The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to the Nuggets Album, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 5-19-2023

I'm particularly happy to be posting this album. Most every year, a big, loose collection of professional musicians in the Los Angeles area come together to put on a benefit concert that celebrates a favorite musical act or album. In 2023, this group, the Wild Honey Orchestra, did it again. This time, they targeted the 1972 album "Nuggets." 

"Nuggets" was a collection of garage rock from the mid-1960s. It was a hugely influential collection, especially since it helped inspire the punk rock movement a few years later. It also led to an entire cottage industry of similar releases, often with similar names like "Pebbles," mining obscure garage rock gems from that era.

The last Wild Honey Orchestra concert I could find with worthy sound quality was the one from 2019, celebrating the music of the band Lovin' Spoonful. Then a year was skipped due to the Covid pandemic. The 2022 concert celebrated the band Big Star. Then came this one in 2023. Then 2024 was skipped for some reason. Most recently (as I write this in January 2026), there was a 2025 concert celebrating singer-songwriter Warren Zevon.

The only place I've found any of these concert with worthy sound quality was from the Wild Honey Orchestra's YouTube page. But it seemed they stopped posting their concerts after 2020, so I had resigned myself to not finding any more. But I took another look at that page a few days ago, after not going there for a year or two, and I found a video of most of this Nuggets concert, with excellent sound quality. All the songs were there, but lots of the banter between songs was missing. So I converted it to audio format and chopped it into mp3s.

That was good, but I wanted to do something about the missing banter. The emcee for the concert was Lenny Kaye. He was the person who compiled the album back in 1972, and wrote the liner notes. He later played lead guitar for Patti Smith in the 1970s, and then again from the mid-1990s until the current day. For this concert, he gave brief spoken introductions to each of the songs. But about half of them were missing from the video I found. I wanted to do something about that. 

Luckily, I discovered an audience bootleg of the same concert. The sound quality was far worse, but at least it was complete, which meant it had all the missing intros. If I had wanted to take some music from this boot, that would have been a problem. But sound quality didn't matter so much just for talking between songs. Even there, there were sound issues. So I ran all the banter I took from this boot through the Adobe voice enhancer program. That made a drastic difference. Now, I think in most cases, one can't tell which talking tracks were from the original video and which were from the audience boot. Oh, and I also boosted the lead vocals relative to the instruments on the songs that needed that, which was most of them. 

The Wild Honey Orchestra was the backing band for the entire concert, with members coming and going from the stage depending on the musical instruments needed for each song. Furthermore, each song typically had a different lead vocalist, though some sang two or three songs. 

The vocalists generally fell into two categories. The first was musicians who actually played on the original recordings over 50 years ago, or were otherwise from that era. That's pretty remarkable, considering how many years had passed. The others were somewhat younger musicians who just really liked this kind of music. Overall, there weren't that many "big names." Probably the most famous musician was Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles, who sang two songs. For one of them, she was joined by musical comedian Weird Al Yankovic, but he only played accordion and didn't sing. All in all though, it was a pretty old crowd on stage, and I'll bet in the audience as well.

I still can't find worthy audio from the Big Star and Warren Zevon tribute concerts. Let's hope those emerge someday. But in the meantime, at least there's this.  

If you like listening to garage rock, you really should listen to this. True, most of the performers were in their sixties and seventies, but I swear you can't tell by listening. These "old geezers" still knew how to rock! 

This album is two hours and 26 minutes long. 

Before I post the set list, I made this list of the original musical acts for each song, as well as the years the songs were released. Some track numbers are skipped, due to those being talk tracks. The vast majority of the songs on the 1972 "Nuggets" album were performed, but not all of them. Plus, some songs not on that album (but similar in spirit) were played. For instance, "96 Tears," "7 and 7 Is," and "Crazy like a Fox."

02 Oh Yeah - Shadows of Knight (1966)
05 Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl - Barbarians (1965)
07 A Little Bit of Soul - Music Explosion (1967) 
09 Don't Look Back - Remains (1966)
12 96 Tears - Question Mark & the Mysterians (1966)
14 Liar, Liar - Castaways (1965) 
16 [Just Like] Romeo and Juliet - Reflections (1964) 
18 Sugar and Spice - Cryan' Shames (1966)
20 Lies - Knickerbockers (1965)
22 Dirty Water - Standells (1966)
24 Little Girl - Syndicate of Sound (1966)
26 Talk, Talk - Music Machine (1966)
28 Crazy like a Fox - Link Cromwell (1966)
30 Pushin' Too Hard - (Seeds 1966)
32 It's-a-Happening - Magic Mushrooms (1966)
35 You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
37 Baby Please Don't Go - Amboy Dukes (1968)
39 Sit Down, I Think I Love You - Mojo Men (1967)
41 Run, Run, Run - Third Rail (1967)
43 My World Fell Down - Sagittarius (1967)
45 An Invitation to Cry - Magicians (1965) 
47 I Want Candy - Strangeloves (1965)
49 I Had Too Much to Dream [Last Night] - Electric Prunes (1966)
51 No Time like the Right Time - Blues Project (1967) 
53 Hey Joe - Leaves (1966) 
55 Let's Talk about Girls - Chocolate Watchband (1967) 
57 Psychotic Reaction - Count Five (1966) 
59 Open My Eyes - Nazz (1968) 
61 7 and 7 Is - Love (1966)
63 Tobacco Road - Blues Magoos (1966)
65 Farmer John - Premiers (1964)
67 Gloria - Them (1965) 

Here's the usual song list: 

01 talk (Lenny Kaye)
02 Oh Yeah (Mike Stax)
03 talk (Lenny Kaye)
04 talk (Cindy Lee Barryhill)
05 Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl (Cindy Lee Barryhill)
06 talk (Lenny Kaye)
07 A Little Bit of Soul (Paley Brothers)
08 talk (Billy Vera)
09 Don't Look Back (Billy Vera)
10 talk (Lenny Kaye)
11 talk (All Day Sucker)
12 96 Tears (All Day Sucker)
13 talk (Lenny Kaye)
14 Liar, Liar (Nick Guzman)
15 talk (Lenny Kaye)
16 [Just Like] Romeo and Juliet (Ron Dante)
17 talk (Lenny Kaye)
18 Sugar and Spice (Andrew Sandoval & Chris Price)
19 talk (Lenny Kaye)
20 Lies (Peter Case)
21 talk (Lenny Kaye)
22 Dirty Water (Peter Zaremba)
23 talk (Peter Zaremba)
24 Little Girl (Peter Zaremba)
25 talk (Peter Zaremba)
26 Talk, Talk (Peter Zaremba)
27 talk (Lenny Kaye)
28 Crazy like a Fox (Lenny Kaye)
29 talk (Lenny Kaye)
30 Pushin' Too Hard (Lenny Kaye & Paul Kopf with Daryl Hooper)
31 talk (Lenny Kaye)
32 It's-a-Happening (Paul Kopt)
33 talk (Lenny Kaye)
34 talk (Carla Olson, Kathy Valentine & Pearl Bentley)
35 You're Gonna Miss Me (Carla Olson, Kathy Valentine & Pearl Bentley)
36 talk (Lenny Kaye)
37 Baby Please Don't Go (Mike Peters with Wayne Kramer)
38 talk (Lenny Kaye)
39 Sit Down, I Think I Love You (Susanna Hoffs & Owen Elliot with Weird Al Yankovic)
40 talk (Lenny Kaye)
41 Run, Run, Run (Tom Kenny)
42 talk (Lenny Kaye)
43 My World Fell Down (Evie Sands)
44 talk (Evie Sands)
45 An Invitation to Cry (Evie Sands)
46 talk (Lenny Kaye)
47 I Want Candy (Susanna Hoffs)
48 talk (Lenny Kaye)
49 I Had Too Much to Dream [Last Night] (James Lowe)
50 talk (Lenny Kaye)
51 No Time like the Right Time (Cameron Dye)
52 talk (Lenny Kaye)
53 Hey Joe (Jim Pons & John Beck)
54 talk (Lenny Kaye)
55 Let's Talk about Girls (David Aguilar)
56 talk (Lenny Kaye)
57 Psychotic Reaction (Kenn Eliner)
58 talk (Lenny Kaye)
59 Open My Eyes (Three O'Clock)
60 talk (Lenny Kaye)
61 7 and 7 Is (Johnny Echols with John Easdale)
62 talk (Lenny Kaye)
63 Tobacco Road (Tara Austin & Rob Laufer with Kathy Valentine)
64 talk (Lenny Kaye)
65 Farmer John (Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey & Lenny Kaye)
66 talk (Lenny Kaye)
67 Gloria (Lenny Kaye & Everyone)
68 talk (Lenny Kaye)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZjhTUbAN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/7LzIelePtiW6Dx7/file

The cover image is taken from a promotional poster for this exact concert. However, I had to make a lot of changes to get all the key parts of that rectangular poster into a square shape. The art in the middle section is the original "Nuggets" cover (which was also the main part of the poster). The list of musical acts at the bottom is not completely acccurate, since there were some no-shows (like Van Dyke Parks) and some surprise guests (like Susanna Hoffs). But I figured it was close enough to get the gist.

The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to Music from Big Pink and the Band, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 3-25-2017

Here's yet another Wild Honey Orchestra (WHO) tribute show. This time, the focus was on the Band. It was mainly billed as a tribute to the Band's classic 1968 album "Music from Big Pink." But they also managed to play all the songs from their classic 1969 album "The Band," as well as plenty of other songs from around that time period. Surprisingly, though, there were no songs from 1967's "The Basement Tapes" that the Band did with Bob Dylan (except for the three on "Music from Big Pink"). It's very possible that's the target for a different WHO tribute show.

Songs one through 12 consist of "The Band" album played in order. Songs 13 to 20 are other good Band songs, mostly from the early 1970s. Songs 21 to 30 consist of the "Music from Big Pink" album. Then two more songs were played. The last song, "I Shall Be Released," is also from the "Music from Big Pink" album, but was held back because it made for a good final encore.

The concert had a special guest: Garth Hudson. He was the keyboard player for the entire duration of the Band's existence. While most members of the Band were talented lead vocalists, Hudson was not. So he didn't sing lead for any of these songs. However, there were a couple of instrumental showcases for him, especially "The Genetic Method," as well as an unnamed piano solo instrumental. Additionally, I believe he played on many or most of the other songs. Plus, a couple of songs at the end were sung by his wife, Sister Maud Hudson.

Otherwise, the songs were done by many of the same "usual suspects" who performed in most of the other WHO concerts. However, this one had more unique guests than some of the others I've posted here. In particular, they got a very big name by having Jackson Browne sing a couple of songs. Other notables who generally weren't in the other WHO shows I've posted include: Carlene Carter, Peter Case, Victoria Williams, Van Dyke Parks, and Brenda Holloway. 

The source for this is the same as the others I've posted, which means the recording has the same plusses and minuses. The main plusses are that the sound quality is excellent, and all the songs are here. The main negative is that none of the banter between songs is included, unless one counts the comments made at the ends of songs while the audience was still clapping. Another minus was that the applause usually cut off early, right after those comments. So I patched in more applause from other songs for the vast majority of the songs.

This concert is unusually long, even by the standards of the other WHO shows I've posted. It's two hours and forty minutes long.

Unfortunately, this is the last WHO show I plan on posting, until I come across more worthy recordings. I did find a recording of the 2014 show, which was a tribute to the Beatles albums "Revolver" and "Abbey Road." However, it's a rough audience bootleg and I don't find it listenable.

01 Across the Great Divide (David Baerwald with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 Rag Mama Rag (Jerry Riopelle with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
03 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Carlo Nuccio with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 When You Awake (Peter Holsapple, Skylar Gudasz & Van Dyke Parks with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
05 Up on Cripple Creek (Carlo Nuccio & Fuzbee Morse with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 Whispering Pines (Continental Drifters with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 Jemima Surrender (Gary Eaton with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Rockin' Chair (Victoria Williams & the Continental Drifters with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Look Out Cleveland (Jeff Young with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 Jawbone (Chris Price & David Goodstein with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 The Unfaithful Servant (Carlene Carter with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 King Harvest [Has Surely Come] (Terry Reid with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Stage Fright (All Day Sucker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 When I Paint My Masterpiece (Steve Wynn & Van Dyke Parks with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 All la Glory (Rob Laufer & Van Dyke Parks with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Ophelia (Sarah Kramer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 4% Pantomime (Luther Russell & Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 Life Is a Carnival (David Goodstein with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 The Shape I'm In (Keith Allison with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 Get Up Jake (Nick Guzman & Danny Henry with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 Tears of Rage (Syd Straw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 To Kingdom Come (Louise Goffin & Julianna Raye with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 In a Station (Plainsong [Iain Matthews & Andy Roberts] with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 Caledonia Mission (Jackson Browne with Susan Cowsill & the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 The Weight (Continental Drifters & Jackson Browne with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 We Can Talk (Cindy Lee Berryhill, Victoria Williams & Syd Straw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Long Black Veil (Steve Barton with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 The Genetic Method - Chest Fever [Edit] (Garth Hudson & Bebopalula with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
29 Lonesome Suzie (Luther Russell with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 This Wheel's on Fire (Peter Case with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Piano Solo [Instrumental] (Garth Hudson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 It Makes No Difference (Skylar Gudasz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 Baby Don't You Do It [Don't Do It] (Sister Maud Hudson & Steve Wynn with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 I Shall Be Released (Robert Levon Been & Sister Maud Hudson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CyE5aN1a

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/drqH2SrG67EuPl3/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/hyk6k

The cover art is entirely based on promotional art for the concert. I cropped some things out and resized other things to make a rectangular poster fit into a square space.

The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to the Beach Boys. 1967 - 1977, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 2-13-2016

Here's yet another concert from the Wild Honey Orchestra (WHO), that collection of mostly Los Angeles-based professional musicians. 

This time, the target of their tribute show is a little unexpected. The tribute is to the Beach Boys, but not that band's most popular era, in the early and mid-1960s when they had hits like "California Girls" and "Help Me, Rhonda." Instead, it focuses on the years 1967 to 1977. By that time, the band's resident genius was less involved. But the other band members stepped up with surprisingly strong songwriting efforts, leading to more variety. Personally, that's my favorite Beach Boys era, even though there were a lot fewer hits in those years.

The Beach Boys are an ideal tribute subject for the WHO, because their music sounded simple but actually was surprisingly complicated. How many bands of that era would use instruments like the glockenspiel and theramin? But the Beach Boys did. The WHO could have twenty or more musicians on stage at a time, and these songs were well rehearsed, so they were able to nail the arrangements while a carousel of different lead singers sang the songs.

This time around, the WHO was joined by one actual long-time member of the Beach Boys, Al Jardine. But his role was relatively small compared to that of John Sebastian at the WHO's Lovin' Spoonful tribute show. Jardine only sang three songs, two near the beginning and one at the end. David Marks was also there and sang one song. But his involvement with the Beach Boys was much less. He was a member of the band in its very early years, 1962 and 1963, then joined again for their 2012 reunion album and tour.

Other than them, it was mostly the "usual suspects." By now, I've noticed that certain people seem to have taken part in the WHO show every year, or at least most every year. People like Thomas Walsh of Pugwash, Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills, Syd Straw, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints, and so on.

The source for this bootleg is the same as the others, which means excellent sound quality. But there's the same quirk that it's only the songs and not much talking between songs, except usually giving out artist names at the end of each song. In fact, this time there are no banter tracks whatsoever. 

But on the plus side, there's a heck of a lot of music. This album is two hours and 17 minutes long, which I believe is the longest of the WHO shows I have recordings for.

Unfortunately, I only have one more WHO concert after this one, a 2016 tribute show for the Band. There are many more shows than that, including a 2022 Big Star tribute show, so let's hope quality bootlegs of more of them emerge. If you have any, please let me know.

By the way, the bootleg I found had a nice graphic included that shows which songs played were originally from which Beach Boys album. So I've included that in the zip file as well, and you can see it here.

01 Our Prayer (Wild Honey Vocal Group with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 Heroes and Villains (Al Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
03 California Saga- California (Al Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 Feel Flows (Thomas Walsh & Carnie Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
05 Country Air (Rachel Haden & Anna Waronker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 This Whole World (Chris Price & Emeen Zarookian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 Breakaway (John Wicks & Debbi Peterson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Sail On Sailor (Susan Cowsill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Add Some Music to Your Day (Willie Aron with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 Thoughts of You (Syd Straw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 Let Us Go On This Way (Steve Wynn, Mike Mills & Linda Pitmon with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 Our Sweet Love (Steve Stanley with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Be Still (Stephen Kalinich with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 Surf's Up (Skylar Gudasz & Brett Harris with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 Funky Pretty (Scott Bennett with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Disney Girls (Rumer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 'Til I Die (Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 The Trader (Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 I Can Hear Music (Nick Guzman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 Friends (Nelson Bragg & Carnie Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 Wonderful (Muffs with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 Busy Doin' Nothing (Mike Randle & Monique St. Walker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 Be Here in the Mornin' (Mike Randle with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 WIld Honey (Micky Dolenz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 Time to Get Alone (Matt Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 Wake the World (Jason Brewer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Little Bird (David Marks with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 Darlin' (Darian Sahanaja with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
29 Let the Wind Blow (Danny Henry with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 Marcella (Cosmo Topper with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Only with You (Chris Price with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 Bluebirds Over the Mountain (Carla Olson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 Pacific Ocean Blues (Bobby Figueroa & Carl B. Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 Lookin' at Tomorrow (Cindy Lee Berryhill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
35 Forever (Billy Hinsche with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
36 Back Home (Bill Mumy with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
37 Day in the Life of a Tree (Andrew Sandoval with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
38 Long Promised Road (All Day Sucker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
39 Honkin' Down the Highway (Al Jardine with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
40 Hold On Dear Brother (David Goodstein & Monique St. Walker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
41 Good Vibrations (Probyn Gregory with the Wild Honey Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Qrx17wqx

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/3bBPM9tImq65GYs/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/guGh7

I made the cover art from two sources. The top and bottom parts both come from promotional art for the show. I split that in two and made some other adjustments. In the middle, I put some artwork by someone named Thomas Leparskas. This is a collage of everyone who participated in the show.

The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to the White Album, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 2-28-2015

The Wild Honey Orchestra (WHO) tribute shows I've been posting seem to be going over well, so I'm posting some more. I have three more to go. (There are many more I don't have, so if anyone has them in good sound quality, please let me know). This is the earliest one I have, from 2015. The target of the tribute is the Beatles' classic 1968 double album popularly known as "The White Album." (Technically, it's real name is just "The Beatles.")

If you've seen the other WHO posts I've made, you should know the deal. Basically, once a year, a group of mostly Los Angeles-based professional musicians put on a concert to benefit an autism charity. Some of the musicians involved are fairly well known, but there usually aren't any really famous stars. Some of those who performed in this one but generally not the other ones include Gary Wright, Jules Shear, Christine Collister, and the Muffs.

For this show, it just happens that I stumbled across an article in Goldmine Magazine that reviewed the show. So instead of me having to explain a lot, if you want to know more, I suggest you read that article. Here's the link:

Wild Honey Orchestra Does the White Album - Goldmine Magazine: Record Collector & Music Memorabilia

Most of the show consisted of covers of "White Album" songs. But near the end of the concert, other Beatles songs from 1968 were performed, such as the hit singles "Lady Madonna" and "Hey Jude," and the White Album outtake "Not Guilty." 

The sound quality of this bootleg recording is excellent, the same as the other WHO shows I've posted. However, like those, I generally only had the songs and not the talking between songs. There are a few exceptions, such as a long explanation about how they played to perform the sound collage "Revolution No. 9" before it started, but they're very few.

This album is two hours and six minutes long.

01 Back in the U.S.S.R (Chris Collingwood with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 Dear Prudence (John Cowsill, Vicki Peterson & Billy Mumy with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
03 Glass Onion (Thomas Walsh with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (John Wicks & Debbi Peterson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
05 Wild Honey Pie (Wild Honey Vocal Group with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Dirk Hamilton & Debbie Shair with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Gary Wright & Lyle Workman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Happiness Is a Warm Gun (Django Haskins with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Martha My Dear (Iain Matthews & Brett Harris with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 I'm So Tired (Nick Guzman & Susan Cowsill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 Blackbird (Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 talk (Cosmo Topper with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Piggies (Cosmo Topper with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 Rocky Raccoon (Syd Straw & Willie Aron with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 Don't Pass Me By (Keith Allison, Kaitlin Wolfberg, & Ryeland Allison with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Why Don't We Do It in the Road (Damon Fox with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 I Will (Muffs with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 Julia (Susan Cowsill & Vicki Peterson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 Birthday (Damon Fox & David Goodstein with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 Yer Blues (Translator with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 Mother Nature's Son (Brett Harris with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 Everybody's Got Something to Hide... (Steven McDonald & David Goodstein with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 Sexy Sadie (Jules Shear with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 Helter Skelter (Alain Johannes with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 Long, Long, Long (Skylar Gudasz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 Revolution No. 1 (Cindy Lee Berryhill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Honey Pie (Steve Stanley with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 Savoy Truffle (Three O'Clock with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
29 Cry Baby Cry (Iain Matthews & Christine Collister with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 talk (Jim Mills with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Revolution No. 9 (Jim Mills with Heidi Servey, Debbie Shair & Darian Sahanaja with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 Good Night (Rachel Haden & Anna Waronker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 Hey Bulldog (Chris Collingwood & Thomas Walsh with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 Revolution [Single Version] (Mitch Easter with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
35 Not Guilty (John Easdale with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
36 talk (Morty Coyle with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
37 Lady Madonna (Morty Coyle with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
38 Hey Jude (Christine Collister with the Wild Honey Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MXdYo8ZR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Pv8yORtenNQj4PG/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/aezp7

For the cover, I just used a promotional picture for the concert, with a few modifications. In case it isn't obvious enough, the cover is a nice parody/homage to the "White Album" cover. I cropped it and resized some things to make the text on it larger and easier to read.

The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to the Lovin' Spoonful, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 2-29-2020

I've had a request to post more from the Wild Honey Orchestra (WHO), as well as a specific request to post the Lovin' Spoonful tribute show. So here it is.

I've posted two WHO concerts already. You can read more about this group in the write-ups to those. But, in short, it's a group of mostly Los Angeles based professional musicians who put on a concert once a year to benefit a charity. Generally, these musicians are members of bands that are successful enough for a career, but typically not really big name acts. Many of them tend to play these WHO concerts every year. If you compare the artist names for this concert with the other two WHO concerts I've posted, you'll see the vast majority played in all of them.

But this concert was a bit unusual, due to the presence of members of the Lovin' Spoonful, the band that was the focus on the tribute this year. There were four members of the band in the 1960s: John Sebastian, who was the lead singer and main songwriter, and Joe Butler, Steve Boone, and Zal Yanovsky (who was replaced by Jerry Yester before the end of the 1960s). This concert was as good of a reunion of the original band as one could hope for, with Sebastian, Butler and Boone participating. Both Yanovsky and Yester died in the years prior to the concert.

The Lovin' Spoonful did reform in the 1990s, and has played concerts ever since then. However, crucially, John Sebastian didn't take part, and he was the heart of the band. He did play with the others for one concert in 1979, for the Paul Simon movie "One Trick Pony," then again in 2000 for the band's induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But that's been it, with this exception of this concert.

Even better, the original band didn't just play a song or two. They had a big role in the concert, with Sebastian singing lots of songs. There are no concert recordings of the original band with Sebastian that I know of, other than a song here or there on TV shows, so we're very lucky a bootleg recording of this concert has survived. And the sound quality is excellent all the way through. The one downside is that this is generally only the songs, with very little of the banter between songs. There's only a few bits of banter, mostly comments by Sebastian.

The band had a fairly small recorded output, with just five albums, from 1965 to 1969. So a large portion of their songs were played here, including some rather obscure songs. Also, some songs from Sebastian's solo career were included, such as "Stories We Could Tell," "How Have You Been," and his Number One hit "Welcome Back."

There are a few performers here not seen on the two previous WHO concerts I've posted. For instance, Marshall Crenshaw, the duo of Marti Jones & Don Dixon, Dave Alvin, Peter Lewis from Moby Grape, and Peter Case. 

This concert is two hours and six minutes long.

01 Coffee Blues (John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 talk (John Sebastian)
03 Lovin' You (John Sebastian, Steve Boone & Joe Butler with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 talk (John Sebastian)
05 Full Measure (Joe Butler with John Sebastian & Steve Boone with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 Butchie's Tune (Dennis Diken & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 It's Not Time Now (Iain Matthews & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Fishin' Blues (Eleni Mandell, John Sebastian & Elliot Easton with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Nashville Cats (Bill Lloyd & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 There She Is (Nick Guzman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 Pow (John Easdale & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 Darlin' Companion (Bill Mumy & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Money (Cindy Lee Berryhill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 Rain on the Roof (Marshall Crenshaw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 Coconut Grove (Thomas Walsh with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Didn't Want Have to Do It (Mark Eitzel with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 You're a Big Boy Now (Skylar Gudasz, John Sebastian & Elliot Easton with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 Respoken (Marti Jones & Don Dixon with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 Warm Baby (David Goodstein with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 Other Side to This (Peter Lewis with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 Summer in the City (Joe Butler, John Sebastian, Steve Boone & Mark Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 Welcome Back (John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 Lonely (John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 She's Still a Mystery (Darian Sahanaja & the Three O'Clock with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 Darlin' Be Home Soon (Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 Six O'Clock (Wednesday Week with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Never Goin' Back (Joe Butler with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 talk (John Sebastian)
29 You Baby (Claudia Lennear & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 Younger Girl (Steve Stanley with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Stories We Could Tell (Carla Olson & John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 Younger Generation (Kathy McCarty with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 How Have You Been (Dead Rock West with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 Daydream (Micky Dolenz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
35 Night Owl Blues (John Sebastian & Dave Alvin with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
36 talk (Peter Case)
37 Blues in the Bottle (Peter Case with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
38 Four Eyes (Peter Case & Carla Olson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
39 Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind (Carnie Wilson & Rob Bonfiglio with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
40 You Didn't Have to Be So Nice (Susan Cowsill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
41 Jug Band Music (John Sebastian with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
42 Do You Believe in Magic (John Sebastian, Steve Boone & Joe Butler with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
43 Daydream [Reprise] (John Sebastian, Joe Butler & Steve Boone with the Wild Honey Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/biZSzH1G

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/E83U4jHEtdjvzKw/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/i3sa6

The cover is exactly from a promotional poster for the concert. All I did was crop out some parts at the top and the bottom that didn't contain much useful information.

The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to the Village Green Preservation Society, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 2-23-2019

A couple of days ago, I posted a Wild Honey Orchestra (WHO) concert that was a tribute to Buffalo Springfield. That got some good responses, so here's another WHO concert. This one is a tribute to the Kinks, most especially their classic 1968 album "The Village Green Preservation Society." The first half consists of covers of the songs from that album, in order. The second consists of other Kinks covers, all of them from their golden era, roughly 1964 to 1971.

As I explain in the Buffalo Springfield tribute post, WHO are a loose grouping of professional musicians, mostly from the Los Angeles area, who get together for one tribute concert a year, with all the proceeds benefiting an autism charity. While the WHO generally doesn't include big stars, they do contain a lot of musicians who are beloved in their niches of the music business.

You can see the names of the singers in the song credits below (as well as some full bands, like Redd Kross and the Three O'Clock). But to help out, here are some of the bands some of singers have been associated with:

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey: the dBs
Darian Sahanaja: the Wondermints
Dennis Diken: the Smithereens
Jason Falkner: Jellyfish & the Grays
Thomas Walsh: Pugwash
Dan Wilson: Semisonic
Graham Coxon: Blur
Rachel Haden & Anna Waronker: That Dog
Carla Olson: Textones
Jody Stephens: Big Star
Mark Eitzel: American Music Club
Mike Mills: R.E.M.
Steve Wynn: Dream Syndicate
Scott McCaughey: the Filthy Friends & the Minus 5
Elliot Easton: the Cars
Clem Burke: Blondie
Bill Janovitz: Buffalo Tom
Ira Kaplan: Yo La Tengo
John Easdale: Dramarama

I'm sure I missed some associations (feel free to help), but you get the idea. 

By the way, before posting this, I just read an article about it. That mentioned that while no actual member of the Kinks took part, that was due to health and/or travel issues. Lead guitarist Dave Davies did take part in a 1995 WHO show, so I was surprised these yearly concerts go back that far. I only have bootlegs going back to 2015, so it anyone has any older ones with good sound quality, please let me know.

Speaking of sound quality, much of this sounds excellent. About the first twenty songs all come from a professionally recorded source. That sounds great. The rest come from an audience bootleg. Normally, I don't post that kind of thing, but this was an unusually good sounding one. Also, I used the audio editing program Spleeter to improve the sound quality some. Still, you may notice a difference between the two source.

Unfortunately, the good source only had the songs, no banter between the songs. So I stuck with that all the way through, for consistency's sake. It may be better this way: all killer, no filler.

As I said with the Buffalo Springfield WHO post, "Orchestra" fits in the group name, because they are a big bunch. As many as two dozen musicians played on stage at any given time. That meant they were able really go deep in creating the ideal backing for each song. For instance, if a certain song had a prominent oboe in it, you can bet an oboe was played here too. If you're a Kinks fan, like I am, this is great stuff.

This concert is two hours and six minutes long.

01 Village Green Preservation Society (Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 Do You Remember Walter (Darian Sahanaja with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
03 Picture Book (Dennis Diken with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 Johnny Thunder (Mike Viola with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
05 The Last of the Steam Powered Trains (Terry Reid with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 Big Sky (Jason Falkner with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 Sitting by the Riverside (Ira Kaplan with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Animal Farm (Thomas Walsh with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Village Green (Andrew Sandoval with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 Starstruck (Dan Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 Phenomenal Cat (Chris Stamey & Debbie Shair with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 All of My Friends Were There (Chris Price with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Wicked Annabella (Steve McDonald with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 Monica (Peter Holsapple & Millie McGuire with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 People Take Pictures of Each Other (Kristian Hoffman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Drivin' (Bebopalula with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 Stop Your Sobbing (Bill Janovitz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 Top of the Pops (Carla Olson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 Victoria (Jackshit with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 She's Got Everything (Three O'Clock & Jason Falkner with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 This Time Tomorrow (All Day Sucker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 Fancy (Redd Kross with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Terry Reid with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 You Shouldn't Be Sad (Ira Kaplan with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 Strangers (Syd Straw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 This Is Where I Belong (Freedy Johnston with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Afternoon Tea (Steve Stanley with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 Dedicated Follower of Fashion (Graham Coxon with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
29 Autumn Almanac (Probyn Gregory with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 A Well Respected Man (Nick Guzman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Too Much on My Mind (Dan Wilson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 Two Sisters (Rachel Haden & Anna Waronker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 God's Children (Jody Stephens & Luther Wright with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 Waterloo Sunset (Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
35 Shangri-La (John Easdale with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
36 Days (Mark Eitzel with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
37 Where Have All the Good Times Gone (Steve Wynn with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
38 Get Back in Line (Scott McCaughey with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
39 Lola (Mike Mills with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
40 You Really Got Me (Everyone with the Wild Honey Orchestra) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3P8BJvzH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/JSe90NettUf0INP/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/mjt46

The cover art consists of three parts. The very top part comes from promotional material for the show. Below that is a photo of the marquee for the theater. And at the bottom is a photo of the WHO on stage. As you can see, lots of musicians!

The Wild Honey Orchestra - Tribute to Buffalo Springfield, Alex Theatre, Glendale, CA, 2-17-2018

Here's something a little different, but if you're a fan of the band Buffalo Springfield, I'm sure you'll like it.

The Wild Honey Orchestra is a loose grouping of musicians, mostly based in Los Angeles, who have been putting on a yearly concert to benefit an autism charity since about 2015. Each year, they pick a different musical theme, and they have retro tastes very similar to mine. For instance, they did cover versions of the entire Beatles albums "Revolver" and "Abbey Road" in 2014, then the Beatles' "White Album" in 2015, then Beach Boys music in 2016, Band music in 2017, this one is 2018, Kinks music in 2019, Lovin' Spoonful music in 2020, and Big Star music in 2022. The songs are done by those who generally have had successful careers in music but aren't big stars. The singers are backed by many musicians, often dozens on stage. So calling them an "orchestra" is fitting, even though it's sometimes more like a really big band than an orchestra in the classical music sense.

The big draw in this particular show was the presence of Richie Furay, one of the three key singer-songwriters in Buffalo Springfield. He generally was only on stage for the songs he sang, but he sang about eight of them. Other notables include Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, Iain Matthews of Fairport Convention, Terry Reid, Syd Straw, Martha Davis of the Motels, Elliot Easton of the Cars, Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills, Carla Olson, Brent Rademaker of Beachwood Sparks, Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints, the bands Dream Syndicate and the Three O'Clock, and many, many more.

These concerts aren't just thrown together. Each song was carefully rehearsed, with all the different parts well thought out. As a result, even the most complicated songs can sound well done. Give the short and turbulent history of Buffalo Springfield, that means their songs were often done is a style much closer to the studio versions than the guys of Buffalo Springfield ever managed. "Broken Arrow" is a case in point. Even the many sound effects of the studio version were faithfully duplicated here. But the performances are much better than just slavish reproductions. The lead vocalists in particular tended to put their individual styles on each song.

So, if you're a Buffalo Springfield fan, this is kind of a dream concert, with even deep cuts done well. 

I had been aware of these Wild Honey Orchestra concerts for a few years, but I hadn't paid them much attention, because I only came across audience bootlegs that merely sounded decent. I'm posting this because I finally found excellent, professionally recorded versions of each song. The snag is that there's only the music. Other than one story told by Richie Furay before one of the songs, there's virtually no banter here, and even the applause tended to fade out quickly. That's all I've got (in worthy sound quality), so it's all I can post. But in a way perhaps it's for the best, because there's just one solid song after another with little pause.

I've come across recordings of some of the other Wild Honey Orchestra concerts in similar quality, but not all, so I plan on posting those soon as well. If anyone has good versions of the Revolver/Abbey Road show, or the Big Star show, please let me know.

This concert is two hours and three minutes long.

01 Out of My Mind (Bebopalula with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
02 Hung Upside Down (David Goodstein with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
03 Down to the Wire (Syd Straw with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
04 Burned (Stephen McCarthy & Carla Olson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
05 We'll See (All Day Sucker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
06 Pay the Price (Brent Rademaker with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
07 Sit Down, I Think I Love You (Darian Sahanaja & Susan Cowsill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
08 Merry-Go-Round (Chris Price with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
09 Pretty Girl Why (Luther Russell with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
10 Everydays (Cindy Lee Berryhill with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
11 Four Days Gone (Terry Reid with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
12 I Am a Child (Nick Guzman with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
13 Carefree Country Day (Steve Stanley with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
14 talk (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
15 A Child's Claim to Fame (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
16 Go and Say Goodbye (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
17 Kind Woman (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
18 Expecting to Fly (Claudia Lennear & Rob Laufer with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
19 In the Hour of Not Quite Rain (Our Truth with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
20 Broken Arrow (Iain Matthews & Chris Price with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
21 It's So Hard to Wait (Micky Dolenz with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
22 Sad Memory (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
23 On the Way Home (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
24 Rock and Roll Woman (Three O'Clock with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
25 Everybody's Wrong (Martha Davis with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
26 Mr. Soul (Dream Syndicate with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
27 Bluebird (Willie Aron with Elliot Easton & the Wild Honey Orchestra)
28 Uno Mundo (Carla Olson with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
29 Special Care (Claudia Lennear with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
30 Questions (Gary Myrick with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
31 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
32 Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
33 Nowadays Even Clancy Can't Sing (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra)
34 For What It's Worth (Richie Furay with the Wild Honey Orchestra) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mk5YQivE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2Xsp08VGDMjDHYU/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/fU5tz

For the cover art, I found a photo of the sign out in front of the theater. I put that at the top. I also found some promotional art listing all the musicians who performed, and I put that at the bottom.