the longest album I've posted on my blog so far.

01 Good Love Is Hard to Find (Bob Neuwirth)
02 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
03 Sleazy (Bob Neuwirth)
04 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
05 Hula Hoop (T-Bone Burnett)
06 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
07 Too Good to Be Wasted (Rob Stoner)
08 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
09 Laissez Faire (Steven Soles)
10 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
11 Life on Mars (Mick Ronson)
12 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
13 Alabama Dark (Ronee Blakley & Bob Neuwirth)
14 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
15 Need a New Sun Rising (Ronee Blakley)
16 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
17 Cindy [When I Get Home] (Bob Neuwirth)
18 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
19 Mercedes Benz (Bob Neuwirth)
20 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
21 Shadows and Light (Joni Mitchell)
22 Coyote (Joni Mitchell)
23 talk (Joni Mitchell)
24 Edith and the Kingpin (Joni Mitchell)
25 Don't Interrupt the Sorrow (Joni Mitchell)
26 talk (Muhammad Ali & Rubin "Hurricane" Carter)
27 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
28 [Ballad Of] Ramblin' Jack (Bob Neuwirth)
29 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
30 Muleskinner Blues (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
31 Pretty Boy Floyd (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
32 talk (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
33 Salt Pork, West Virginia (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
34 talk (Ramblin' Jack Elliott & Bob Neuwirth)
35 Rake and Ramblin' Boy (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
36 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
37 When I Paint My Masterpiece (Bob Dylan with Bob Neuwirth)
38 It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob Dylan)
39 The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Bob Dylan)
40 Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You (Bob Dylan)
41 talk (Bob Dylan)
42 It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Bob Dylan)
43 talk (Bob Dylan)
44 Romance in Durango (Bob Dylan)
45 talk (Bob Dylan)
46 Isis (Bob Dylan)
47 The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
48 talk (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
49 Dark as a Dungeon (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
50 Mama, You Been on My Mind (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
51 talk (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
52 Never Let Me Go (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
53 talk (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
54 I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
55 talk (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
56 I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
57 talk (Joan Baez)
58 Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)
59 talk (Joan Baez)
60 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Joan Baez)
61 Prison Trilogy [Billy Rose] (Joan Baez)
62 Joe Hill (Joan Baez)
63 Long Black Veil (Joan Baez)
64 talk (Joan Baez)
65 Please Come to Boston (Joan Baez)
66 talk (Joan Baez)
67 talk (Roberta Flack)
68 25th of Last December (Roberta Flack)
69 talk (Roberta Flack)
70 Why Don't You Move In with Me (Roberta Flack)
71 talk (Joan Baez)
72 Eight Miles High (Roger McGuinn)
73 Chestnut Mare (Roger McGuinn)
74 talk (Joan Baez)
75 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez with Roger McGuinn)
76 talk (Bob Neuwirth)
77 Love Minus Zero-No Limit (Bob Dylan)
78 Simple Twist of Fate (Bob Dylan)
79 talk (Bob Dylan)
80 Oh, Sister (Bob Dylan)
81 talk (Bob Dylan)
82 Hurricane (Bob Dylan)
83 One More Cup of Coffee [Valley Below] (Bob Dylan)
84 talk (Bob Dylan)
85 Sara (Bob Dylan)
86 talk (Bob Dylan)
87 Just like a Woman (Bob Dylan)
88 Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan with Roger McGuinn)
89 This Land Is Your Land (Bob Dylan & the Rolling Thunder Revue)

https://www.imagenetz.de/afW7D

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MjHbUh3D

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/f449QP8x5jzNaBR/file

I believe the cover photo comes from the final bows after the last encore. Going from left to right, I believe that's Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dylan and Baez sharing the center microphone, then Rob Stoner, Bob Neuwirth, Steven Soles, and Ronee Blakely. Thanks to loneill for help with identifying everyone.