Various Artists - The Thrill Is Gone - A Tribute to B.B. King, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 2-16-2020

The great blues legend B.B. King died in 2015, at the age of 89. I'm not sure what took so long, but five years later, there was this tribute concert celebrating his music. This is unusually long compared to most tribute concerts, at nearly four hours long. The vast majority of it was professionally recorded for a webcast, so the sound quality is mostly excellent. 

Note that I said "the vast majority" of this was professionally recorded, not all. That's because it seems a couple of performers didn't allow their songs to be included in the webcast. For those, I tried to find the songs elsewhere. I found a couple of the missing songs on YouTube, but the sound quality on those isn't as good as the rest. I couldn't find "You Shook Me" performed by Ann Wilson and Robert Randolph, as well as "Night Life" and "Take It Home" by Jamey Johnston. If anyone has those, please let me know and I'll add them in.

There was an impressive list of musicians who performed for this concert, including Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, John Scofield, Ann Wilson (of Heart), David Hidalgo (of Los Lobos), Ivan Neville (of the Neville Brothers), Jimmie Vaughan (of the Fabulous Thunderbirds), Little Steven, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Shemekia Copeland, William Bell, and more.

Actually, this concert was performed two nights in a row, but only one night was broadcast. I don't know how different the other night might have been. 

The music here remains unreleased. The sound quality is excellent, except for the few I took from other sources. Most of those are near the end, for instance "When Love Comes to Town" by Ann Wilson.

This album is three hours and 47 minutes long. 

01 talk (Wavy Gravy)
02 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
03 BB's Theme [Instrumental] (Tony C.C. Coleman)
04 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
05 You Upset Me Baby (Tony C.C. Coleman)
06 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
07 I Got a Mind to Give Up Living (Bob Margolin)
08 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
09 Let Me In (Bobby Rush)
10 talk (Bobby Rush)
11 Garbage Man (Bobby Rush)
12 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
13 Hummingbird (Val B. King & Frank Bacombe)
14 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
15 Let the Good Times Roll (Little Steven)
16 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
17 Beautician Blues (Southside Johnny)
18 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
19 Never Make a Move Too Soon (John Scofield & Ivan Neville)
20 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
21 Why I Sing the Blues (Kingfish)
22 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
23 Powerhouse [Instrumental] (David Hidalgo)
24 talk (David Hidalgo)
25 Need Your Love So Bad (David Hidalgo)
26 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
27 Please Love Me (Jimmy Vaughan)
28 talk (Jimmy Vaughan)
29 Woke Up This Morning (Jimmy Vaughan)
30 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
31 Blue Shadows (William Bell)
32 talk (William Bell)
33 Ain't Nobody Home (William Bell)
34 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
35 Paying the Cost to Be the Boss (Shemekia Copeland)
36 talk (Shemekia Copeland)
37 Call It Stormy Monday (Shemekia Copeland & John Scofield)
38 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
39 Three O'Clock Blues (Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi)
40 talk (Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi)
41 You Don't Know (Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi)
42 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
43 So Excited (Warren Haynes)
44 How Blue Can You Get (Warren Haynes)
45 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
46 Ghetto Woman (Robert Randolph with Ivan Neville)
47 talk (Robert Randolph & Ivan Neville)
48 Don't Cry No More (Robert Randolph & Ivan Neville)
49 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
50 I Like to Live the Love (Robert Cray)
51 Troubles, Troubles, Troubles (Robert Cray)
52 When Love Comes to Town (Ann Wilson)
53 Sweet Little Angel - It's My Fault (Buddy Guy)
54 talk (Buddy Guy)
55 The Thrill Is Gone (Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks, Ann Wilson, Robert Cray & Shemekia Copeland)
56 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
57 talk (Tony C.C. Coleman)
58 Everyday I Have the Blues (Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YVLheabH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/90vA8uFEYrvrlzM/file

The cover photo shows an encore from this exact concert. In the front row, from right to left: Robert Cray, Warren Haynes, William Bell, Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, and (probably) Robert Rudolph.

John Lee Hooker - BBC In Concert, John Lee Hooker and Friends, The Sweetwater, Mill Valley, CA, 1-6-1992

Here is a rather unusual concert as far as concerts in the long-running "BBC In Concert" series go. This primarily stars blues legend John Lee Hooker, but he's joined by different special guests on almost every song: John Hammond, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, and Charlie Musselwhite. The sound quality is excellent despite this being unreleased. The only bummer is that it's rather short, less than an hour long.

A lot of really interesting musical moments happened at the tiny Sweetwater club in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Just two months ago (writing this in February 2025), I posted a 1989 concert that took place there and featured Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and many others. For years, this club was a place where musicians hung out and performed with each other with barely anyone noticing, since the club could fit 100 people at best. 

This is the first and only example I could find of the BBC recording anything at this venue. I'm guessing what happened was that John Lee Hooker was suddenly hip again in the early 1990s after the success of his 1989 album "The Healer." He was 73 years old when it came out. It was the best selling album of his career, largely due to the appearance of many big name guest stars like Carlos Santana, Los Lobos, and Bonnie Raitt. In 1991, he released a similar album with more guest stars, "Mr. Lucky." So the BBC wanted a show from him, but he very rarely made it over to Europe. So they arranged to broadcast a concert from the U.S. And by having it at the Sweetwater, they were able to get some more guest stars to show up, since that kind of thing happened there a lot anyway. (For instance, Carlos Santana played many songs with Hooker at a Sweetwater concert in 1989.)

Many of these guest-filled Sweetwater shows from that era have somehow become soundboard quality bootlegs. But this one has not, as far as I know. So we're damn lucky that the BBC was there to record it. It's a shame that we only get six songs, but that's better than nothing. And what we do have sound great. (Given that Albert Collins was included in a group photo from this concert, I'll bet he was involved on stage somehow.)

John Hammond, Ry Cooder, and Charlie Musselwhite only helped out either on guitar or harmonica. But Bonnie Raitt dueted with Hooker on "I'm in the Mood" as well as playing slide guitar on that one and one other, and Robert Cray dueted with him on "Mr. Lucky" as well as playing lead guitar on that one too.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Father Was a Jockey (John Lee Hooker with John Hammond)
02 talk (John Lee Hooker)
03 Crawling King Snake (John Lee Hooker with Ry Cooder)
04 talk (John Lee Hooker)
05 I'm in the Mood (John Lee Hooker & Bonnie Raitt)
06 talk (John Lee Hooker)
07 I Want to Hug You (John Lee Hooker)
08 talk (John Lee Hooker)
09 Mr. Lucky (John Lee Hooker & Robert Cray)
10 talk (John Lee Hooker)
11 Boogie Chillun (John Lee Hooker with Charlie Musselwhite & Bonnie Raitt)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/heJTdFet

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/1eZ4xI4Sd9qzl7A/file

The cover photo must have been taken either right before or after this concert, because it's from the same date and location. However, I cropped it, because off to the left it also show Johnnie Johnson and Roy Rogers in the top row and Albert Collins in the bottom row. I especially didn't want to mislead people into thinking this had Albert Collins on it by having his picture on the cover.

Robert Cray - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 1-25-1991

Just yesterday, I posted a Robert Cray BBC concert from 1988. I considered this BBC concert to be closely related to that other one, so here it is too.

The reason the 1988 BBC concert and this one are linked is because an official album called "Live at the BBC" came out, with half of the songs from the 1988 concert, and the other half from this 1991 concert. For each concert, that left about half of the performance unreleased. I think it's better to have both concerts in full. 

Given that the two concerts were only three years apart, and Cray had only released one new studio album in the meantime ("Midnight Stroll," in 1990), you'd think the set lists for the two concerts would be very similar. But in fact they're quite different. I could be wrong, but I think the only songs played in both concerts are "I Guess I Showed Her" and "Smoking Gun." So if you're a Cray fan, it's good to have both.

The sound quality is excellent, no problems. And the length suggests it was a full concert with no edits.

Cray's popularity declined after this, which unfortunately means he didn't play for the BBC as often. So I'm not planning on a Volume 3, unless something unexpected shows up.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

01 Phone Booth (Robert Cray)
02 talk (Robert Cray)
03 I Guess I Showed Her (Robert Cray)
04 talk (Robert Cray)
05 These Things (Robert Cray)
06 talk (Robert Cray)
07 The Forecast [Calls for Pain] (Robert Cray)
08 talk (Robert Cray)
09 Where Do I Go from Here (Robert Cray)
10 talk (Robert Cray)
11 Move a Mountain (Robert Cray)
12 talk (Robert Cray)
13 Consequences (Robert Cray)
14 talk (Robert Cray)
15 Things You Do to Me (Robert Cray)
16 talk (Robert Cray)
17 Holding Court (Robert Cray)
18 Walk Around Time (Robert Cray)
19 Right Next Door [Because of Me] (Robert Cray)
20 Acting This Way (Robert Cray)
21 Smoking Gun (Robert Cray)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15941517/RbrtCray_1991_BBSessonsVolum2InConcrtHammrsmthOdeonLondnBritain__1-25-1991_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, on July 28, 1991.

Robert Cray - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 10-16-1988

I've haven't posted any music from American blues singer and guitarist Robert Cray until now. He's released an official album called "Live at the BBC," so I was going to leave that alone. However, I found out that it's actually selections taken from two BBC concerts, one in 1988 and the other in 1991. Instead, I'm going to post the full versions of both concerts.

Cray's popularity probably peaked around 1988. His 1986 album "Strong Persuader" went gold or platinum in many countries, then he repeated the feat with his 1988 album "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." So this was a good time for a live album. The official BBC album only has seven tracks from this concert, whereas I was able to find 14.

The songs all come from a since source, and the sound quality is just as excellent as you'd expect from the BBC. I couldn't tell a difference in quality between the versions on the official album and the versions on the bootleg I used.

This album is an hour and four minutes long. It's possible the BBC edited this concert down some, but if they did it probably wasn't that much.

01 I Guess I Showed Her (Robert Cray)
02 Foul Play (Robert Cray)
03 Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (Robert Cray)
04 The Last Time [I Get Burned like This] (Robert Cray)
05 talk (Robert Cray)
06 Don't You Even Care (Robert Cray)
07 Still Around (Robert Cray)
08 Night Patrol (Robert Cray)
09 I Can't Go Home (Robert Cray)
10 talk (Robert Cray)
11 Gotta Change the Rules (Robert Cray)
12 Playing in the Dirt (Robert Cray)
13 Nothin' but a Woman (Robert Cray)
14 Smoking Gun (Robert Cray)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15938577/RbrtCray_1988_BBSessonsVolum1InConcrtHammrsmthOdeonLondnBritain__10-16-1988_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Cray was taken at a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1988. That's the same venue as this concert. However, he played there a bunch of times in 1988, so I don't know if it's from this exact concert or not.