Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Joni Mitchell, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 4-6-2000

For a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the TNT TV network hosted a few annual "all-star tributes" to some music legends. I've already posted albums of such tribute shows to Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, and Paul Simon. Here's another one, celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell.

This concert actually featured Joni Mitchell herself, but she had a relatively minor role. At the very end, she performed one song and gave a short speech. Instead, the bulk of the concert consisted of famous musical acts performing her songs. Just look at the cover or at the song list to see the names. There also were some famous non-musicians who talked a little bit between songs, such as actors Susan Sarandon and Laurence Fishburne, and the main host, Ashley Judd. Plus, I never thought my music blog would have a track by Hillary Clinton, but here we are.

If I recall correctly, there was some more stuff to this concert that I edited out, such as testimonials about Mitchell's life and career, narrated by the likes of Goldie Hawn and Rosie O'Donnell. I kept the focus on the songs, and introductions to the songs.

The Stone Temple Pilots were also due to perform at this concert. However, the band's lead singer, Scott Weiland, blew his voice out by performing three full concerts the day before. They were due to perform the song "Woodstock." At the last minute, Richard Thompson stepped up to perform that song instead. That's why he's the only performer here to do two songs, because he also had been scheduled to perform the song "Black Crow." 

Note that the final song, "The Circle Game," faded out before it ended. Probably that's when the TV broadcast came to an end. I extended it a bit by repeating a chorus from earlier in the song and then fading it out. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title.

There's an amazing official Joni Mitchell website, www.jonimitchell.com. It has a webpage just on this concert, with lots of pictures and dozens of newspaper articles about it. Here's a link:

Joni Mitchell - 2000.04.06 | An All-Star Tribute To Joni Mitchell Hammerstein Ballroom | New York 

This album remains officially unreleased as an audio album. However, a DVD of it has been released. But this is about ten minutes longer. The sound quality is excellent. 

This concert is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 Raised on Robbery (Wynonna Judd & Bryan Adams)
02 talk (Ashley Judd)
03 Carey (Cyndi Lauper)
04 talk (Ashley Judd)
05 Woodstock (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Hillary Clinton)
07 Chelsea Morning (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 Big Yellow Taxi (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter with James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 River (James Taylor)
11 talk (Ashley Judd)
12 You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio (Wynonna Judd)
13 talk (Susan Sarandon)
14 Help Me (k.d. Lang)
15 talk (Laurence Fishburne)
16 The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Cassandra Wilson)
17 talk (Ashley Judd)
18 The Circle Game (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
19 talk (Ashley Judd)
20 talk (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
21 Amelia (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
22 talk (Ashley Judd)
23 Black Crow (Richard Thompson)
24 talk (Richard Thompson)
25 talk (Ashley Judd)
26 Free Man in Paris (Elton John)
27 talk (Elton John)
28 A Case of You (Diana Krall)
29 talk (Ashley Judd)
30 talk (Tony Bennett)
31 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
32 talk (Joni Mitchell)
33 The Circle Game [Reprise] [Edit] (Joni Mitchell & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/acNAjTY6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/GVHWLt1ZTKXHMpu/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right, that's Joni Mitchell, James Taylor (in back), Cassandra Wilson, Shawn Colvin, and Elton John.

No Nukes Concerts, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 9-21-1979 to 9-23-1979: Sweet Honey in the Rock

This is the ninth album I'm posting from the 1979 No Nukes concerts. This time it's the gospel group Sweet Honey in the Rock.

I must admit I'm not much of a gospel music fan, so this isn't my cup of tea. But I want to include all the sets from the No Nukes concerts, even the ones I'm not that fond of. At least the songs here don't sound that overtly religious and sometimes have non-religious themes. At the time, the group was composed of four women, and sang acappella. (They later increased to five.) They also wrote most of their songs. They're still going as I write this in 2024, but they've gone through many personnel changes.

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

Sweet Honey in the Rock - Wikipedia

The first three tracks come from the September 21st concert at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The remainder come from the September 23rd concert at Battery Park, also in New York City.

The song "A Woman" was included on the official No Nukes album. However, I know they played that song multiple times (including a set on September 20th that just repeats songs here), so I don't know if this version is the official one. Everything else is unreleased.

This album is 23 minutes long.

01 A Woman (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
02 talk (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
03 Echo (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
04 As Long as I Have Breath in My Body (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
05 talk (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
06 You Better Mind (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
07 Believe I'll Run On (Sweet Honey in the Rock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17318129/VA-NONUKS1979MdisnSqurGrdnNwYrkC__9-21___9-23-1979_SwetHonyinthRckatse.zip.html

alternate:

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

The cover photo is not the best, but it was really damn hard finding any photos of the group in concert from around this time period. I found this photo in the booklet that came with the official album. It was small and low-res, but I did my best to enlarge and sharpen it. If anyone who has the album can scan in a higher quality version, please let me know.

Months later, I sharpened the picture using the Krea AI program. It looks a lot better.