Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-13-1976

Here is another concert thanks to the surviving Ebbets Field radio broadcasts. This one stars Tommy Bolin.

When it comes to concert recordings from this venue, I have posted more that involve Bolin than anyone else, and it's not even close. There are two reasons for this. One is that Bolin is a much beloved lead guitarist, and there have been dozens of albums released by him since his early death in late 1976. The other is that he lived in the Boulder/Denver area for most of his life, and frequently played there.

At the time of this concert, his career was in transition. He had been a member of Deep Purple, but only long enough to record one studio album with that band. Despite his great guitar playing skill, he wasn't a good fit with that band at that time, due to heavy drug use as well as audience expectations for him to sound more like the band's previous lead guitarist. He would officially leave the band in July 1976. But by the time of this concert, the writing was probably already on the wall. In June, just a few weeks after this concert, he recorded his second solo album, "Private Eyes." That album would be released in September. During the tour to support it, he died of a drug overdose in December 1976. He was only 25 years old.

Even though he recorded a bunch of songs, he wrote for his second album just a month after this concert, none of those were played in this concert. Instead, a lot of of them come from his first solo album, "Teaser," released in 1975.

This concert was officially released in the 1990s under the name "Live at Ebbets Field 1976." But I am posting it here anyway because it's a rather obscure release, and I want to post everything I can from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, since the vast majority of those are unreleased.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 talk by emcee (Tommy Bolin)
02 Teaser (Tommy Bolin)
03 People, People (Tommy Bolin)
04 The Grind (Tommy Bolin)
05 Wild Dogs (Tommy Bolin)
06 Delightful (Tommy Bolin)
07 I Fell in Love (Tommy Bolin)
08 talk (Tommy Bolin)
09 Marching Powder (Tommy Bolin)
10 Lotus (Tommy Bolin)
11 talk (Tommy Bolin)
12 Homeward Strut [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AvfixfPz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/nxtMJlMUXcpC67N/file

The cover image is from Ebbets Field in 1976. However, it's unknown if it's from this concert or a concert on some other date.

Tommy Bolin & Friends - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 6-3-1974

When it comes to the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, more recordings survive that feature lead guitarist Tommy Bolin than anyone else. Already, I've posted two albums from the venue where he was helping to back Big Mama Thornton, another where he was part of a reunion of the band Zephyr, and another where he played some instrumentals with Carmine Appice and the Good Rats. Here's another, and I have yet one more to come.

It so happens that this concert has been officially released. So that means it got a review in the "All Music Guide." I'm going to quote that review, written by Greg Prato, since it says everything I would want to say, and then some:   

"During his tragically-cut-short career, Tommy Bolin played with many different musicians and bands. In early June 1974, Bolin was still a member of the about-to-splinter James Gang, and decided to book a couple of nights at the Denver club Ebbets Field to try out some new material he'd written. He called upon his old band Energy to back him up, and the show is a guitar player's dream, especially for those into the classic sounds of Jeff Beck, Santana, Hendrix, etc... And even though the five songs that contain vocals (courtesy of Jeff Cook) are quite good, it's the other five instrumental tracks that make this disc a fine testament to the Tommy Bolin legacy. Tommy lends his touch to such raging rockers as the opening 'You Know, You Know' and 'Homeward Strut,' while fans of the Allman Brothers should definitely check out 'Shakin' All Night,' with its fluid slide guitar work. Also included are nasty renditions of the blues-rock standards 'Born Under a Bad Sign' and 'Ain't No Sunshine,' combined as a medley. Even though some of these tracks have been issued on some of the other releases from the Tommy Bolin Archives record label, they are all versions from different recording dates. This is an excellent live document showing what Tommy Bolin could accomplish while jamming for fun, in the company of some good friends." 

The only thing I would add to that is that I believe the album is actually made up of the best from two nights of performances. That means the order may be scrambled a bit. Also, there was a second album officially released from those same performances, called "Live at Ebbets Field - The Alternate Takes." It was largely different versions of the same songs, plus one unique song, "Wang Dang Doodle." So I added that song at the end.

This album is an hour and ten minutes long.

01 You Know, You Know [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
02 San Francisco River [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
03 talk (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
04 Shakin' All Night (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
05 Walk in My Shadow (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
06 Born under a Bad Sign (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
07 Ain't No Sunshine [Instrumental Version] (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
08 Crazed Fandango [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
09 talk (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
10 Ain't Nobody's Fool (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
11 talk (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
12 Homeward Strut [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
13 talk (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
14 Honey Man (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
15 talk by emcee (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
16 Stratus [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin & Friends)
17 Wang Dang Doodle (Tommy Bolin & Friends)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1JvAZkzw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/hpy5dLJUh7677JB/file

The cover image shows Bolin performing at the Ebbets Field venue some time in 1974. I don't know if it's from this exact show though, since he performed there on multiple nights. 

Tommy Bolin, Carmine Appice & the Good Rats - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1974

Here's a rather strange concert from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts. This is a rather strange one, since it's just three long instrumentals. The main appeal is the lead guitar work of Tommy Bolin.

I've already discussed Bolin on another Ebbets Field album, because he backed blues singer Big Mama Thornton when she played at that venue, and was part of the band Zephyr when they had a reunion at that same venue. He had a strong connection to the venue, because he lived in the Denver area whenever he wasn't on tour, and he liked playing there as much as possible, even just adding his guitar playing to musical acts that were passing through town. I have two more Ebbets Fields concerts involving him I plan on posting.  

Carmen Appice is a famous rock drummer. He was in the band Vanilla Fudge in the late 1960s. But he and the band's bassist, Tim Bogert, left that band to form the band Cactus. But that band, while successful, didn't last long. Appice and Bogert left it to form a trio with Jeff Beck called "Beck, Bogert and Appice." But that group didn't last long either. So at the time of this concert, apparently Appice was in Denver to see if he could talk Bolin into forming yet another new band, this one to be called "Bolin, Bogert and Appice." That band never materialized. But it seems this concert was a kind of public rehearsal to see if they clicked together musically. 

Here's the Wikipedia entry for Appice:

Carmine Appice - Wikipedia 

I don't know if Bogert was at this concert, however. It seems that Bolin and Appice were backed by the band the Good Rats. They had enough success to merit their own Wikipedia entry:

The Good Rats - Wikipedia

The song "Stratus" from this performance has been officially released on a compilation album called "The Bottom Shelf." But the other two songs here are unreleased. "Stratus" first appeared on the stduio album "Spectrum," which was the debut album for jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham. Bolin played a very well regarded guitar solo on that studio version.

I don't know the names of the other two songs, if indeed they have names. If anyone else does, please let me know and I'll change the names. Mostly, this album consists of lots of jamming. It seems the first two songs ended with only brief pauses, because the only clapping is at the very end. Also, I don't know the exact date of the concert either. I look forward to being corrected on that as well.

I don't know if this was ever broadcast on the radio, or if a recording of it survives thanks to the devotion of Tommy Bolin fans. Either way, the sound quality is pretty good. I used the MVSEP program to get rid of some noise on all three songs.

This album is 36 minutes long. 

01 Blues Jam [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin, Carmine Appice & the Good Rats)
02 Stratus [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin, Carmine Appice & the Good Rats)
03 Jazzy Jam [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin, Carmine Appice & the Good Rats)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nt43VDjQ

alternate:

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

So far, the only photos I've been able to find that were actually taken inside the Ebbets Field venue are of Tommy Bolin. This is Bolin at the venue at some point in 1974. It may not be from this exact concert, since he played there a number of times that year.

Zephyr with Tommy Bolin - Art's Bar and Grill, Boulder, CO, 5-2-1973

Mere minutes ago, I posted a concert of Zephyr with Tommy Bolin performed at the Ebbets Field venue in Denver, Colorado, in May, 1973. I'm posting this similar one immediately thereafter because I actually strongly recommend you listen to this one instead, unless you're a die-hard fan and want both. The issue is sound quality. The two concerts are similar, but this one sounds much better.

I gave a lot of explanation to the Ebbets Field concert I just posted that also applies here. But I guess I'll give a quick summary for those who didn't read the write-up for that album. The band Zephyr was formed in 1968 in the Boulder, Colorado area. Candy Givens was a charismatic lead singer and Tommy Bolin was an exceptionally talented lead guitarist. Bolin left the band in 1971 after two albums. The band continued without him, releasing another album in 1972.

Then, in the summer of 1973, Bolin had some free time between commitments for his band at the time, the James Gang. So he agreed to play a handful of reunion concerts with Zephyr, just in the Boulder and Denver area. This concert was professionally recorded, and officially released in 1997 under the name "Zephyr Live at Art's Bar and Grill May 2, 1973." As I write this in 2026, it's the only officially released Zephyr live album.

So, since this has been officially released, why am I posting it? That goes against my usual policy. It's because there was a serious flaw to the official release: the lead vocals were so low in the mix, they were almost inaudible. Here's a fan review I found of this album at the Discogs website, that sums up the problem: "Great example of Tommy Bolin's guitar playing. Amazing. Only issue is the mix has poor vocals. Great singer but can't hear her."

I guess in 1997 when this album was released, that problem would have been very difficult to fix. But now, anybody can fix it with ease, due to massive improvements in audio editing technology. So I fixed it. I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the instruments. Then I drastically boosted the volume of the vocals, and then merged the two parts back together. The result is like night and day, in my opinion. Before, the album was pretty much unlistenable, unless you treated it as an all instrumental album. But now it sounds just fine, like a well recorded live album from that time period.

So that's why I'm posting this, despite it being officially released. Also, I checked, and that release is out of print. 

If you compare this with the Ebbets Field concert recording, there are some songs performed on that one not performed here, and vice versa. As I said, if you're a big fan, you might want to hear both. But if you only want one, I would definitely make it this one, due to the sound quality. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 Just Warming Up [Instrumental] (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
02 Cross the River (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
03 Boom-Ba-Boom [Instrumental] (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
04 Somebody Listen (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
05 Huna Buna (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
06 The Creator Has a Master Plan (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
07 Sail On (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
08 Crazy 'bout You (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
09 Goin' Home (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
10 Hard Chargin' Woman (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZP8XjRwQ

alternate:

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

In 1970, Zephyr appeared on a local PBS TV show, simply called "The Show." Video footage of that performance survives. So I took a screenshot from that video for the cover image. Candy Givens is seen as the lead singer, with Tommy Bolin on guitar behind her.

Zephyr with Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-24-1973

Before I say anything else, I want to warn you about the sound quality here. A big reason I've been prioritizing the posting of concerts from the Ebbets Field venue is due to the consistently high sound quality. But this is an exception. This sounds markedly worse than any other recording from this venue that I've posted so far. I'm guessing it's an audience boot instead of a radio broadcast. So listener beware.

The main draw for this concert is lead guitarist Tommy Bolin, whose reputation has continued to grow since his untimely death in 1976. He was a member of the band Zephyr when that band started out in 1968. The main appeal of the band was that it paired Bolin's obvious guitar talents with the singing of Candy Givens, a woman whose singing had similarities to the singing of Janis Joplin. Zephyr put out albums in 1969 and 1971. They toured the U.S., but they didn't manage to get a commercial breakthrough. In 1971, just after the band's second album was released, Bolin left the band, due to growing personality conflicts in the band. The rest of the band continued without him, releasing another album in 1972.

In the summer of 1973, Bolin was at loose ends. He had joined the band the James Gang early in 1973. But that band had some time off between recording an album and when it would be released in September. Bolin was living in Boulder. Someone came up with the idea of Bolin reuniting with Zephyr for a few concerts just in the Boulder and Denver area. It would just be for fun, and to make a little money, since he was already committed to being a part of the James Gang. So this was one of a very small number of shows. I'm calling it "Zephyr with Tommy Bolin," because while he had been a member, he was no longer a member. 

As it turned out, Zephyr fizzled out shortly after these reunion shows. The band got back together in 1976 and continued onward. However, it only released one more album, in 1982. Then the band ended for good in 1984, when lead singer Candy Givens died of a drug and alcohol overdose.

I was disappointed that this concert doesn't sound very good. I tried to do some audio editing to improve things, but I could only do so much with the raw material. Then I noticed that another one of these reunion shows was actually released as an official live album, the only live album from the band. That release has the informative title "Zephyr Live at Art's Bar and Grill May 2, 1973." As you can see, that took place just three weeks prior to this concert, at a small club in Boulder.

So I gave that album a listen. The sound quality is much better than this one. But there was a fatal flaw: the lead vocals were extremely low in the mix, almost inaudible. So I decided to fix that, and then post that album too. I strongly recommend you actually listen to that album instead of this one, due to the drastically different sound quality. But, since I'm posting all the Ebbets Field concerts I can get my hands on, I'm posting this one too. If you're a real die-hard fan of Zephyr and/or Tommy Bolin, you might want both.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Zephyr, though it's not very thorough. As I write this in May 2026, it doesn't even mention the 1973 reunion with Bolin.

Zephyr (band) - Wikipedia  

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Cross the River (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
02 The Locomotion (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
03 Lay Down and Die (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
04 Rock Me, Baby (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
05 Going Home (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
06 The Creator Has a Master Plan (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
07 Sail On (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/59iXMozo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/1zqAVNC1EVqMtR9/file

The cover image has major quality issues, just like the music for this album. But I chose it over other options because this is an actual photo taken inside the Ebbets Field venue! It's the first one I've found that fits with one of the albums I want to post. That's Candy Givens playing harmonica with a bandana on her head, and Tommy Bolin on guitar. 

I could have tried to improve this image in various ways, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it since the album has issues anyway.

Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1973, Late Show

Yesterday, I posted the early show of Big Mama Thornton playing at Ebbets Field in Denver in 1973, with Tommy Bolin on lead guitar. Here's the late show.

Most of what I'd want to say about this was said in my write-up for the early show. So please read that. Just a quick recap: it would be plenty interesting to have a recording of blues legend Big Mama Thornton performing at a small club like this in 1973. But a nice bonus is having Bolin on guitar. He was living in the area at the time, shortly before joining the James Gang and then later joining Deep Purple, and he sometimes would back up blues artists when they were passing through town. This seems to be the only instance of that that luckily got recorded.

As with the early show, if you listen to this, it's pretty clear Thornton was winging it, singing whatever song came into her head at any moment. Bolin and the rest of the back-up band probably had no practice time with her, and did a good job trying to keep up with her. 

One nice thing is that the songs in the late show are almost entirely different than those of the early show, with only "Hound Dog" and "Swing It on Home" being the same. And apparently that was Thornton playing the short drum solo at the end of the last song.

If anyone knows the names of the instrumental second and third tracks, please let me know, so I can give them proper names. I did some Internet searching and found someone who had played with Bolin who knew the name of the first song, or I never would have been able to name that instrumental.

As with the early show, the music is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Swamp Carol [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin)
02 Instrumental Jam (Tommy Bolin)
03 Blues Shuffle [Instrumental] (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
04 Pack Up My Troubles (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
05 Good Morning, Little Schoolboy [Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl] (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
06 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
07 Oh Happy Day (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
08 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
09 He's Got the Whole World in His Hands (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
10 Go Down Moses - He's Got the Whole World in His Hands [Reprise] (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
11 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
12 Drink on the Table (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
13 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
14 What'd I Say (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
15 Hound Dog (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
16 Swing It on Home - Drum Solo [Edit] (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WNLRoRCv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VLaXtYf8pAPGlJP/file

The cover image shows Big Mama Thornton on the "Dick Cavett Show" on July 22, 1971. That's the case for the early show cover image as well. I thought it would be nice to have her in the same clothes for the covers of the early and late shows. 

Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1973, Early Show

The next installment of Ebbets Field radio broadcast concerts is something unexpected: blue legend Big Mama Thornton performing with Deep Purple lead guitarist Tommy Bolin! There are early and late shows, with the two of them quite different. Here's the early show.

Thorton is best known for the song "Hound Dog." She had a hit with it in 1952, before Elvis Presley's version. Her version sold half a million copies, which was a remarkable amount back at that time. She's also well known for a song she wrote, "Ball and Chain," after Janis Joplin did a great version of it in the late 1960s. Her time in the spotlight in the 1950s didn't last long, since she only had that one hit. But in the 1960s and into the 1970s she had a career revival playing in blues and/or folk clubs and festivals. At the time of this concert, she was about 46 years old.

Here's her Wikipedia page:

Big Mama Thornton - Wikipedia 

Tommy Bolin was born and raised in Iowa, but his family moved to Boulder, Colorado, in his late teens. He began playing in local bands. One of them, Zephyr, released a couple of albums, and toured nationally, though they didn't have any hits. After that band broke up around 1971, he joined a couple other short-lived bands, and wrote a lot of songs. In 1973, he joined the James Gang (after Joe Walsh left) and dominated it, writing nearly all the songs for two albums. By 1975, he'd left the James Gang and joined Deep Purple for about a year. He also released solo albums in 1975 and 1976. But he died of a drug overdose at the very end of 1976.

Tommy Bolin - Wikipedia

Anyway, the reason I mention all this about Bolin is because it's relevant in explaining how his involvement with Thornton came to be. In 1972 and 1973 especially, Bolin was at loose ends and living in Boulder, often without a band. During this time, he developed a good relationship with Chuck Morris, who owned the Ebbets Field venue (and a couple more in the area). Often, when blues musicians were passing through town and were lacking a backing band, Morris would get Bolin and/or some of Bolin's friends to provide the backing. (Bolin would make the drive from Boulder to Denver in less than an hour.) Or sometimes Bolin would just ask to sit in. In this way, he played with many musical greats, including Howlin' Wolf, Albert King, and Chuck Berry. Usually, these big names would be greatly impressed by Bolin, who was far from being just an inexperienced local musician. 

It seems none of these shows pairing Bolin with these blues legends were recorded... except for this one with Thornton, somehow. I don't know if this was broadcast on the radio at the time, like other Ebbets Field shows, or if just got luckily recorded by the venue anyway. Bobby Berge and Stan Shelton rounded out the backing band. 

Chances are there was little to no practice between Thornton and the backing band beforehand. You can hear at times where Thornton starts a song and just expects the other musicians to figure out what's going on and join in. But it's also clear that she respected Bolin's lead guitar playing, as can be seen by the space he was given to solo, especially with the two instrumentals at the beginning. (If anyone knows the names of those songs, if they have names, please let me know. I also had to figure out the names of the other songs. Please let me know if I got any of them wrong.)

Surprisingly, not only was Thornton a great blues vocalist, she could also play drums pretty well. That's her playing a short drum solo near the end of this recording.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Instrumental Jam (Tommy Bolin)
02 Blues Shuffle [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin)
03 Blues with Intro (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
04 Little Red Rooster [Early One Morning] (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
05 Rock Me Baby (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
06 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
07 Shake, Rattle and Roll - Hi Ho Silver (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
08 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
09 Ball and Chain (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
10 Hound Dog (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
11 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
12 Swing It on Home - Drum Solo (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)
13 talk (Big Mama Thornton with Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fnNa7zWg

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/XF5Bz0rmGxi8TR1/file 

The cover image shows Big Mama Thornton on the "Dick Cavett Show" on July 22, 1971. By the way, looking at the cover, you may wonder that she doesn't look like a "Big Mama." When she was younger, she was most definitely big - at one point, she weighed about 450 pounds. But years of heavy drinking gave her health problems that caused her to lose a lot of weight by the early 1970s. By the time she died in 1984, she only weighed about 95 pounds.