Darius Rucker - CMT Storytellers, Worldwide Stages, Spring Hill, TN, 8-29-2022

I recently found two "CMT Storytellers" albums I considered worthy of posting. The first was Brooks and Dunn. This, the second one, is Darius Rucker.

Like with Brooks and Dunn, I'm not much of a fan of Darius Rucker. But also like with Brooks and Dunn, I know there are plenty of people who are fans of his music, and I'm trying to post all the at least decent Storytellers albums I can find.

Rucker first hit it big with his band Hootie and the Blowfish in the 1990s. Their 1994 album "Cracked Rear View" went on to sell more than 22 million copies worldwide! But by the end of the 1990s, the band faced declining sales. None of their albums went gold (meaning selling half a million copies) - a far cry from their earlier success. 

Starting in 2001, Rucker began transitioning into a solo career in country music. He never entirely gave up Hootie and the Blowfish, and still occasionally performs with them, but his solo career soon became his main focus. That's because he's found a lot of commercial success with that too. For instance, he's had nine Number One songs on the U.S. country singles chart. One song, a cover of "Wagon Wheel," sold about four million copies in 2013.

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

Darius Rucker - Wikipedia 

This concert has him mainly in country mode. However, he played a couple of his biggest hits with Hootie and the Blowfish too: "Let Her Cry" and "Only Wanna Be with You."

I had to make a lot of edits to make this sound like one coherent concert. I faced the usual problems of the applause getting cut off too early and having to get rid of snippets of songs from later in the show, meant to keep people watching right before going to commercials. But it should sound good now, I hope.

Note that as I write this in December 2024, there have been four additional episodes of "CMT Storytellers," three in 2023 and one in 2024. They featured:

Kelsea Ballerini
Kane Brown
Dierks Bentley
Little Big Town

I don't think I'm going to find and post any of those shows. None of them really interest me. For instance, a couple of them fall into the "bro country" sub-genre, which I try to avoid. Plus, I don't think they're nearly as popular as either Brooks and Dunn or Darius Rucker. But if anyone thinks I'm wrong, let me know. I have to admit I didn't look into them very closely either.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 talk (Darius Rucker)
02 Let Her Cry (Darius Rucker)
03 talk (Darius Rucker)
04 Alright (Darius Rucker)
05 talk (Darius Rucker)
06 For the First Time (Darius Rucker)
07 talk (Darius Rucker)
08 It Won't Be like This for Long (Darius Rucker)
09 talk (Darius Rucker)
10 This (Darius Rucker)
11 talk (Darius Rucker)
12 Wagon Wheel (Darius Rucker)
13 talk (Darius Rucker)
14 Only Wanna Be with You (Darius Rucker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/R9gyTeMa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/GYjc8z8ZvthFHHh/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Brooks & Dunn - CMT Storytellers, Worldwide Stages, Spring Hill, TN, 3-25-2022

I have to confess I'm not much of a Brooks and Dunn fan. However, I made a vow to post all the "VH-1 Storytellers" concerts I could by musical acts that are at least decent, and this country duo makes that bar. 

Technically, this isn't a "VH-1 Storytellers" concert. That TV show basically died out in 2012. But it's basically the exact same thing, same storytelling format, except it's on the CMT (Country Music Television) channel instead of the VH1 channel. Both channels are owned by the same mega corporation (Paramount). So the show was revived in 2022 with the twist that all the new episodes feature country music acts.

The duo was formed when Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both struggling singer-songwriters in the country genre at the time, decided to join forces. Their debut album as a duo went on to sell six million copies in the U.S. They had success after success after that, with a total of 20 songs that reached Number One on the U.S. country singles charts. They broke up in 2010. But they've had numerous reunions since then, including this one.

Here's their Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Brooks & Dunn - Wikipedia

I faced some of the exact same problems when I was putting together VH-1 Storytellers albums. For instance, the applause was often abruptly cut off at the ends of songs. And snippets of songs played later in the show were played earlier in the show, right before commercial breaks. Furthermore, some of their talking between songs was actually from interviews and not the show itself. I had to do a lot of editing to smooth all that over and get this to sound like a continuous concert. I hope I succeeded.

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 Brand New Man (Brooks & Dunn)
02 talk (Brooks & Dunn)
03 Red Dirt Road (Brooks & Dunn)
04 talk (Brooks & Dunn)
05 Neon Moon (Brooks & Dunn)
06 talk (Brooks & Dunn)
07 Ain't Nothing 'bout You (Brooks & Dunn)
08 talk (Brooks & Dunn)
09 You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone (Brooks & Dunn)
10 talk (Brooks & Dunn)
11 Believe (Brooks & Dunn)
12 talk (Brooks & Dunn)
13 Boot Scootin' Boogie (Brooks & Dunn)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GmdfoLie

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xqz0cFEFIjMhv2O/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Ronnie Dunn is the one who has a big "cowboy" tattoo on his arm.

David Bowie - VH-1 Storytellers, Manhattan Center, New York City, 8-23-1999

Here we are with the very last "VH-1 Storytellers" album I plan on posting.

My goal was to post only episodes that haven't been released as albums. I'm breaking that rule here because this one has been posted as an album (and as a DVD). But the reason I'm posting this is because the album had some problems which I believe I've fixed. 

The album only had eight songs, with banter between them, plus four bonus tracks at the end without banter. Also, one song that was played, "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell," wasn't included at all. So I'm including the missing song. I also made some changes to make the bonus tracks fit better into the full concert. I didn't have the extra banter that presumably went with them. But I moved one song ("Always Crashing in the Same Car") to a spot earlier in the concert where it fit well with some banter to precede it there. And I made a couple other minor adjustments to make things flow better in a way that made logical sense to me. In the end, this isn't drastically different or enlarged, but I think it's a better listen.

I have a few more final notes about this Storytellers series. One is that there were a few other Storytellers episodes I didn't include because they have been officially released, and I didn't see any way to noticeably improve them. In particular, these ones are interesting:

Ringo Starr
Billy Idol
Counting Crows
Culture Club
Meat Loaf

Futhermore, as I previously mentioned, there are a few more episodes I would like to post, but I can't find the full audio for them. If any of them do show up, I will post them. If you have one or more, please pass them on to me. Those are:

Lyle Lovett
Shawn Colvin
Cee-Lo Green
Death Cab for Cutie
Ray LaMontagne
Jason Mraz
Grace Potter

On top of that, I have to admit there are still more episodes I didn't post because I didn't like these artists enough. Besides, most of them aren't available anyway. Those are: Hanson, Tony Bennett and the Backstreet Boys (together, strangely enough), Wyclef Jean and Friends, Train and Fuel (a shared episode), Jay Z, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Kid Rock, Kanye West, Christina Aguilera, Infant Sorrow, T.I., Maxwell, Jill Scott, and Alicia Keys.

I believe I posted 63 episodes at the blog. If you add up the others mentioned above that aren't posted here for one reason or another, it comes to about 90 episodes, give or take one or two.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 talk (David Bowie)
02 Life on Mars (David Bowie)
03 talk (David Bowie)
04 Rebel Rebel (David Bowie)
05 talk (David Bowie)
06 Thursday's Child (David Bowie)
07 talk (David Bowie)
08 Can't Help Thinking about Me (David Bowie)
09 talk (David Bowie)
10 Always Crashing in the Same Car (David Bowie)
11 talk (David Bowie)
12 China Girl (David Bowie)
13 talk (David Bowie)
14 Seven (David Bowie)
15 talk (David Bowie)
16 Drive-In Saturday (David Bowie)
17 talk (David Bowie)
18 Word on a Wing (David Bowie)
19 Survive (David Bowie)
20 I Can't Read (David Bowie)
21 talk (David Bowie)
22 If I'm Dreaming My Life (David Bowie)
23 The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell (David Bowie)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17195338/DAVDBWE1999StrytllrsMnhttnCntrNwYrkC__8-23-1999_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RmhNNGzw

The cover image is from this exact concert. 

Don Henley - VH-1 Storytellers, Hollywood Center Studios, Los Angeles, CA, 2-19-2000

The "VH-1 Storytellers" flood is almost at an end, with just one more album after this. This is an episode featuring singer-songwriter Don Henley.

We're lucky that this appears to be another double episode. On YouTube, and with most bootlegs, one can only find the first half of this. Perhaps that was all that was actually aired. But I luckily found more, which sounds like material edited down to a second episode. I believe I even removed one comment Henley made about halfway through that was an intro to the second episode (and didn't make sense when listening to all the music together).

The episode took place three months prior to the release of the studio album "Inside Job." It was Henley's first solo album in eleven years. Despite that long break, it sold over a million copies in the U.S. (He's never been that prolific. It would take him 15 years to release his next studio album.)

Henley performed four songs from his "Inside Job" album: "Taking You Home," "Workin' It," "Everything Is Different Now," and "For My Wedding."

Henley had his greatest success in the 1970s as a member of the Eagles. But it seems that by this point in his music career, he was tired of his Eagles songs. He only performed two of them here, "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Desperado." Even then, "Life in the Fast Lane" was drastically rearranged into more of a rap song. The other songs he played were generally solo hits from the 1980s.

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long. 

01 talk (Don Henley)
02 The End of the Innocence (Don Henley)
03 talk (Don Henley)
04 Dirty Laundry (Don Henley)
05 talk (Don Henley)
06 The Boys of Summer (Don Henley)
07 talk (Don Henley)
08 Taking You Home (Don Henley)
09 talk (Don Henley)
10 Workin' It (Don Henley)
11 talk (Don Henley)
12 The Heart of the Matter (Don Henley)
13 talk (Don Henley)
14 Everything Is Different Now (Don Henley)
15 talk (Don Henley)
16 Sunset Grill (Don Henley)
17 talk (Don Henley)
18 Life in the Fast Lane [Rap Version] (Don Henley)
19 talk (Don Henley)
20 For My Wedding (Don Henley)
21 talk (Don Henley)
22 Desperado (Don Henley)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17201392/DONHNLY2000StrytllrsHllywodCntrStdosLsAnglesCA__2-19-2000_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/s6RhX7pw

The cover photo is from an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on July 14, 2000.

The Black Crowes - VH-1 Storytellers, The Bottom Line, New York City, 8-27-1996

We're getting very near to the end of the "VH-1 Storytellers" series. I only have two more I plan on posting after this. This one features the band the Black Crowes.

We happened to get lucky with this one, because there is a soundboard bootleg of the entire concert that the Storytellers TV show drew from. I cut out a couple of songs that were duplicates, due to the producer asking the band to do them again because of some minor reason or another. I also cut out a lot of dead air time. And there were some chunks of that, for instance while the band had to wait for the producers to get something ready. But I kept all the worthy banter.

The Black Crowes hit it big with their debut album, "Shake Your Money Maker," which sold five million copies in the U.S. Their second album also sold two million. But their fourth album, "Three Snakes and One Charm," didn't even go Gold in the U.S. (meaning sales of 500,000). That was the album they were promoting with this concert, as it had been released the month before.  

Surprisingly, they only played two songs from it: "Good Friday" and "Under a Mountain." Most of the songs were from their previous albums. However, they finished with a Rolling Stones cover, "Torn and Frayed."

Due to the sourcing, I didn't have some of the usual problems with this series, like the first song getting cut off. But I had some other problems I had to fix. For instance, the banter between songs sometimes got very quiet, so I boosted that. And there also was a lot of hiss at times during the banter, but I managed to get rid of a lot of that through using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is an hour and 41 minutes long.

01 talk (Black Crowes)
02 Nonfiction (Black Crowes)
03 talk (Black Crowes)
04 Good Friday (Black Crowes)
05 talk (Black Crowes)
06 Under a Mountain (Black Crowes)
07 talk (Black Crowes)
08 Thorn in My Pride (Black Crowes)
09 talk (Black Crowes)
10 Jealous Again (Black Crowes)
11 talk (Black Crowes)
12 Wiser Time (Black Crowes)
13 talk (Black Crowes)
14 She Talks to Angels (Black Crowes)
15 talk (Black Crowes)
16 Hard to Handle (Black Crowes)
17 talk (Black Crowes)
18 Ballad in Urgency (Black Crowes)
19 talk (Black Crowes)
20 Descending (Black Crowes)
21 talk (Black Crowes)
22 Remedy (Black Crowes)
23 talk (Black Crowes)
24 Torn and Frayed (Black Crowes)

https://www.imagenetz.de/kwrti

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iZhC4sD6

The cover photo is from a concert at the Paradiso, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on February 15, 1997. 

Pink - VH-1 Storytellers, MTV-VH-1 Studios, Santa Monica, CA, 8-21-2012

The next target of the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring Pink. (Her birth name is Alecia Hart. She prefers to go by P!nk with the exclamation mark in the name.) Note this is the second to last Storytellers episode, with only Ed Sheeran's episode three years later after this one.

Pink has sold 60 million albums worldwide. One month after this concert, she released the studio album "The Truth about Love." It reached Number One in the U.S. album charts and sold the equal to about three million copies in the U.S. (I say the equal because by 2012 an increasing number of sales were digital.) 

On the album, she was joined by the singer Lily Allen on the song "True Love," and by the singer Nate Ruess of the band fun on the song "Just Give Me a Reason." Both Allen and Ruess guested on those songs for this concert as well. The two of them also co-wrote those songs with Pink. 

In addition to those two songs, the song "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" came from the album. The others were generally hits from previous albums.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 So What (Pink)
02 talk (Pink)
03 True Love (Pink with Lily Allen)
04 talk (Pink)
05 Sober (Pink)
06 talk (Pink)
07 Who Knew (Pink)
08 talk (Pink)
09 Just Give Me a Reason (Pink & Nate Ruess)
10 talk (Pink)
11 Family Portrait (Pink)
12 talk (Pink)
13 Blow Me [One Last Kiss] (Pink)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17195344/PINK2012StrytllrsMTVH1StdosSntaMncaCA__8-21-2012_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JTwmWKJ2

The cover is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert.

Robert Plant - VH-1 Storytellers, Westway Studios, London, Britain, 6-6-2002

I'm running out of "VH-1 Storytellers" albums to post, but there still are a few to go. This one features Robert Plant.

A month after this concert, Plant released his seventh solo studio album, "Dreamland." It got good reviews from critics, but it didn't sell well. As I write this in 2024, it's the only Plant solo album to not at least go Gold in the U.S. (sales of at least 500,000). Perhaps a problem was it had been nine years since his last true solo album, so his career lost some momentum. (He did a reunion with Jimmy Page in the meantime.)

The album largely consisted of cover versions. Three of those covers were performed here: "Funny in My Mind (Fixin' to Die)," "Darkness, Darkness," and "Morning Dew." Three of the remaining songs were songs he first did with Led Zeppelin.

As usual, the first song started halfway through. Unfortunately, this was a case where I couldn't find a fix. The song, "Ship of Fools," was one that he only played a few times around 2002, and none of those other recordings sounded good. He did play it a bunch of times in the early 1990s, but I thought that was too big of a time jump.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Ship of Fools [Incomplete] (Robert Plant)
02 talk (Robert Plant)
03 Funny in My Mind [Fixin' to Die] (Robert Plant)
04 Whole Lotta Love (Robert Plant)
05 Tall Cool One (Robert Plant)
06 talk (Robert Plant)
07 Four Sticks (Robert Plant)
08 talk (Robert Plant)
09 Darkness, Darkness (Robert Plant)
10 talk (Robert Plant)
11 Going to California (Robert Plant)
12 talk (Robert Plant)
13 Morning Dew (Robert Plant)
14 talk (Robert Plant)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17191027/ROBRTPLNT2002StrytllrsWstwyStdosLndonBrtin__6-6-2002_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RJYh6vff

The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo, in London, Britain, on October 30, 2002.

The Goo Goo Dolls - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 3-12-2002

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" album series is an episode featuring the Goo Goo Dolls.

The Goo Goo Dolls have sold 15 million albums worldwide. But their popularity definitely peaked with one album, 1998's "Dizzy Up the Girl," which sold five million albums in the U.S. alone. For this concert they were supporting the follow-up album to that one, "Gutterflower." It would be released a month after this concert. That album would sell slightly less than a million copies in the U.S., which was a good showing but still a steep drop from the previous one.

Only performances of two songs from that album were included here: "Big Machine" and "Sympathy." Probably more were played but the concert was edited down to fit the TV show time slot.

As was usually the case with this TV show, only the end of the first song was included. But I found a different version of that song, "Name," and used it to fill in the missing portion. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title. I believe I also boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments using the UVR5 program, since they were low in the mix.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Name [Edit] (Goo Goo Dolls)
02 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
03 Iris (Goo Goo Dolls)
04 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
05 Broadway (Goo Goo Dolls)
06 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
07 Slide (Goo Goo Dolls)
08 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
09 Sympathy (Goo Goo Dolls)
10 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
11 Black Balloon (Goo Goo Dolls)
12 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
13 Big Machine (Goo Goo Dolls)
14 talk (Goo Goo Dolls)
15 We Are the Normal (Goo Goo Dolls)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/u78qCxtK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/N5f8Etg7att1ICW/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Coldplay - VH-1 Storytellers, Harvey Theatre, New York City, 5-18-2005

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" flood is an episode featuring the band Coldplay.

Coldplay has seen massive success, selling over 100 million albums worldwide. But they've also faced a lot of backlash from people who think their success is not deserved. The band's lead singer made a joke about this as soon as the recording begins, by introducing the band as "the Backstreet Boys" before correcting himself. Personally, I don't think they're awful but they don't really interest me much either. But they're decent enough for me to include them with all the other Storytellers albums I'm posting.

This concert took place about two weeks prior to the release of the band's third album, "X&Y." That album would go on to hit Number One in 32 countries and sell 13 million albums worldwide, making it the best selling album of 2005. But just two of the songs performed at this concert were from this album: "Speed of Sound" and "Fix You."

I kind of rued the day I decided to post this album, because it needed a lot of work. Unfortunately, it came during the 2005 to 2006 time period when the people behind this TV show thought it was a good idea to put voiceovers on top of the music. This happened for all but one song. Worse, on some songs it even happened two or three times! That's why there's "[Edit]" in most of the song titles. I tried to fix this problem using UVR5, but in some spots the underlying music was damaged, and you can hear some iffy bits. But after fixing all that, I discovered the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I had to run all the songs through UVR5 again to take care of that.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 talk (Coldplay)
02 Yellow [Edit] (Coldplay)
03 talk (Coldplay)
04 In My Place [Edit] (Coldplay)
05 talk (Coldplay)
06 Politik [Edit] (Coldplay)
07 talk (Coldplay)
08 Speed of Sound (Coldplay)
09 talk (Coldplay)
10 The Scientist [Edit] (Coldplay)
11 talk (Coldplay)
12 Clocks [Edit] (Coldplay)
13 talk (Coldplay)
14 Fix You [Edit] (Coldplay) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/17191015/COLDPLY2005StrytllrsHrvyThetrNwYrkCty__5-18-2005_atse.zip.html

alternate:

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

The cover is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Rod Stewart - VH-1 Storytellers, Supper Club, New York City, 4-28-1998

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring Rod Stewart.

This episode took place just one day prior to the release of Stewart's 19th studio album, "When We Were the New Boys." In my opinion, the show was lucky to have him when he did, because he was ending a phase of releasing typical rock albums. Starting in 2002, he would spend about a decade recording albums that mostly consisted of "Great American Songbook" songs. Those sold very well, but are easily skipped over, so I'm glad this predates that.

The "When We Were the New Boys" album was a bit unusual for Stewart because it consisted mostly of cover versions of contemporary music acts like Oasis, Primal Scream, and Ron Sexsmith. He sang three songs from that album: "Cigarettes and Alcohol," "Rocks," and "Ooh La La." That last one actually was done by his early 1970s band the Faces, but it had been co-written by band member Ronnie Lane (along with Ronnie Wood). Stewart did it on the album as a tribute to Lane, who died the year before.

I had to do the usual things I did with most of these Storytellers episodes. Namely, fixing the applause at the ends, which often got cut short. I also boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments using UVR5. At least this episode didn't have part of the first song cut off, as was often the case for this show.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Cigarettes and Alcohol (Rod Stewart)
02 talk (Rod Stewart)
03 Maggie May (Rod Stewart)
04 talk (Rod Stewart)
05 Tonight's the Night [Gonna Be Alright] (Rod Stewart)
06 talk (Rod Stewart)
07 Stay with Me (Rod Stewart)
08 talk (Rod Stewart)
09 Ooh La la (Rod Stewart)
10 talk (Rod Stewart)
11 Forever Young (Rod Stewart)
12 talk (Rod Stewart)
13 You're in My Heart [The Final Acclaim] [False Start] (Rod Stewart)
14 You're in My Heart [The Final Acclaim] (Rod Stewart)
15 talk (Rod Stewart)
16 Rocks (Rod Stewart)
17 talk (Rod Stewart)
18 Having a Party (Rod Stewart)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17190977/RODSTWRT1998StrytllrsSupprClbNwYrkC__4-28-1998_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RZFxS1EH

The cover image is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. However, it was low-res and blurry, so I sharpened it up using the Krea AI program.

James Taylor - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 5-31-1997

Next up for "VH-1 Storytellers" is an episode featuring singer-songwriter James Taylor.

This one is twice as long as a typical episode of this TV show. I don't know if that's because it was broken into two episodes or if it's a bootleg that contained the full concert. But either way, we get lots of music.

In 1997, Taylor released the studio album "Hourglass," his first studio album in six years. It was seen as a comeback for him, both commercially and critically. It was his first Top Ten album in the U.S. in 16 years, selling over a million copies. It also won him a Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.

He performed six songs from his new album: "Line 'Em Up," "Hangnail," "Jump Up Behind Me," "Enough to Be on Your Way," "Little More Time with You," and "Another Day." His other songs were generally classics from older albums. On some songs he played solo acoustic, while on others he was backed by a small band.

Note that one song from this performance was officially released: "Mexico." It appeared on a various artists collection of Storytellers highlights.

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
03 talk (James Taylor)
04 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Jump Up Behind Me (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Mexico (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Mona (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor)
12 Enough to Be on Your Way (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Little More Time with You (James Taylor)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Steamroller (James Taylor)
17 Copperline (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 The Frozen Man (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 Riding on the Railroad (James Taylor)
22 talk (James Taylor)
23 Hangnail (James Taylor)
24 talk (James Taylor)
25 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
26 talk (James Taylor)
27 Another Day (James Taylor)
28 talk (James Taylor)
29 Line 'Em Up (James Taylor)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Valentine's Day (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon (James Taylor)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17187506/JAMSTYLR1997StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__5-31-1997_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h5zNseeB

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert. It was rather low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to sharpen it up.

Sheryl Crow - VH-1 Storytellers, Sony Music Studios, New York City, 8-20-1998

Here we go again with another "VH-1 Storytellers" episode. This time, it's Sheryl Crow.

As an aside, I believed this is the 52nd album from this TV show that I've posted so far. I have about ten more to go, so we're entering the final stretch. That's out of nearly 100 episodes. There are a handful more I'd like to post except I can't find the music for them, and there are still others that have been officially released in full or are of musical acts that I really don't like. 

About a month after this concert, Crow released her third studio album, "The Globe Sessions." This would go on to be a big seller, selling about two million copies in the U.S. alone. 

As you'd expect, she played songs from her latest album. But only two were broadcast on the TV show: "My Favorite Mistake" and "Riverwide." I would assume she played more that got edited out.

There were two surprises in this concert. One, she performed the 1960s classic hit "Ode to Billy Joe," which she has never officially released. And two, she was joined by Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks for the song "Strong Enough." Apparently, Crow and Nicks are good friends and have occasionally appeared on each other's albums. Everything from this album is unreleased, except for the "Strong Enough" duet, which appeared on a various artists compilation of Storytellers performances.

As is usually the case with this series, the broadcast of first song began midway through. In most cases, I've managed to find a similar version and fill in the missing portion. I tried to do that again here, with "Everyday Is a Winding Road." Unfortunately, the other versions I found from around this time had somewhat different arrangements. It was enough of a difference so I couldn't make a good match. So I had to leave it incomplete.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Everyday Is a Winding Road [Edit] (Sheryl Crow)
02 talk (Sheryl Crow)
03 If It Makes You Happy (Sheryl Crow)
04 talk (Sheryl Crow)
05 My Favorite Mistake (Sheryl Crow)
06 talk (Sheryl Crow)
07 Ode to Billy Joe (Sheryl Crow)
08 talk (Sheryl Crow)
09 Riverwide (Sheryl Crow)
10 talk (Sheryl Crow)
11 Strong Enough (Sheryl Crow & Stevie Nicks)
12 talk (Sheryl Crow)
13 All I Want to Do (Sheryl Crow)
14 Leaving Las Vegas (Sheryl Crow)
15 talk (Sheryl Crow)
16 Home (Sheryl Crow)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17184618/SHERYLCRW1998StrytllrsSnyMsicStdosNwYrkC__8-20-1998_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fKcWWMwg

I couldn't find a good photo from this exact concert for the cover image. So instead I used a photo taken at a concert at Wembley Arena in London on December 10, 1997.

Matchbox Twenty - VH-1 Storytellers, Chelsea Piers, Pier 59, Studio C, New York City, 2-9-2001

The "VH-1 Storytellers" flood continues with an episode featuring the band Matchbox Twenty. (They're also commonly known as Matchbox 20, but I went for spelling out "Twenty" since that how Wikipedia has it.)

I have to admit I wasn't that familiar with the music of this band, but they seem worthy of this TV show. The band had two massively popular albums in the U.S. in 1996 and 2000. Combined, those sold about 16 million copies in the U.S. alone. But the band's lead singer, Rob Thomas, is possibly even more famous for being the vocalist to Santana's huge hit "Smooth."

The most recent album at the time of this concert was "Mad Season." They performed six songs from that album: "Black and White People," "Bent," "Crutch," "Mad Season," "If You're Gone," and "Rest Stop."

Thankfully, the first song was not cut off, as is typically the case for this series. That's probably because this is from an audio bootleg that's about twenty minutes longer than the typical TV show episode for this series.

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
02 Bent (Matchbox Twenty)
03 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
04 Mad Season (Matchbox Twenty)
05 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
06 Black and White People (Matchbox Twenty)
07 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
08 Push (Matchbox Twenty)
09 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
10 If You're Gone (Matchbox Twenty)
11 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
12 Crutch (Matchbox Twenty)
13 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
14 Lonely Weekend (Matchbox Twenty)
15 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
16 You Won't Be Mine (Matchbox Twenty)
17 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
18 Rest Stop (Matchbox Twenty)
19 talk (Matchbox Twenty)
20 3 A.M. (Matchbox Twenty)
21 Push [Country Version] (Matchbox Twenty)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17183680/MATCHBXTWNTY2001StrytllrsChlsaPersPir59NwYrkC__2-9-2001_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EXAdhr58

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. It was rather blurry and low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to increase the detail.

Melissa Etheridge - VH-1 Storytellers, New York City, 11-10-1996

Even more "VH-1 Storytellers" episodes coming to you today. This time, it's singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge.

This performance was done in solo acoustic format. That seemed to be pretty common in the first year or two of the TV show, but happened rarely after that. It took place about a year after the release of Etheridge's 1995 album "Your Little Secret." It sold two million copies, which is very good, but that still was a come down compared to her previous album, "Yes I Am," which sold six million.

Only two songs from that album were included here: "Nowhere to Go" and "All the Way to Heaven." She probably played more, but this was edited down from a longer concert.

Speaking of editing, once again I was faced with the problem of the first song starting midway through. I found a different version of "Bring Me Some Water" also done acoustic style from the same time period, and patched the two versions together. That's what that song has "[Edit]" in its title. But, as usual with this series, I did a lot of additional editing, especially with the applause at the ends of songs. And I boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments on all the songs using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Bring Me Some Water [Edit] (Melissa Etheridge)
02 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
03 Watching You (Melissa Etheridge)
04 Come to My Window (Melissa Etheridge)
05 No Souvenirs (Melissa Etheridge)
06 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
07 Testify (Melissa Etheridge)
08 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
09 Yes I Am (Melissa Etheridge)
10 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
11 I'm the Only One (Melissa Etheridge)
12 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
13 Nowhere to Go (Melissa Etheridge)
14 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
15 All the Way to Heaven (Melissa Etheridge)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17184503/MELISSAE1996StrytllrsNwYrkC__11-10-1996_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ySEDagwk

The cover photo comes from the City of Hope benefit concert at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California, in 1996. I've posted an album of that concert at this blog, by the way.

Green Day - VH-1 Storytellers, MTV-VH-1 Studios, Santa Monica, CA, 2-15-2005

Here we go again - yet another episode of "VH-1 Storytellers." This time, it's the band Green Day.

This is a unique episode. Virtually all music acts on the TV show were promoting a new studio album and played some songs from it. But Green Day took that a step further. They played every song from their latest album, in order, without playing any other songs. 

Luckily for everyone, it turned out to be probably their most acclaimed album, "American Idiot," released in late 2004. Their commercial fortunes had been declining, but this album turned that around. It went to Number One in the U.S., and sold over 23 million copies worldwide. It's kind of a rock opera, with political themes that especially targeted George W. Bush, Jr., who was the U.S. president at the time. It had a fantastic critical reception. For instance, it won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, and Rolling Stone Magazine has it on their list of the top 500 albums of all time.

I had a lot of trouble putting this together. For one thing, this was one of those rare albums where voiceovers were added on top of the music to most of the songs. This was somewhat countered by the fact that four of the performances were released as B-sides without the voiceovers ("Give Me Novacaine," "Homecoming," "Are We the Waiting," and "St. Jimmy"). But still, three of them had that problem, and "St. Jimmy" had another problem. I fixed them using the UVR5 audio editing program, but that's why those songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

I had another problem. I was able to find the songs here easily enough, since this is a fairly popular bootleg. However, virtually all copies didn't have the banter between songs. I couldn't find any videos of the concert to help with this either. Eventually, I was able to find some talking tracks. But I suspect there are more that I missed.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 talk (Green Day)
02 American Idiot (Green Day)
03 talk (Green Day)
04 Jesus of Suburbia [Edit] (Green Day)
06 Holiday [Edit] (Green Day)
07 talk (Green Day)
08 Boulevard of Broken Dreams [Edit] (Green Day)
09 Are We the Waiting (Green Day)
10 St. Jimmy (Green Day)
11 talk (Green Day)
12 Give Me Novacaine [Edit] (Green Day)
13 She's a Rebel (Green Day)
14 talk (Green Day)
15 Extraordinary Girl (Green Day)
16 Letterbomb (Green Day)
17 talk (Green Day)
18 Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day)
19 talk (Green Day)
20 Homecoming (Green Day)
21 talk (Green Day)
22 Whatsername (Green Day)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17180186/GRENDY2005StrytllrsMTVH1StdosSntaMncaCA__2-15-2005_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YMrA59V4

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Travis - VH-1 Storytellers, Bray Film Studios, Windsor, Britain, 5-29-2000

Here is yet another "VH-1 Storytellers" episode. This time, it features the band Travis.

At the time of this concert, Travis was massively popular, but mostly in Britain and the rest of Europe. They remain far less known in the U.S. They released their first album, "Good Feeling," in 1997. It went Platinum in Britain. In 1999, their second album was released, "The Man Who." It went Platinum nine times over in Britain. (Note that in Britain Platinum sales are achieved with 300,000 copies sold, not a million in the U.S., due to the country's much smaller population size.) Their next album would also sell big in Britain, but since then, their sales have declined considerably.

This episode contained two interesting covers: "...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears, and "River" by Joni Mitchell. Both of them only came out as B-sides at the time. Naturally, the rest of the concert was dominated by songs from the band's big album "The Man Who."

As was usually the case for this series, most of the first song was not included. But I found a different version from the same year (at the Glastonbury Festival, actually), and used it to fill in the missing portion. Also, the lead vocals were low in the mix, so I boosted them using the UVR5 audio editing program.

Note this band is from Scotland, and the lead singer, Fran Healy, has a pretty thick Scottish accent. As an American myself, I found it pretty hard to understand his banter between songs. So beware.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Turn [Edit] (Travis)
02 talk (Travis)
03 Why Does It Always Rain on Me (Travis)
04 talk (Travis)
05 ...Baby One More Time (Travis)
06 talk (Travis)
07 Driftwood (Travis)
08 talk (Travis)
09 Coming Around (Travis)
10 talk (Travis)
11 As You Are (Travis)
12 talk (Travis)
13 Slideshow (Travis)
14 talk (Travis)
15 River (Travis)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17180700/TRVIS2000StrytllrsBryFlmStdosWndsrBrtin__5-29-2000_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P7wfXDVf

The cover image is a screenshot I took from the video of this exact concert. I used the program Krea AI to add detail.

Elton John - VH-1 Storytellers, House of Blues, New Orleans, LA, 9-19-1997

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is the musical legend Elton John.

There are two particularly notable aspects about this episode, in my opinion. One is that the entire show was performed just by John at a piano. It isn't very often when he plays solo like that. The second is that this is effectively a double show, since it was twice as long as a typical episode.

Just three days after this concert, he released the studio album "The Big Picture." The songs played from that album here "Something about the Way You Look Tonight," which was a big hit, and " Long Way from Happiness." Otherwise, he generally played classic hits from previous albums.

As was usually the case, most of the first song was cut off. That's especially a shame since it was the all-time classic "Your Song." I found another version from the same year with similar sound quality and merged the versions together. That's what that song has "[Edit]" in the title. There also was a problem in the middle of "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues," but I was able to patch in some music to cover it up. So that's why that one also has "[Edit]" in the title.

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long.

01 Your Song [Edit] (Elton John)
02 talk (Elton John)
03 Talking Old Soldiers (Elton John)
04 talk (Elton John)
05 I Don't Wanna Go On with You like That (Elton John)
06 talk (Elton John)
07 I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues [Edit] (Elton John)
08 talk (Elton John)
09 Daniel (Elton John)
10 talk (Elton John)
11 Levon (Elton John)
12 talk (Elton John)
13 Something about the Way You Look Tonight (Elton John)
14 talk (Elton John)
15 Long Way from Happiness (Elton John)
16 talk (Elton John)
17 Bennie and the Jets (Elton John)
18 talk (Elton John)
19 Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (Elton John)
20 talk (Elton John)
21 Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)
22 talk (Elton John)
23 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17180168/ELTONJHN1997StrytllrsHuseofBlusNwOrlensLA__9-19-1997_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NnLzFMzv

I couldn't find a good photo from this exact concert. So instead I used one from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" that took place only three days later, September 22, 1997.

The Foo Fighters - VH-1 Storytellers, Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, CA, 10-28-2009

The "VH-1 Storytellers" flood continues. This time, it's the Foo Fighters.

The timing of this concert is rather curious. Normally, musical acts are promoting a new album. But this took place in the middle of a four-year gap between the release of "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" in 2007 and "Wasting Light" in 2011. Perhaps the answer is that the band released a "Greatest Hits" collection about one month after this concert.

The hits album included two new songs, "Wheels" and "Word Forward." Sure enough, both of those were performed here.

Thankfully, this episode did not begin halfway through the first song. As I've done for almost all the episodes in this series, I had to make a lot of small adjustments to improve the flow, especially adding applause when the applause got abruptly cut off. Also, the lead vocals were low in the mix, so I boosted them relative to the instruments.

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 talk (Foo Fighters)
02 This Is a Call (Foo Fighters)
03 talk (Foo Fighters)
04 Big Me (Foo Fighters)
05 talk (Foo Fighters)
06 Wheels (Foo Fighters)
07 talk (Foo Fighters)
08 My Hero (Foo Fighters)
09 talk (Foo Fighters)
10 Word Forward (Foo Fighters)
11 talk (Foo Fighters)
12 Everlong (Foo Fighters)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17180167/TFOFGHTRS2009StrytllrsSnyPctursStdosClvrCtyCA__10-28-2009_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/4SqPmo9u

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Bon Jovi - VH-1 Storytellers, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 9-20-2000

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode by the band Bon Jovi.

In this case, we happen to have album that is about double the typical episode length. This is because of a soundboard bootleg of the entire concert. I cut out some dead air. Also, a couple of songs were done twice, but I only kept one version each.

Bon Jovi has sold over 120 million albums worldwide. At the time of this concert, the band had release the studio album "Crush" several months earlier. It revived the band's sagging commercial sales, mostly due to the hit song "It's My Life." The album went on to sell over two million copies in the U.S., and did very well in Europe as well.

Only two songs from that album were performed in this concert: "It's My Life" and "Just Older." Most of the rest are hits from earlier albums. They also did the Tom Waits song "Jersey Girl," which has never been officially released by them.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 talk (Bon Jovi)
02 Love for Sale (Bon Jovi)
03 talk (Bon Jovi)
04 Jersey Girl (Bon Jovi)
05 talk (Bon Jovi)
06 You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi)
07 talk (Bon Jovi)
08 It's My Life (Bon Jovi)
09 talk (Bon Jovi)
10 Stranger in This Town (Bon Jovi)
11 talk (Bon Jovi)
12 Bed of Roses (Bon Jovi)
13 talk (Bon Jovi)
14 Livin' on a Prayer [Acoustic Version] (Bon Jovi)
15 talk (Bon Jovi)
16 Wanted Dead or Alive (Bon Jovi)
17 talk (Bon Jovi)
18 Just Older (Bon Jovi)
19 talk (Bon Jovi)
20 Bad Medicine (Bon Jovi)
21 talk (Bon Jovi)
22 Never Say Goodbye (Bon Jovi)
23 talk (Bon Jovi)
24 Someday I'll Be Saturday Night (Bon Jovi)
25 talk (Bon Jovi)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VrEoQJmj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mRLyTXTtzq5XSLp/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. I also used the Krea AI program to add more detail.

The Bee Gees - VH-1 Storytellers, Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, FL, 11-25-1996

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring the Bee Gees.

The Bee Gees are musical legends, having sold over 120 million albums worldwide. However, they were so massively popular during the 1970s disco era that the U.S. public burned out on them. While they continued to be popular in Europe and elsewhere, none of their new studio albums from the end of the 1970s until the time of this concert even reached the Gold status of selling 500,000 copies.

In early 1997, they would release the new album "Still Waters." It would give them the most success they had in the U.S. in decades, selling over a million copies. This was largely due to the hit song "Alone." While that is not included here, two other singles from that album are: "Still Waters (Run Deep)" and "I Could Not Love You More." The rest are generally big hits they wrote for themselves and others in earlier decades.

Generally speaking, the assumption with these Storytellers albums is that all of the performances are unreleased. But in this case, "How Deep Is Your Love" was released on a various artists compilation of Storytellers highlights.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 I Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
02 talk (Bee Gees)
03 To Love Somebody (Bee Gees)
04 talk (Bee Gees)
05 I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
06 talk (Bee Gees)
07 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
08 talk (Bee Gees)
09 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
10 talk (Bee Gees)
11 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
12 talk (Bee Gees)
13 How Deep Is Your Love (Bee Gees)
14 talk (Bee Gees)
15 Islands in the Stream (Bee Gees)
16 talk (Bee Gees)
17 Heartbreaker (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees)
19 Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
20 talk (Bee Gees)
21 Still Waters (Bee Gees)
22 talk (Bee Gees)
23 I Could Not Love You More (Bee Gees)
24 talk (Bee Gees)
25 Words (Bee Gees)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17176452/TBEEGS1996StrytllrsBltmorHtelCralGblesFL__11-25-1996_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UrbmEbQa

The cover photo is from a concert at Wembley Stadium, in London, in September 1998.