Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle - City Winery, Nashville, TN, 4-3-2021

I recently discovered that Emmylou Harris performed about six concerts at the City Winery in Nashville in 2021, as people were just starting to attend concerts again due to the Covid pandemic. The concerts were done to benefit local charities helping with animal welfare, and each was different than typical Harris concerts in some way. I was able to find two of them on YouTube. This one is special because it was a joint acoustic concert with Steve Earle. The two of them took turns singing songs and telling stories in front of a very small audience, with excellent sound quality.

If you want, you can find the video of this on YouTube and watch the concert instead of just listening to it. I converted the video to audio, then chopped it into mp3 files.

The sound quality is excellent because the concert was a webcast. I missed it at the time, but better late than never. I plan on posting the other concert I found soon. 

This album is an hour and 36 minutes long. 

01 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
02 Raise the Dead (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
03 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
04 Copperhead Road (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
05 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
06 Big Black Dog (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
07 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
08 Devil Put the Coal in the Ground (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
09 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
10 My Antonia (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
11 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
12 Hometown Blues (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
13 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
14 All I Left Behind (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
15 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
16 You're the Best Lover that I Ever Had (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
17 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
18 My Name Is Emmett Till (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
19 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
20 Goodbye (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
21 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
22 Blackhawk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
23 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
24 Harlem River Blues (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
25 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
26 If I Needed You (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
27 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
28 City of Immigrants (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
29 talk (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)
30 Pilgrim (Emmylou Harris & Steve Earle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/m2paqekc 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/Tp4XhQjIm89w1un/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a YouTube video of this exact concert. I used Photoshop to move the two of them a lot closer to each other.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Acoustic Reckoning, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 4-11-2026

Here's something for Grateful Dead fans as well as fans of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: it's acoustic versions of most of the songs on the 1981 Grateful Dead album "Reckoning," plus many other Grateful Dead covers. There's a lot of music to love here as well, since the concert was almost three hours long. And it took place less than a month ago, as I write this in May 2026.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of searching for concerts that have taken place in the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, due to the leak of dozens of concerts from there a couple of weeks ago. The sound quality of these concerts is excellent, but most of them need work being split into individual song files and such, so I've been checking to see if other people are doing that. These searches have turned up a few things that don't actually come from that big leak, and this is one of them. This is from a webcast instead. So, while the sourcing is different, the sound quality is equally excellent.

Welch and Rawlings have become stars of roots music, blending country, bluegrass, and folk. But while they've released many albums mostly consisting of songs they've written, it turns out they've also been Deadheads all along. In fact, while gathering information for this album, I came across an article talking about how Welch followed the Dead for some concerts in the late 1980s, as Deadheads did. So, apparently just for fun, they decided to perform an entire tour of the U.S. consisting of nothing but covers of Dead songs, as well as cover songs closely associated with the Dead. The tour started in April 2026 with this concert, and will continue through August. So if you're reading this, you might want to go see them live. I checked their setlists at setlist.fm. It turns out they've been varying up their set lists a lot on the tour. They played 24 songs here. But they've done over 40 different ones on the tour so far, and all the songs are those that were performed by the Dead.

The tour was inspired by the Dead's "Reckoning" album, which was semi-acoustic. It's hard to call it fully acoustic, since the band had two drummers. But Welch and Rawlings went even more stripped down, being accompanied by just a bassist (as you can see on the cover image). A majority of the songs performed did appear on "Reckoning," but it's a loose tribute. They skipped some songs from that album, and played quite a few others. I was especially impressed by "St. Stephen," as I didn't know it could sound good with such minimal instrumentation.  

This album is two hours and 52 minutes long. 

01 talk (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
02 Bertha (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
03 Jack Straw (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
04 Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
05 Dire Wolf (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
06 Dark Hollow (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
07 talk (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
08 It Must Have Been the Roses (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
09 Loser (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
10 Friend of the Devil (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
11 Cassidy (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
12 talk (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
13 Cumberland Blues (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
14 Brown-Eyed Women (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
15 I've Been All Around This World (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
16 Deep Elm Blues (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
17 Brokedown Palace (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
18 talk (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
19 He's Gone (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
20 Cold Rain and Snow (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
21 Bird Song (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
22 Ripple (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
23 talk (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
24 Althea (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
25 To Lay Me Down (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
26 St. Stephen (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
27 Not Fade Away - St. Stephen [Reprise] (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
28 Morning Dew (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
29 talk (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eZTJVaSo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/o5bi397bmPxuc35/file 

The cover image, from right to left: David Rawlings, Gillian Welch and Paul Kowert. This image was taken at the Fox Theater, in Oakland, California, on April 17th, 2026, less than a week after the concert presented here. The text at the top and the bottom come from a promotional image associated with the webcast. I just resized the words and moved them around.

Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 9-26-2014

I'm dealing with two "floods" right now - posting a flood of concerts from the Ebbets Field venue in the 1970s and posting a flood of recently leaked concerts from the Capitol Theatre venue in Port Chester in the 2010s. Here's another from that second flood. This one stars singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle, with both of them in acoustic mode.

By the time of this concert, both Colvin and Earle had long music careers, with their first albums being released in the 1980s. They began performing together in 2014. At first, it seems they only did a handful of concerts in 2014 and 2015. But in 2016 they released an album together, "Colvin and Earle," and toured a lot more. Their collaboration petered out after that. 

I've posted a concert they did in 2016. Many of the songs are different, since this one is from two years earlier, well before their 2016 album was made. Here's the link to that one:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/02/shawn-colvin-steve-earle-hardly.html

As far as I know, that 2016 concert I posted was the only one featuring the two of them together with excellent sound quality, until this one recently was made public (as I write this in May 2026). This is a soundboard boot, like the others coming from the same Port Chester leak. 

A person named Frenfri made some improvements to this before I got my hands on it. That person broke the single file into songs, and make some sonic improvements as well. Also, the singers were identified for the songs as well as the banter. So I kept that information. But I believe both of them were on the stage the whole time. So even when only one of their names is mentioned, the other one could have been stumming along with guitar and/or doing some backing vocals.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 54 minutes long. 

01 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
02 Wake Up, Little Susie (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
03 talk (Steve Earle)
04 Devil's Right Hand (Steve Earle)
05 talk (Shawn Colvin)
06 Another Long One (Shawn Colvin)
07 talk (Steve Earle)
08 Goodbye (Steve Earle)
09 talk (Shawn Colvin)
10 A Matter of Minutes (Shawn Colvin)
11 Crazy (Shawn Colvin)
12 talk (Steve Earle)
13 Pancho and Lefty (Steve Earle)
14 talk (Shawn Colvin)
15 That Don't Worry Me Now (Shawn Colvin)
16 talk (Steve Earle)
17 Someday (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
18 talk (Shawn Colvin)
19 Fearless Heart (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
20 Diamond in the Rough (Shawn Colvin)
21 talk (Steve Earle)
22 City of Immigrants (Steve Earle)
23 talk (Steve Earle)
24 Burnin' It Down (Steve Earle)
25 talk (Shawn Colvin)
26 Sunny Came Home (Shawn Colvin)
27 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
28 The Galway Girl (Steve Earle)
29 talk (Steve Earle)
30 You're Still Standin' There (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
31 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
32 Baby's in Black (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
33 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
34 Copperhead Road (Steve Earle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/giAUUYZ5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/77Fo4va1vBTzYPB/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado on August 30, 2016.

Sandy Denny - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 4-29-1973

The flood of Ebbets Field radio broadcasts continues. You may have noticed I'm trying to post one of these each day. Here's one from folk singer Sandy Denny.

Denny was a member of Fairport Convention from 1968 to 1969. She left to pursue a solo career. She rejoined Fairport Convention from 1974 to 1975. I have two albums of that band performing at Ebbets Field in 1974 when she was a member. That will be coming soon. 

She was pretty popular in Britain. She even won "Best British Female Singer" in a readers' poll for Melody Maker magazine in 1970 and 1971. But she was far less well known in the U.S., which helps explain why she was performing in this small club that seated 250 people at most. Her most recent album at the time of this concert was "Sandy," in 1972.  

So far, I believe all the concerts I've posted from this venue have been officially unreleased. But this one came out as part of the 2012 deluxe edition of the "Sandy" album. That said, the recording was still pretty raw, with some sonic imbalances. So I made some changes with the MVSEP program.

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 Late November (Sandy Denny)
02 talk (Sandy Denny)
03 The Music Weaver (Sandy Denny)
04 talk (Sandy Denny)
05 It Suits Me Well (Sandy Denny)
06 talk (Sandy Denny)
07 Bushes and Briars (Sandy Denny)
08 talk (Sandy Denny)
09 The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood (Sandy Denny)
10 talk (Sandy Denny)
11 The Sea Captain (Sandy Denny)
12 talk (Sandy Denny)
13 At the End of the Day (Sandy Denny)
14 talk (Sandy Denny)
15 John the Gun (Sandy Denny)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NRSGaEk8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3SIvyMcViAiWgn0/file

The cover image is from the Ngaruawahia Music Festival in New Zealand in 1973. The sky was blue behind her, so I changed that to grey to better fit with this album, since the Ebbets Field club was indoors.

Tom Waits - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 10-8-1974

The flood of Ebbets Field radio broadcasts continues. Here's a solo acoustic one from singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

I've found over 60 different concert recordings that come from the Ebbets Field venue. Out of all of those, I think only one where I have two performances by the same musical act from different dates is Tom Waits. I found this one, from 1974, and another one from 1975 that I'll be posting later.

The debut album by Waits, "Closing Time," was released in 1973. His second album, "The Heart of Saturday Night," came out on October 15, 1974. That's one week after this concert. So if someone attending this concert was only familiar with the "Closing Time" album, they wouldn't have known most of the songs. Only four songs performed where from that album (tracks 1, 7, 16, and 19). The rest would be included on his second album, or other later albums. One song, "Good Night Loving Trail," is a cover written by Utah Phillips, which Waits has never officially released.

There's a bootleg called "The Dime Store Novels, Vol. 1" that consists of this concert. It's packaged like an official release, and it seems it's widely available. However, it is still just a bootleg. (And there doesn't seem to be any "Vol. 2.")

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.  

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You (Tom Waits)
02 talk (Tom Waits)
03 San Diego Serenade (Tom Waits)
04 Good Night Loving Trail (Tom Waits)
05 talk (Tom Waits)
06 Diamonds on My Windshield (Tom Waits)
07 Ice Cream Man (Tom Waits)
08 Please Call Me Baby (Tom Waits)
09 talk (Tom Waits)
10 Better Off without a Wife (Tom Waits)
11 The Ghosts of Saturday Night [After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House] (Tom Waits)
12 Big Joe and Phantom 309 [Phantom 309] (Tom Waits)
13 talk (Tom Waits)
14 Semi Suite (Tom Waits)
15 talk (Tom Waits)
16 Ol' 55 (Tom Waits)
17 On a Foggy Night (Tom Waits)
18 talk (Tom Waits)
19 Martha (Tom Waits)
20 talk by emcee (Tom Waits) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/12bMyFNx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/P7SQOo94iYaX8Z2/file

The cover image is a promo photo from 1973. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Flight of the Conchords - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 6-9-2016

Normally, I don't post comedy at this blog, since it's a music blog. But I'll make an occasional exception for comedic songs. I've posted music from Allen Sherman and Spinal Tap in the past, for instance. Here's another one: Flight of the Conchords. If you haven't seen their TV show, you're missing out. I really enjoyed that. It's about a fictional musical duo, starring Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, who are New Zealanders struggling to make it as musicians in New York City. One vital part of that show was that each episode featured a couple of original songs, which were consistently both funny and just well written songs. It's not easy to do both.

This is part of the leak of dozens of concerts from Port Chester, New York. Another person split the single audio file into songs. I further split out the talking parts.

The "Flight of the Conchords" T.V. show ran from 2007 to 2009, on H.B.O. They also put out albums in 2007, 2008, and 2009, plus a live one in 2019. They toured off and on from 2001 to 2018. This concert was the start of their 2016 tour. I just looked up their info, and I'm pleased that they resumed touring just last month, April 2026, for the first time since 2018. So let's hope the Conchords are starting a new chapter. They don't really need to reunite, because both Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have been successful as actors in T.V. and movies.

Note that the first half hour of this recording is the opening act, a stand-up comedy routine by Arj Barker. There's a good connection to the main act, because in addition to being a stand-up comedian, Barker played a recurring minor role in the Flight of the Conchords T.V. show. I've made his stand-up act track "00." That way, if you just want to listen to the main act, that starts with track 01.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent, although there's some echo/reverb marring the sound a bit. 

This album is two hours long exactly. It is an hour and 26 minutes long if you don't include Arj Barker's opening act. 

00 Arj Barker Stand-Up Routine (Arj Barker)
01 talk by Arj Barker (Flight of the Conchords)
02 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
03 Chips and Dips (Flight of the Conchords)
04 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
05 Father and Son (Flight of the Conchords)
06 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
07 Foux du Fafa (Flight of the Conchords)
08 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
09 Stana (Flight of the Conchords)
10 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
11 The Most Beautiful Girl [In the Room] (Flight of the Conchords)
12 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
13 Shady Rachel (Flight of the Conchords)
14 Mutha'uckas (Flight of the Conchords)
15 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
16 Seagull (Flight of the Conchords)
17 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
18 Iain and Deanna (Flight of the Conchords)
19 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
20 Summer of 1353 (Flight of the Conchords)
21 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
22 Bowie (Flight of the Conchords)
23 talk (Flight of the Conchords)
24 Business Time (Flight of the Conchords)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QBF1PR7M

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9PggXRFxVjjJ8N5/file

The cover image comes from this exact concert.

Roger McGuinn - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 2-20-1974

Here's another radio broadcast concert from the small Ebbets Field venue in Denver, Colorado. This one is a solo acoustic performance by Roger McGuinn, former lead singer of the Byrds.

I'm very impressed by the roster of musical acts that performed at this club in the years of its existence, from 1973 to 1977. You can see a list of the performers in 1973 here:

https://queencityjamz.blogspot.com/2019/12/ebbets-field-denver-1973-listings.html

And the performers from 1974 to 1977 here: 

https://kimsloans.wordpress.com/tag/ebetts-field-denver-music-venue-1974/

In my opinion, there's a high rate of quality, with lots of concerts I wish I could hear, and not so many that I've never heard about or don't care for. I suspect that's because the owner of the venue, Chuck Morris, had good musical taste, and booked the artists he liked. To support that, I heard an anecdote that he was a very big fan of the Byrds, so much so that when he was hiring employees for his venue, one question he would ask was who were the five original members of the Byrds.

Given that, Morris must have been excited for this concert. The Byrds broke up in early 1973, right around the time the Ebbets Field venue opened up, so they never performed there. But McGuinn immediately started a solo career, releasing his first solo album, the cleverly titled, "Roger McGuinn," later in 1973. He was still promoting that album at the time of this concert.

The music is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent. However, I made a lot of adjustments, because this recording was in a pretty raw state. So parts of songs were too loud, others too quiet, the banter was especially quiet, and so on. But all of it was fixable.

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 I'm So Restless (Roger McGuinn)
02 talk (Roger McGuinn)
03 Lost My Drivin' Wheel (Roger McGuinn)
04 Bag Full of Money (Roger McGuinn)
05 talk (Roger McGuinn)
06 Wasn't Born to Follow (Roger McGuinn)
07 The Ballad of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn)
08 talk (Roger McGuinn)
09 Take a Whiff (Roger McGuinn)
10 talk (Roger McGuinn)
11 Wayfaring Stranger (Roger McGuinn)
12 Old Blue Story-Song (Roger McGuinn)
13 talk (Roger McGuinn)
14 Old Blue (Roger McGuinn)
15 talk (Roger McGuinn)
16 Mr. Spaceman (Roger McGuinn)
17 talk (Roger McGuinn)
18 Eight Miles High (Roger McGuinn)
19 talk (Roger McGuinn)
20 Lover of the Bayou (Roger McGuinn)
21 talk (Roger McGuinn)
22 Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy (Roger McGuinn)
23 talk (Roger McGuinn)
24 The Bells of Rhymney (Roger McGuinn)
25 So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (Roger McGuinn)
26 The Lady (Roger McGuinn)
27 Chestnut Mare (Roger McGuinn)
28 talk by emcee (Roger McGuinn)
29 Turn, Turn, Turn [To Everything There Is a Season] (Roger McGuinn)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/U4gbACq5 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/XQrHNO2vRRX4oMy/file

The cover image shows McGuinn in Malibu, California, in July 1974. 

Lightnin' Hopkins - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 4-24-1974

The range of musical acts who performed at the Ebbets Field venue, which held about 250 people, was impressive. For instance, I wouldn't have imagined a recording like this from Lightnin' Hopkins in 1974. But here it is.

I tend to think of Hopkins as someone from decades earlier. But he was still very musically active in 1974. He was about 61 years old, which isn't really old for a blues musician. For instance, B.B. King lived to be 89 years old, and was still performing right up until the end. 

Here's the Wikipedia entry intro about him: "[Hopkins] was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist, and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. The musicologist Robert 'Mack' McCormick opined that Hopkins is 'the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act.' He influenced Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, Jr., and a generation of blues musicians such as Stevie Ray Vaughan... In his own lifetime, Hopkins was one of the initial inductees in 1980 to the Blues Hall of Fame." 

Here's the rest of the entry:

Lightnin' Hopkins - Wikipedia

I'll add a bit more to that. His recording career began in the 1940s, when he was already in his 30s. He grew popular with Black audiences in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s, his career got a boost when his music was discovered by the folk revival, mostly made up of White audiences. That started in 1960, when he performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City with Joan Baez and Pete Seeger. From that point on, he often played at folk festivals and colleges, and even toured internationally. He died of cancer in 1982, at the age of 69.

This is a solo acoustic concert, with a lot of banter between songs. The music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
02 Nothing I Can Do (Lightnin' Hopkins)
03 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
04 Lord Have Mercy (Lightnin' Hopkins)
05 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
06 Lazy Woman Do (Lightnin' Hopkins)
07 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
08 I Got My Hook in Your Water (Lightnin' Hopkins)
09 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
10 Can You Tell Who's Coming In (Lightnin' Hopkins)
11 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
12 Cook My Breakfast (Lightnin' Hopkins)
13 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
14 Key to the Highway (Lightnin' Hopkins)
15 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
16 It's Time for You to Change Your Way (Lightnin' Hopkins)
17 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
18 Instrumental (Lightnin' Hopkins)
19 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
20 Rock Me Baby (Lightnin' Hopkins)
21 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
22 Ain't It Crazy [The Rub] (Lightnin' Hopkins)
23 talk (Lightnin' Hopkins)
24 70 Miles from Nowhere (Lightnin' Hopkins)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JNuN8nge

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Af025pQZxD1XMB6/file

The cover image is from the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 10, 1974.

Denver, Boise & Johnson - The Bistro Inn, Columbus, OH, 6-1968

One can find such interesting music on YouTube these days. I was searching for more concerts from the Ebbets Field venue in Denver, Colorado, and the use of the search term "Denver" helped me find this concert. I checked, and it wasn't available anywhere else. It's nearly two hours of the folk trio Denver, Boise and Johnson, with excellent sound quality. If you're a fan of John Denver then you'll want this, because he was the "Denver" in "Denver, Boise and Johnson."

I should start by explaining who this trio were. I've actually posted half an album of their music on this blog before. I say half, because I posted an album that contained a John Denver solo set he did at the Philadelphia Folk Festival as well as a Denver, Boise and Johnson set from that same festival. The latter set lasted about 25 minutes. Here's the link to that one, in case you're curious:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2026/01/john-denver-plus-denver-boise-johnson.html

Anyway, when I posted that, I explained the background of the trio. Here's that same explanation:

The group was originally a popular folk group called the "Chad Mitchell Trio." But in 1965, Chad Mitchell left for a solo career, and was replaced by John Denver. It was his first big break into the music industry. The group changed its name to just the "Mitchell Trio." Then, by 1968, the last original member had left, so they were legally required to change their name again, to "Denver, Boise and Johnson." At this point, they consisted of John Denver, David Boise, and Michael Johnson. This version didn't last long, breaking up in 1969 without releasing any albums. 

Now, let me get back to how I found this concert on YouTube. It turns out that Michael Johnson posted it there in 2022. I mention that name, because this was the Michael Johnson who was a member of Denver, Boise and Johnson. Actually, it must be a family member who posted that, because Johnson died in 2017. But whoever posted it posted a handful of concert bootlegs from this trio, so if you're interested in more, go check out that person's YouTube page. I picked this one because it was the longest and most coherent, coming from a single concert.

Here's Johnson's website, if you want to see more pictures and other information about this trio: https://www.mjblue.com/mjdbj.html

At the time of this concert, this trio mostly performed cover songs. But occasionally they played John Denver originals. You can find a few sprinkled in here, like "Take Me to Tomorrow," "Like to Deal with the Ladies," "For Baby (For Bobbie)," "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Catch Another Butterfly," and "Sticky Summer Weather." I think those are all of his originals, but I might have missed one or two. A year after this concert, Peter, Paul and Mary would have a big hit single with "Leaving on a Jet Plane," turning it into a folk classic.

If you're wondering why Denver, Boise and Johnson didn't have a hit with "Leaving on a Jet Plane" before Peter, Paul and Mary did, it's because they basically couldn't get a record contract. By 1968, folk music was considered passe, especially if it was still acoustic and not folk-rock. The trio released a couple of singles that didn't make the charts. They broke up in 1969, having never released a studio album in the year or so that these three people made up the trio. John Denver, of course, went on to superstardom only a couple of years after that. Michael Johnson also went on to have a successful, long music career, including having a couple of Number One hits on the U.S. country singles chart in the 1980s.

This appears to be a soundboard recording. There were a few problems, mostly where songs got cut off. That happened three times. For "Let's Get Together," only the very end of the song was missing, literally the last sung note, plus the applause. So that was an easy fix. For "Coal Tattoo," nearly the entire song was missing. But Michael Johnson's YouTube page has some other Denver, Boise and Johnson live recordings, as I mentioned above, so I used one of those to fill in most of the song. It was a similar situation with "Both Sides Now" near the end of the concert. That was missing about the first minute, so I also filled that in with a different live version taken from that YouTube page.

It appears the band played three sets in this concert. I think this includes all of the first and second sets. But there may have been additional songs before "Coal Tattoo" at the start of the third set. There are very few repeats. Only the last three songs were played earlier. 

Oh, one last thing. I don't know the exact date of this concert, and I'm not even sure of the month. Michael Johnson's YouTube page merely says it took place in the summer of 1968. But I found another reference that said June 1968, so I'm going with that unless I hear something different. 

This album is an hour and 56 minutes long.

01 That's the Way It's Gonna Be (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
02 What This Country Really Needs Is Another Movie Star (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
03 We Didn't Know (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
04 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
05 Take Me to Tomorrow (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
06 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
07 Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
08 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
09 Red Velvet (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
10 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
11 Like to Deal with the Ladies (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
12 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
13 Bending the Strings [Instrumental] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
14 Everybody's Talkin' (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
15 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
16 Draft Dodger Rag (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
17 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
18 Both Sides Now (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
19 Love of the Common People (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
20 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
21 I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
22 If You Had Me in Shackles (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
23 The John Birch Society (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
24 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
25 For Baby [For Bobbie] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
26 You Certainly Have Got a Pretty Fantastic Bod (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
27 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
28 Victoria Dines Alone (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
29 Your Friendly, Liberal, Neighborhood Ku Klux Klan (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
30 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
31 Leaving on a Jet Plane (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
32 Yellow Cat (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
33 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
34 The '68 Nixon [This Year's Model] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
35 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
36 Turning Point (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
37 Blowin' in the Wind (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
38 Let's Get Together [Edit] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
39 Coal Tattoo [Edit] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
40 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
41 Asturias [Leyenda] [Instrumental] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
42 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
43 Business Goes On as Usual (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
44 Catch Another Butterfly (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
45 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
46 Foggy Mountain Breakdown [Instrumental] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
47 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
48 Cripple Creek [Instrumental] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
49 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
50 Sticky Summer Weather (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
51 Love of the Common People (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
52 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
53 Both Sides Now [Edit] (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
54 talk (Denver, Boise & Johnson)
55 I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Denver, Boise & Johnson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uGr1HA5x

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/a75hEoNov5OCOmm/file

I found the photo of this trio at Michael Johnson's website. From left to right: Michael Johnson, David Boise, and John Denver.

Jackson Browne - Jabberwocky, Syracuse, NY, 3-27-1971

Here is a really great concert bootleg from Jackson Browne. It may well be the most interesting concert recording out of his long career, because it's from very early, about a year prior to the release of his debut album. The most interesting aspect is that there's no less than nine songs here that weren't officially released at the time (and only a couple of have come out in different versions much later). So it's basically like there's an entire album of songs prior to his debut included here.

I've known about this concert for a long time, but I hadn't posted it yet because it had a number of sound quality issues, and I'd never gotten around to fixing them. But yesterday, I saw a person named "twrona" posted a version on a popular bootleg sharing site that fixed most of those issues. (I left that person's notes so you can read what they fixed.) So I grabbed that and made some fixes of my own. Mostly, that had to do with volume adjustments. I also ran all the talking tracks through the Adobe vocal enhancer to help get rid of hiss and other background noise, which were much more noticeable during those bits.

This is a solo acoustic concert. (There's some talk at the beginning about Browne having a backing musician, referred to as "the Famous Flame" or "Tom Jones," but that's just jokey references to his guitar.) This very possibly is the earliest concert recording available for him. Note that it took place the same night as a Bonnie Raitt concert in the same venue. You can find that one here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/04/bonnie-raitt-jabberwocky-club-syracuse.html

(I just updated the cover art for that one. Taking a look at it again after a long time, I didn't like it. So I changed the font colors and style to match this Browne one.) 

This appears to be a combination of early and late shows. (I'm not sure where the break is, but "Jamaica Say You Will" is probably the last song of the early show.) Perhaps Raitt also did early and late shows, and her recording is a combination of those as well. At one point, Browne noted that Raitt was backstage during his set, and he also noted a written set list she'd left on stage. It's a shame the two of them didn't perform any songs together, but they probably were just starting to get to know each other. They would go on to become good friends, and perform together on stage many, many times.

I cut out some dead air and guitar tuning between songs. I also cut out about three minutes of crowd interaction in the middle of the show. Basically, someone in the audience was very aggressive, and all but demanded to be allowed to sing a song. Browne obliged, and the person sang... and was absolutely terrible. Trust me, you don't want to hear it. By the way, this same person asked for Raitt at one point. I think it's the same person who basically was an annoying heckler during Raitt's concert that same evening.

Here are all the songs performed in this concert that remain unreleased by Browne: 

Together Again (performed twice, the first version being much shorter)
Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood
Last Time I Was Home
Jesus in 3-4 Time (a J.D. Souther cover)
Take It Underground
When You Lose Your Money
Someday Morning
World to Gain
Shadow Dream Song

Most of the rest of the songs would appear on Browne's 1972 debut album "Jackson Browne," also known as "Saturate Before Using." But two, "Our Lady of the Well" and "These Days," would appear on his 1973 album "For Everyman."

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. That's because it was broadcast live on the WNEW radio station, as was Raitt's performance. 

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (Jackson Browne)
02 Under the Falling Sky (Jackson Browne)
03 World to Gain (Jackson Browne)
04 talk (Jackson Browne)
05 Together Again [Short Version] (Jackson Browne)
06 talk (Jackson Browne)
07 Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood (Jackson Browne)
08 Last Time I Was Home (Jackson Browne)
09 talk (Jackson Browne)
10 Jesus in 3-4 Time (Jackson Browne)
11 talk (Jackson Browne)
12 My Opening Farewell (Jackson Browne)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 From Silver Lake (Jackson Browne)
15 talk (Jackson Browne)
16 Rock Me on the Water (Jackson Browne)
17 talk (Jackson Browne)
18 Jamaica Say You Will (Jackson Browne)
19 Together Again (Jackson Browne)
20 talk (Jackson Browne)
21 Take It Underground (Jackson Browne)
22 talk (Jackson Browne)
23 When You Lose Your Money (Jackson Browne)
24 talk (Jackson Browne)
25 Our Lady of the Well (Jackson Browne)
26 talk (Jackson Browne)
27 These Days (Jackson Browne)
28 Someday Morning (Jackson Browne)
29 Shadow Dream Song (Jackson Browne)
30 talk (Jackson Browne)
31 Song for Adam (Jackson Browne)
32 talk (Jackson Browne)
33 Looking into You (Jackson Browne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Hh5vD1WT 

alternate: 

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

The cover image is supposed to be "circa 1971" at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

John Prine - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 2-4-1974

Here's a concert by singer-songwriter John Prine. It's one of many concerts I'm posting from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts.

I'm enjoying (and thus prioritizing) posting these Ebbets Field concerts for several reasons. 1) Most albums I post have issues, requiring a lot of tinkering to get things fixed to my satisfaction. That's much less the case with these broadcasts. That's probably a reflection of how well they were recorded in the first place. 2) Most of these are very rare and hard to find, with the exception of a small number. So I'm pleased to reveal these to a wider audience. 3) When I look at the concerts that took place in this venue, I'm really impressed. I find myself wishing I could have attended the vast majority of them.  I've long felt the late 1960s and early 1970s were a peak of musical creativity in general, so that's part of it. But I also think the people who booked the music acts for this venue must have had very good musical taste.

Speaking of how rare these Ebbets Field broadcast bootlegs are, I was only able to find this one on YouTube. So I converted it to audio and chopped it into mp3s. 

At this time of this concert, Prine had released three albums. He was touring to promote the third one, "Sweet Revenge." According to the crowd-sourced ratings at rateyourmusic.com, that album gets the highest ratings of all his albums other than he debut. So this is a good point to hear a concert from him.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Spanish Pipedream (John Prine)
02 talk (John Prine)
03 The Accident [Things Could Be Worse] (John Prine)
04 talk (John Prine)
05 Sweet Revenge (John Prine)
06 talk (John Prine)
07 Illegal Smile (John Prine)
08 talk (John Prine)
09 Illegal Smile [Reprise] (John Prine)
10 talk (John Prine)
11 Donald and Lydia (John Prine)
12 Sam Stone (John Prine)
13 talk (John Prine)
14 Dear Abby (John Prine)
15 Rocky Mountain Time (John Prine)
16 Pretty Good (John Prine)
17 Hello in There (John Prine)
18 talk (John Prine)
19 Grandpa Was a Carpenter (John Prine)
20 talk (John Prine)
21 Christmas in Prison (John Prine)
22 Paradise (John Prine)
23 talk (John Prine)
24 My Mexican Home (John Prine)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/p8njoCMR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/tzZABPasBonY6JS/file

The cover image comes from a concert at the Symphony Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 26, 1974.

Taj Mahal - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-16-1973, Late Show

The album I just posted is Taj Mahal performing at Ebbets Field in Denver on May 16, 1973, for the early show. This is the same, except it's the late show. The two shows have very similar set lists. (And both were broadcast on the radio, which is why they have such excellent sound quality.) Normally, I wouldn't post two concerts that are this similar. But I figure these are quite obscure. I had a difficult time finding them. So I want to post both, to bring them back into wider circulation.

The main difference between this show and the early show is the last two songs, which were only performed in this show. Plus, the last four songs in the early show weren't performed here. So if you want everything without multiple versions of songs, I suggest you save the early show, then add the last two songs from this late show to the end.

By the way, in case you didn't notice, I recently changed the font type and color for the Ebbets Field concerts I've been posting. The first seven or so had a yellow color. But there were some troublesome issues with that font. So when I found another sixty (!) or so concerts from this venue, I decided to use an easier one. I also found a little logo from the venue showing the baseball stadium in New York City that the venue was named after. I decided to stick that on all the albums from that venue. Since that logo was mainly in green, I changed the font color to green. In recent days, I went back and reposted all the yellow ones to the new color scheme, so they'll all be consistent. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (Taj Mahal)
02 Kalimba [Instrumental] (Taj Mahal)
03 talk (Taj Mahal)
04 Banjo Rag [Instrumental] (Taj Mahal)
05 Cakewalk into Town (Taj Mahal)
06 Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue (Taj Mahal)
07 Ain't Nobody's Business but My Own (Taj Mahal)
08 talk (Taj Mahal)
09 Big Legged Mammas Are Back in Style (Taj Mahal)
10 Fishin' Blues (Taj Mahal)
11 Sweet Home Chicago (Taj Mahal)
12 Linin' Track Blues (Taj Mahal)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZtaaiayH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zRL9jT3pDSQnOT8/file

The cover image is from Great Southeast Music in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 26, 1973. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. Note that I took the picture from the early show from the same show. I like the similarity, since I figure he would have worn the same clothes in the two shows performed on this date.

Taj Mahal - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-16-1973, Early Show

The recent flood of posts from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts continues. Here's Taj Mahal. I'll be posting both the early and late shows he did the same night.

This concert was in solo acoustic mode. Mostly, he played guitar. But he also played a little banjo, as well as an African instrument known as the kalimba (also known as the mbira). On the cover image, he can be seen playing a banjo.

His most recent album at the time was "Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff," released in 1972. He has an instrumental on that album simply called "Kalimba," which is how I know the name of that song. (I had to figure out most of the song titles, since the bootleg I took the music from was bad with titles.) "Cakewalk into Town" and "Corrina" are the only other songs he played from that album. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. But I did do a fair amount of audio editing in the Audacity program to improve things. Some parts were too loud, sometimes the vocals were too low, and so on.

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 Banjo Rag [Instrumental] (Taj Mahal)
02 talk (Taj Mahal)
03 Kalimba [Instrumental] (Taj Mahal)
04 Cakewalk into Town (Taj Mahal)
05 Big Legged Mammas Are Back in Style (Taj Mahal)
06 Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue (Taj Mahal)
07 Ain't Nobody's Business but My Own (Taj Mahal)
08 Fishin' Blues (Taj Mahal)
09 Straight Shootin' Blues (Taj Mahal)
10 Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie [Any Mo'] (Taj Mahal)
11 Done Changed My Way of Living (Taj Mahal)
12 Corrina [Corinna] (Taj Mahal)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UEQAJ8sk

alternate:

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

The cover image is from Great Southeast Music in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 26, 1973. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Eric Andersen - Jabberwocky, Syracuse, NY, 9-15-1972

I've been posting a lot of 1970s concerts from the Ebbets Field venue in Colorado lately. I was disappointed not to be able to find an Eric Andersen concert recording from that venue, since I came across evidence that one of his shows there was recorded and broadcast (specifically, on October 4, 1974). Maybe it'll turn up someday. But I like Andersen's music, and I decided I'd try to find a similar substitute. I came up with this one, from the same time period.

Andersen put out his first album in 1965. He didn't have big commercial success, but he's had a long career as a respected singer-songwriter that continues until this day. (He's 83 years old as I write this in 2026.) Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Eric Andersen - Wikipedia

Probably his most acclaimed album is "Blue River," released in 1972. So we're lucky this concert comes from his 1972 tour promoting that album. We're especially lucky to have this, because I looked fairly thoroughly, and this is by far the best bootleg from him from the 1970s (and I couldn't find anything at all from the 1960s). It's an excellent sounding soundboard that was given to someone by Andersen himself, according to the notes I found. He performed all of it in solo acoustic mode.

This is the early show. There was only a little bit of the introduction to the late show on the recording. Since there was no recording of an emcee introduction at the start of the early show, I moved the emcee introduction from the late show to the beginning. I also got rid of dead air between a lot of songs. There was a lot of uninteresting guitar tuning, and well as some silence. But I kept all the banter. 

By the way, as I was posting this, I noticed that this album, and the last album I just posted by Jerry Jeff Walker, both contain the song "More Often than Not," written by David Wiffen. Good song!  

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Eric Andersen)
02 talk (Eric Andersen)
03 Hello Sun (Eric Andersen)
04 talk (Eric Andersen)
05 Close the Door Lightly When You Go (Eric Andersen)
06 talk (Eric Andersen)
07 Why Don't You Love Me (Eric Andersen)
08 talk (Eric Andersen)
09 Lie with Me (Eric Andersen)
10 talk (Eric Andersen)
11 Blue River (Eric Andersen)
12 talk (Eric Andersen)
13 Daddy Frank [The Guitar Man] (Eric Andersen)
14 Is It Really Love at All (Eric Andersen)
15 Time Run like a Freight Train (Eric Andersen)
16 talk (Eric Andersen)
17 Thirsty Boots (Eric Andersen)
18 talk by emcee (Eric Andersen)
19 talk (Eric Andersen)
20 Mama Tried (Eric Andersen)
21 Florentine (Eric Andersen)
22 talk by emcee (Eric Andersen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3nJZ9bdk

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/cKvUwXMxxdo6tU7/file

The cover image is from a concert in Queens College, New York City, on May, 13, 1971. I used Photoshop to remove a big, distracting light fixture right above his head. I also used Krea AI to generally improve the details.

Steve Wynn, R.E.M. & Natalie Merchant - McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA, 5-24-1987

Here's a very an interesting bootleg concert recording, all of it acoustic. It was billed as a "Texas Records Lawsuit Benefit." I don't know what that was about. If anyone does, I'll put in the explanation here. 

Probably the biggest name at the time was R.E.M. But also, Natalie Merchant, then still with 10,000 Maniacs, had a prominent role. Another key figure was Steven Wynn. Some others were involved. I will get to them a minute.

Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch to call it "R.E.M.," since most of the time it was just lead singer Michael Stipe and lead guitarist Peter Buck. But they were joined for the last three songs by bassist Mike Mills. So the only one missing was drummer Bill Berry. But that makes sense, since this was a drum-free acoustic performance (for the most part). Note that, at the time, it was pretty much unheard of for any members of R.E.M. to perform in acoustic mode. Later, R.E.M. did do some acoustic sessions, but they were rarely as stripped down as this.

If you haven't heard of Steve Wynn, he lead the band the Dream Syndicate from 1981 to 1989, then had a long solo career (and band reunions) after that. Here's his Wikipedia page:

Steve Wynn (musician) - Wikipedia 

Also, this was a concert where everyone involved was clearly having fun and letting it all hang out, performing songs they otherwise would never or rarely have performed in concert. The venue, McCabe's Guitar Shop, has a lot to do with that. I've come across other concerts here that had various guest stars drop in and play some pretty random things, even decades after this. (Robyn Hitchcock, for instance, has played many interesting concerts here, with lots of guests.) It seems the people at the venue must have encouraged this format. The fact that the place is in Los Angeles, where many other musical people live or pass through, and the fact that it's so small, with room for only a hundred or two people, also must factor in. Many concerts here are less like normal concerts and more like a bunch of friends hanging out and playing music.

One downside to us listeners is that because the venue is so small, it's very rare to get bootleg recordings. After all, what are the odds of there being a bootlegger in a concert of two hundred people compared to one in a concert of 20,000 people? And when there are bootlegs, they typically are audience boots, that sometimes don't sound that good. That's why I haven't posted many concerts from this venue, even though they often are really special musically. But this one is a lucky exception, because it generally sounds very good as well. I say "generally" because I took this from three different sources, and some sources sound better than others. But a lot of it is at a soundboard level.

Getting back to who took part, as you can see in the artist name for this album, most of the songs involved Steve Wynn, R.E.M., and Natalie Merchant, solo and in various combinations. But there were others too. For instance, Peter Case played a few songs with Peter Buck of R.E.M. Case had been the main singer songwriter for the Plimsouls for much of the 1980s, but that band had broken up by the time of this concert. He soon settled into a long career in more of a folkie mode instead. 

Jenny Homer is not well known, but she was a member of the band Downy Mildew. In 1987, the year of this concert, they put out their debut album. Here's the Wikipedia entry for that band:

Downy Mildew (band) - Wikipedia

Kendra Smith was a founding member of the Dream Syndicate, the band I mentioned above that was led by Steve Wynn. But she left after just a couple of years to join a new band, Opal. She must have stayed on good terms with Wynn though, considering they sang a duet here. She later became a solo artist. Here's here Wikipedia page:

Kendra Smith - Wikipedia

This is not all of the concert. I've included a text file that lists all the songs known to have been performed. I included most of what I was able to find. If anyone has more, please let me know. But there also was some that I didn't include because the sound quality wasn't as good as the rest. Plus, there actually was an early show and a late show, with similar set lists. I combined them into one show, since I only had pieces here and there. The band Downy Mildew and Opal performed short sets in both shows, but none of that is here.

I can't emphasize how unique and interesting this is, especially if you're an R.E.M. fan or Natalie Merchant fan. Just getting to hear their songs in acoustic mode is special. But also both of those acts did a lot of strange cover songs. Take track 39, prominently featuring Stipe and Merchant. It's a cover of "Leaving on a Jet Plane" while "Sunday Morning" by Margo Guryan was sung at the same time!

Nearly all of this is unreleased. However, "Maps and Legends" and "The One I Love" were released by R.E.M. on the B-side to their single of "It's the End of the World as I Know It (And I Feel Fine)." 

This album is an hour and 52 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 talk (Steve Wynn)
03 Merritville (Steve Wynn)
04 talk (Steve Wynn)
05 Drinking Problem (Steve Wynn)
06 One More Cup of Coffee [Valley Below] (Steve Wynn with Bob Forres)
07 talk (Steve Wynn)
08 Days of Wine and Roses (Steve Wynn)
09 talk (Steve Wynn)
10 Solitary Man (Steve Wynn & Russ Tolman)
11 Walk, Don't Run - Baby, Please Don't Go (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
12 A Million Miles Away (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
13 talk (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
14 Sad Eyes (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
15 talk (emcee)
16 talk (Natalie Merchant)
17 The Fat Lady of Limbourg (Natalie Merchant)
18 talk (Natalie Merchant)
19 Don't Talk (Natalie Merchant)
20 talk (Natalie Merchant)
21 Hello Stranger (Natalie Merchant, Jenny Homer & Michael Stipe)
22 The Wind, the Wind (Natalie Merchant)
23 talk (Natalie Merchant)
24 Verdi Cries (Natalie Merchant)
25 talk (emcee)
26 The One I Love (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
27 talk (Michael Stipe)
28 Welcome to the Occupation (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
29 talk (Michael Stipe)
30 Disturbance at the Heron House (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
31 talk (Michael Stipe)
32 Finest Worksong (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
33 talk (Michael Stipe)
34 Maps and Legends (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
35 talk (Michael Stipe)
36 Harpers (Michael Stipe)
37 talk (Michael Stipe)
38 Damaged Goods (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Natalie Merchant)
39 Leaving on a Jet Plane - Sunday Morning (Everyone)
40 talk (Steve Wynn)
41 50 in a 25 Zone (Steve Wynn)
42 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Killing Time (Steve Wynn)
43 talk (Steve Wynn)
44 See that My Grave Is Kept Clean (Steve Wynn & Peter Buck)
45 Stagefright (Steve Wynn)
46 talk (Steve Wynn)
47 Too Little, Too Late (Steve Wynn & Kendra Smith)
48 More than a Pay Cheque (Natalie Merchant, Jenny Homer & Kendra Smith)
49 Hear the Wind Blow (Kendra Smith & Natalie Merchant)
50 A Campfire Song (Natalie Merchant)
51 The Counting Song [Wheel of Fortune] (Michael Stipe & Natalie Merchant)
52 Stretch My Hand (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
53 Spooky (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Mike Mills)
54 Fever (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Mike Mills)
55 So. Central Rain (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Mike Mills)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oK2JXY1J

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/l9qtjCKS16se9Ft/file

The cover photo appears to be promotional material for this exact concert. I changed the white text at the bottom.

Elliott Smith - Umbra Penumbra, Portland, OR, 9-17-1994

Here's something a bit unusual from singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. This is the earliest known acoustic concert by him, all the way back in 1994. 

From 1990 until 1996, Smith was a member of the rock band Heatmiser. While still in that band, he began a solo career in 1994. He released his first solo album, "Roman Candle," in July 1994. The album was a fluke. He had recorded it in a friend's basement, and sent the songs to a record company in hopes of getting a record deal to release a solo single. But the company liked his demos enough to want to release all of them as an album. Smith later said, "I thought my head would be chopped off immediately when it came out because at the time it was so opposite to the grunge thing that was popular ... The thing is that album was really well received, which was a total shock, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser], unfortunately." 

Smith performed over a dozen solo concerts on the West Coast promoting the album. This one is the best sounding recording from that tour, by far. I had this as a bootleg for ages. But in 2020, it was released as a bonus disc for a deluxe edition of his 1995 album "Elliott Smith." Normally I don't released officially released stuff, but I'm making an exception here because I think this concert doesn't get enough attention. One can practically put it with his studio albums due to the sound quality, as well as the song selection. He performed ten songs, but only three of them were from the "Roman Candle" album (tracks 6, 9, and 10). Most of the others were unreleased at the time. One of those, "Alphabet Town," would be released on Smith's 1995 self-titled album.

The last song, "Half Right," was one that would be released on the last Heatmiser album, "Mic City Sons," released in 1996. The other main singer-songwriter in that band was Neil Gust. He joined Smith to sing the song here. The song though was written by Smith. Smith's solo version of it eventually was released on the archival album "New Moon."

This album is 34 minutes long. 

01 talk (Elliott Smith)
02 Some Song (Elliott Smith)
03 Alphabet Town (Elliott Smith)
04 Whatever [Folk Song in C] (Elliott Smith)
05 talk (Elliott Smith)
06 No Name No. 4 (Elliott Smith)
07 Big Decision (Elliott Smith)
08 talk (Elliott Smith)
09 Condor Ave (Elliott Smith)
10 No Name No. 1 (Elliott Smith)
11 talk (Elliott Smith)
12 No Confidence Man (Elliott Smith)
13 talk (Elliott Smith)
14 Crazy Fucker (Elliott Smith)
15 talk (Elliott Smith)
16 Half Right (Elliott Smith with Neil Gust)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Gr3DMRQc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Hxn19sSJEVvr8To/file

The cover photo is from 1994. But I don't know the details. 

Dave Mason - Mississippi Riverbank Club, Minneapolis, MN, 7-25-1986

Recently, a commenter named nytvf pointed out a Dave Mason concert on YouTube, and suggested I post that on my blog. I checked out the link, and I was impressed by the concert. It's an acoustic concert with great sound quality, but somehow it seems to only exist as that one YouTube. Well, until now, that is. Here it is converted by me into mp3s. Thanks to nytvf for the suggestion. (I'm always open to suggestions.)

Mason had commercial and critical success, highlighted by two big hits, "Only You Know and I Know" in 1970, and "We Just Disagree" in 1977. But his commercial fortunes went way down in the 1980s. He didn't even release a new studio album between 1980 and 1987. This concert happened near the end of that time. Pretty much all the songs he performed were songs he wrote in the 1960s or 1970s, or covers of classic songs. But while he didn't seem to be very creative with new songs during this time period, his performing skills were still a good as ever.

Mason played guitar, and was backed up by only one other person, Jim Krueger, also on guitar (and backing vocals). That's worth noting because Kreuger also wrote a couple of the songs performed here, "The Word" and "We Just Disagree." Kreuger was a member of Mason's band since the mid-1970s.

The one thing that surprises me here is that it seems Mason didn't play "Only You Know and I Know," which I would guess is the second best known song he's written, behind "Feelin' Alright." (Perhaps there was more to this concert that what's on the recording, I don't know.) 

Anyway, this previously obscure recording is one of the best live recordings of his music, in my opinion. The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I would guess it either has to be a soundboard or an FM radio broadcast.  

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

01 Feelin' Alright (Dave Mason)
02 World in Changes (Dave Mason)
03 talk (Dave Mason)
04 Every Woman (Dave Mason)
05 talk (Dave Mason)
06 Sad and Deep as You (Dave Mason)
07 That's Alright Mama [Instrumental Version] (Dave Mason)
08 talk (Dave Mason)
09 The Words (Dave Mason)
10 Not Fade Away (Dave Mason)
11 talk (Dave Mason)
12 Let It Go, Let It Flow (Dave Mason)
13 talk (Dave Mason)
14 Shouldn't Have Took More than You Gave - Dear Prudence (Dave Mason)
15 talk (Dave Mason)
16 Bird on the Wind (Dave Mason)
17 talk (Dave Mason)
18 We Just Disagree (Dave Mason)
19 talk (Dave Mason)
20 Maybe (Dave Mason)
21 talk (Dave Mason)
22 Dust My Blues (Dave Mason)
23 talk (Dave Mason)
24 All Shook Up (Dave Mason)
25 Bring It on Home to Me (Dave Mason)
26 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Dave Mason)
27 talk (Dave Mason)
28 All Along the Watchtower (Dave Mason)
29 talk (Dave Mason)
30 Take It to the Limit (Dave Mason)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vCDHvuqf

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/1SiXN82PhZRd9jK/file 

The cover photo is from 1981. You can see a second guitarist behind Mason's guitar. I assume that's Jim Krueger. But you can only see part of his head and some of his guitar.

Elliott Smith - The Steamboat, Austin, TX, 5-3-2003

I was listening to some Elliott Smith music yesterday, and I noticed that I'd never posted this concert from him. So I want to fix that ASAP, since it's an excellent concert. It's the best concert I've heard from 2003, the last year of his life. (He died on October 21, 2003, at the age of 34.) This is a solo acoustic concert.

What makes this concert recording stand out is the sound quality. It's an excellent soundboard bootleg. He was in good form, which wasn't always the case in 2003. He hadn't toured much since 2000, and he was playing a lot of new songs, some of which would end up on his 2004 album, "From a Basement on the Hill." It also ends with a nice cover of "Blackbird" by the Beatles. 

By the way, I've noticed there's a video of this entire concert on YouTube. This isn't sourced from that, though. The video quality isn't that good, but I thought I'd mention it for people who might want to watch it. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Happiness (Elliott Smith)
02 Memory Lane (Elliott Smith)
03 Rose Parade (Elliott Smith)
04 Strung Out Again (Elliott Smith)
05 talk (Elliott Smith)
06 Plainclothes Man (Elliott Smith)
07 I Figured You Out (Elliott Smith)
08 St. Ides Heaven (Elliott Smith)
09 A Passing Feeling (Elliott Smith)
10 Division Day (Elliott Smith)
11 talk (Elliott Smith)
12 Between the Bars (Elliott Smith)
13 Twilight (Elliott Smith)
14 I Better Be Quiet Now (Elliott Smith)
15 talk (Elliott Smith)
16 Pretty [Ugly Before] (Elliott Smith)
17 Waltz No. 2 [XO] (Elliott Smith)
18 Satellite (Elliott Smith)
19 talk (Elliott Smith)
20 Coast to Coast (Elliott Smith)
21 Say Yes (Elliott Smith)
22 talk (Elliott Smith)
23 Blackbird (Elliott Smith)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H56xYJ42

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hRfx7N2IVC2fHqT/file

The cover image is from a concert at the University of London Union, in London, Britain, on March 30, 2003.

Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham - Nordwestradio, Bremen, Germany, 10-14-1999

The songwriting team of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham are responsible for many soul classics, such as "Don Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "The Dark End of the Street." I've made two albums of their songs for my "Covered" series. But in addition to being excellent songwriters, they also were excellent performers. In particular, Penn had a soulful voice, and could have been a star if he'd saved his best songs for himself. (He sings lead on most of the songs here.) However, the two of them preferred being songwriters and sessions musicians instead. This concert is a good overview of the best songs, most of which they wrote together.

Penn and Olham began writing songs together in the 1960s, and wrote many hits. Penn put out a solo album in 1973, but it was mostly ignored at the time, and it seems he didn't tour or otherwise promote it. He resumed a solo career in 1993, usually working closely with Oldham. As far as I can tell, they only began touring in 1998, and occasionally toured after that. A live album compiled from various 1998 concerts was released in 1999, called "Moments from This Theatre." I prefer this concert for several reasons. For one, I prefer hearing a single concert, rather than an album cobbled together from lots of different concerts. Also, the official live album has 14 songs on it, and this one is significantly longer, with 21 songs. Plus, this one also has more banter.

This concert was recorded for a German radio station. The music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

The concert is basically acoustic, with Penn playing an acoustic guitar and Oldham playing an organ, and not much else. 

This album is an hour and 32 minutes long. 

01 I'm Your Puppet (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
02 Sweet Inspiration (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
03 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
04 Cry like a Baby (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
05 Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
06 I Met Her in Church (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
07 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
08 Lonely Women Make Good Lovers (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
09 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
10 It Tears Me Up (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
11 The Dark End of the Street (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
12 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
13 You Left the Water Running (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
14 A Woman Left Lonely (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
15 I'm Living Good (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
16 Ol' Folks (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
17 Nobody's Fool (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
18 Zero Willpower (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
19 Hello Memphis (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
20 Rainbow Road (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
21 Goodbye London [Edit] (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
22 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
23 These Bars [Made a Prisoner Out of Me] (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
24 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
25 Memphis Women and Chicken (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
26 talk (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
27 I Do (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)
28 Out of Left Field (Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yBuBTwFF

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/MlB0MsVI2exbusf/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except it was taken in 1996. Oldham has a beard and Penn is shown playing a guitar. 

Neil Finn, Roddy Frame, & Graham Gouldman - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-2-1999

Here's another episode of the BBC TV show "Songwriters' Circle." This show ran for only five episodes in 1999. Then it had a longer life about ten years later, with over a dozen episodes from 2010 to 2012. This is one of those 1999 episodes. It stars Neil Finn from Crowded House, Roddy Frame from Aztec Camera, and Graham Gouldman from 10cc. (Both Neil Finn returned for second appearances in 2011.)

As usual, the show had the format of each singer-songwriter taking turns performing their own songs. This episode, however, had more collaboration between them, especially in the second half of the show. That's one of the reasons I think this is one of the best shows in this series.

Unfortunately, this is the last episode I've been able to find. There are three others that were broadcast that remain elusive for me. There are two more 1999 episodes. One of them starred Joan Baez, Matraca Berg, and Gretchen Peters. The other one starred two duos, Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, and then Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, plus John Martyn. I'm also missing a 2012 episode starring Bill Anderson, Clint Black, and Bob DiPiero. If anyone has them and wants to share, I'd love to post them here as well. 

On a different note, I'm back from my week-long trip to Seattle. Now that I'm back, I fixed the cover of County JoeMcDonald's "BBC Sessions, Volume 3," so you might want to redownload that one. I also hope to finally respond to some comments I still haven't gotten to during my Peru trip, plus the ones from the last week. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 talk (Neil Finn)
02 Distant Sun (Neil Finn)
03 talk (Roddy Frame)
04 Bigger Brighter Better (Roddy Frame)
05 talk (Graham Gouldman)
06 Bus Stop (Graham Gouldman)
07 talk (Neil Finn)
08 Don't Dream It's Over (Neil Finn)
09 talk (Roddy Frame)
10 Hymn to Grace (Roddy Frame)
11 talk (Graham Gouldman)
12 Heart Full of Soul (Graham Gouldman)
13 talk (Neil Finn)
14 Throw Your Arms Around Me (Neil Finn)
15 talk (Roddy Frame)
16 Killermont Street (Roddy Frame)
17 talk (Graham Gouldman)
18 For Your Love (Graham Gouldman)
19 talk (Neil Finn, Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
20 Fall at Your Feet (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
21 talk (Roddy Frame)
22 Oblivious (Roddy Frame with Neil Finn & Graham Gouldman)
23 talk (Graham Gouldman)
24 I'm Not in Love (Graham Gouldman)
25 talk (Neil Finn)
26 Weather with You (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
27 talk (Neil Finn)
28 Ten Guitars (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
29 talk (Neil Finn, Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)
30 Somewhere in My Heart (Roddy Frame with Neil Finn & Graham Gouldman)
31 talk (Graham Gouldman)
32 Dreadlock Holiday (Graham Gouldman with Neil Finn & Roddy Frame)
33 talk (Neil Finn)
34 Better Be Home Soon (Neil Finn with Roddy Frame & Graham Gouldman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FbfQAr71

alternate: 

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

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Neil Finn, Roddy Frame, and Graham Gouldman.