Rockpile - The Bottom Line, New York City, 10-24-1978

I love Rockpile, the late 1970s band with Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. They had lots of great songs, and they could really rock. It's a shame they never got their due, in my opinion largely due to the fact that Lowe and Edmunds were on different record labels, so Rockpile was only ever able to record one studio album, right when they broke up.

Rockpile definitely excelled on stage. It's too bad they never released a live album while they were still together. One was released decades later, but that's a concert from 1980. This show is from 1978, with a significantly different song list. This concert from The Bottom Line in New York City is a great one. It was played live on the radio, so the sound quality is as good as a professionally recorded live album. Just listening to it, I can almost see and smell the sweat from a tightly packed crowd dancing to the relentlessly energetic songs. If you like good ol' rock and roll, give this a listen! 

There were some issues with the bootleg recording that I had to fix. The music was just fine, but sometimes things got a little problematic with the applause after some songs. In two cases, a DJ for the radio station recording and playing the concert over the radio spoke over the applause to remind listeners what station they were listening to. I removed those. In a few other cases, the applause at the ends of songs was missing or cut short. So I did my usual trick of patching in applause from the ends of other songs.

There are two notable things about the last song, "Let It Rock," a Chuck Berry number. First, it features Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones as an additional lead guitarist. Two, it's not actually from the concert in question. But, it's from the very next night, at the same venue. The recording of that night is also excellent. The set list was the same with the exception of this one song with Richards, so I've only included that song at the end.

By the way, Lowe once wrote an interesting account of Richards playing "Let It Rock." It's probably from the appearance that is included here, though it's possible he played with the band more than one. Lowe claims it was at the Bottom Line, but in 1979, but he could have the timing wrong. Anyway, here's the link to the short story:

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/keith-richards-meets-rockpile-1979.86634/

The concert is 59 minutes long, including the extra song with Richards. If you own listen to just one Rockpile concert, I recommend this one, even over their official album "Live at Montreux 1980."

01 Down, Down, Down (Rockpile)
02 So It Goes (Rockpile)
03 I Knew the Bride [When She Used to Rock and Roll] (Rockpile)
04 talk (Rockpile)
05 Deborah (Rockpile)
06 talk (Rockpile)
07 I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass (Rockpile)
08 talk (Rockpile)
09 No More Mr. Nice Guy (Rockpile)
10 Trouble Boys (Rockpile)
11 It's My Own Business (Rockpile)
12 talk (Rockpile)
13 Never Been in Love (Rockpile)
14 Love So Fine (Rockpile)
15 Promised Land (Rockpile)
16 talk (Rockpile)
17 I Hear You Knocking (Rockpile)
18 They Called It Rock (Rockpile)
19 Heart of the City (Rockpile)
20 Ju Ju Man (Rockpile)
21 Here Comes the Weekend (Rockpile)
22 Let It Rock (Rockpile with Keith Richards)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16697075/ROCKPLE1978_BottmLneNwYrkC__10-24-1978_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo features just Nick Lowe (left) and Dave Edmunds (right). I could have used a photo with all four band members, but I liked this one the best. It's from a concert in New York City in August 1979, probably the Palladium.

Morgan James - Acoustic Cover Songs, Volume 3, 2016-2017

I've posted two Morgan James albums already, and not that many people have downloaded them so far. If you haven't given her a try, you're missing out. She has a truly impressive voice, the kind you'd expect of a Broadway star (and she has featured in Broadway plays). But the surprise twist is that all of the performances here are just her and an acoustic guitar. Like the other albums I'm posting for her, all the songs are cover versions, and she does a lot of songs that aren't typically done in the acoustic format. You can see that here, with covers of the likes of Prince, Tina Turner, and Soundgarden. So what's not to like? Give her a shot if you haven't already.

The vast majority of the songs were released by James through social media, and are unreleased on album. The sound quality is consistently high. Three of the songs are taken from a concert bootleg, but I've edited them to remove the audience applause at the end, so they fit in with the others.

Here are the original artists that made each song famous:

01 Gravity - John Mayer
02 Vultures - John Mayer
03 I'm Gonna Find Another You - John Mayer
04 If You Love Somebody Set Them Free - Sting
05 How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore - Prince
06 Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter - Ike & Tina Turner
07 I Love You More than You'll Ever Know - Blood, Sweat & Tears
08 Human Nature - Michael Jackson
09 What's Love Got to Do with It - Tina Turner
10 Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
11 Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen

Here's the usual song list:

01 Gravity (Morgan James)
02 Vultures (Morgan James)
03 I'm Gonna Find Another You (Morgan James)
04 If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Morgan James)
05 How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore (Morgan James)
06 Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter (Morgan James)
07 I Love You More than You'll Ever Know (Morgan James)
08 Human Nature (Morgan James)
09 What's Love Got to Do with It (Morgan James)
10 Black Hole Sun (Morgan James)
11 Hallelujah (Morgan James)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15266925/MorganJ_2016-2017_AcoustcCoverSongsVolume3_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is a screenshot from one of the 2016 perofrmances here. But I didn't keep track of which one exactly.

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1968-1969

Here is a third volume of British singer Lulu performing for the BBC.

I originally posted this album in 2020. In 2026, I drastically changed it. I found a bunch of new songs, and moved many of the songs to an even more changed "Volume 4." So I'm just treating this like a brand new album, rewriting my comments from scratch.

In 1968, Lulu got her own BBC TV show. She kept it through 1975, though the name of the show sometimes changed from year to year. For 1968, it was called "Lulu's Back in Town." For 1969, it was called "Happening for Lulu," or simply "Lulu." All but one of the songs here are from those shows. The first five songs are from the 1968 show. Tracks 7 through 19 are from the 1969 show. The one exception is "I'm a Tiger" (track 6), which is from the "Top of the Pops" radio show.

Note that Lulu didn't release a lot of records, compared to how many songs she performed for her TV shows. So most of the songs here were never released in any form. Also, note a number of interesting duets she did. 

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. The TV shows had a live audience. But I used the MVSEP program to remove the cheering, as much as possible. 

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Lulu)
02 I Could Have Danced All Night (Lulu)
03 Bring Back the Good Old Days (Lulu & Alan Price)
04 Walk Right Back (Lulu & the Everly Brothers)
05 Funky Street (Lulu)
06 I'm a Tiger (Lulu)
07 'It's Lulu' Theme Song [Instrumental] (Lulu)
08 At the Crossroads (Lulu)
09 Build Me Up, Buttercup (Lulu)
10 And I Love Her (Lulu & Jack Jones)
11 March (Lulu)
12 Mad about the Boy (Lulu)
13 Nobody Needs Your Love (Gene Pitney & Lulu)
14 I Can't Go On Living without You (Lulu)
15 I'm Hip (Lulu)
16 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Lulu)
17 First of May (Lulu)
18 Mockingbird (Lulu, Alan Price & Georgie Fame)
19 If I Were a Bell (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v93VE1Mi

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DLi8atNMf3yUbUR/file

The cover art photo comes from a BBC TV show in 1971, but I don't know the details.

Stevie Wonder - Rainbow Theatre, London, Britain, 2-2-1974

There are very, very few great live recordings of Stevie Wonder from his peak years in the 1970s. Most of those are from 1972 and 1973, including a couple I've posted here already. He only toured a bit in 1975, then not at all in 1976 (despite releasing his magnum opus "Songs in the Key of Life" that year) , and continued to stay off the stage for the rest of the 1970s except for a short tour in 1979.

But that still leaves 1974, and arguably this is his greatest live recording, from a concert early that year. This is a soundboard bootleg, and the sound quality is fantastic. The only problem is that the audience applause often quickly faded out at the ends of the songs. I suspect there's some missing banter from between the songs as well, although he does a fair amount of talking during the songs. I think I managed to fix the applause problem by patching in applause from the few song endings that had it to the ones that didn't. 

The concert begins with twenty minutes of instrumentals, including a drum solo. But the musical interplay is sharp from those instrumentals onwards. Many of the songs are stretched well beyond their album version lengths, allowing for lots of improvisation. For instance, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is 3 minutes on album, but 11 minutes here.

There's a lot of controversy about which date this concert took place. The date most commonly used is January 29, 1974. But it has been determined that the Doobie Brothers headlined the same venue that night. Other dates given include January 20, January 24, and February 24! However, a website on the history of the venue (the Rainbow Theatre) makes clear he only played there on January 24th and February 2nd. And at one point in the concert, he thanked the audience for coming back so soon after him playing there recently, which logically means it most likely is from February 2nd.

I've added five songs to the end of the show. The first four come from two short shows he did in France and Germany in the two weeks prior to the main show. They also are have excellent sound quality since they were recorded for TV broadcast. I've only included the songs that weren't also played in the main show.

The last song comes from about a year later, at the yearly Grammy Awards ceremony. This is the only truly excellent sounding performance I've found from him from 1975. There are two popular 1975 bootlegs, one from Toronto, Canada, and one from Kingston, Jamaica (with Bob Marley guesting on two songs!), but the sound quality from both of those aren't good enough for me to want to share them.

The main show from the Rainbow Theatre is an hour and a half long. If you add in the extra songs, it's an hour and 51 minutes of Stevie Wonder at his musical peak.

01 Instrumental No. 1 - Drum Solo (Stevie Wonder)
02 Contusion [Instrumental] (Stevie Wonder)
03 Instrumental No. 2 (Stevie Wonder)
04 talk (Stevie Wonder)
05 Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder)
06 Superwoman (Stevie Wonder)
07 To Know You Is to Love You (Stevie Wonder)
08 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
09 Visions (Stevie Wonder)
10 Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (Stevie Wonder)
11 Living for the City (Stevie Wonder)
12 You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
13 Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
14 [You've Been Better to Me Than] A Lot of My Dreams (Stevie Wonder)
15 All in Love Is Fair (Stevie Wonder)
16 Danka Shoen - Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
17 I Can See the Sun in Late December (Stevie Wonder)
18 He's Misstra Know-It-All (Stevie Wonder)
19 You Haven't Done Nothin' (Stevie Wonder)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700511/STEVIWNDR1974_RanbwThetreLondnBrtin__2-2-1974_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is of Wonder playing at the Rainbow Theatre around this time. But I'm not sure if it's from the exactly show, since he played there at least twice in early 1974.

Norah Jones with Sasha Dobson - Home Concerts 8, New York City, 7-10-2020 to 7-23-2020

I have to post more of Norah Jones's home concert recordings, because she keeps coming out with more each week and I'm falling behind! I consider that a good problem. So here's the next in the series.

This one is a bit different from all the others, and is also different from the other ones I haven't posted yet so far. For the first five songs, Jones is joined by a special guest instead of playing totally solo. The guest is Sasha Dobson. Jones, Dobson, and Catherine Popper have made up the band Puss n Boots since 2008, releasing albums in 2014 and 2020. 

The presence of Dobson gives the session a different feel. Of course musically it's different with them playing and singing together. But also, Jones is way more talkative between songs, and more lively. Clearly, she's having a blast. When she plays on her own in these home concerts, she rarely says anything at all.

That's just for the first five songs. The remaining four songs were recorded the next week, and feature Jones on her own, as usual.

Altogether, the music totals up to just 37 minutes.

01 Tell Yer Mama (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
02 talk (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
03 You Don't Know (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
04 talk (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
05 Sex Degrees of Separation (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
06 talk (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
07 Same Ole Bullshit (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
08 talk (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
09 Sinkin' Soon (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
10 talk (Norah Jones & Sasha Dobson)
11 Falling (Norah Jones)
12 Jesus, Etc (Norah Jones)
13 talk (Norah Jones)
14 Day Breaks (Norah Jones)
15 Painter Song (Norah Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15634104/NorahJ_2020_HomeCncerts8__7-10-2020_to_7-23-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is a screenshot from the session where Jones was joined by Dobson.

Various Artists - Farm Aid on the Road 2020, 9-26-2020

Here's another recent live stream benefit concert with lots of big names. Farm Aid has been happening every year since 1985, funding a non-profit that benefits Americans with family farms. Of course, the 2020 concert has had to be a virtual event, with artists prerecording their songs from their homes. This is a particularly long concert, almost three hours, after the many cuts I made.

Speaking of those cuts, I didn't cut any of the music. But there was lots of talking between songs, including testimonials from farmers and even some commercials. I cut all that out. Musician Jon Batiste introduced each of the other musicians, and I cut all those intros out too. I also frequently edited down the comments from the artists themselves to the bare bones. My thinking there was I wanted this to be focused on the music, with repeat playability.

In terms of the music, this differs from some other similar benefit concerts during the pandemic in that the big name artists got to play up to four songs instead of just one or two. Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews all got to play four songs each, and most of the others played two. Willie Nelson and his two sons Lukas and Micah ended the show with eight songs, with them rotating who did the lead vocals. (Particle Kid is the name of Micah Nelson's band.)

the sound is generally excellent. The only exception to that is Neil Young's set. Neil, being weird as he often is, decided to play his songs in a chicken coop in a farm. So there's a lot of ambient noise, especially the clucking of chickens. There was nothing I could do to improve the sound there, but it still sounds okay.

As I mentioned yesterday when posting the "A Night for Austin" benefit concert, there are a lot of these sorts of concerts in 2020, but I pass on most of them. However, like the Austin one, I was impressed by the consistently high quality of music in this one. I encourage you to give it a listen.

01 Home (Jack Johnson)
02 Better Together (Jack Johnson)
03 And It's Still Alright (Nathaniel Rateliff)
04 Time Stands (Nathaniel Rateliff)
05 Where Rainbows Never Die (Chris Stapleton)
06 Starting Over (Chris Stapleton)
07 To Live (Norah Jones)
08 Sunrise (Norah Jones)
09 The Movie Song (Record Company)
10 Black Patch (Kelsey Waldon)
11 Colors (Black Pumas)
12 Confines (Black Pumas with Jack Johnson)
13 Don't Drink the Water (Dave Matthews)
14 Rye Whiskey (Dave Matthews)
15 Grey Street (Dave Matthews)
16 Shadows on the Wall (Dave Matthews)
17 Drink Up and Go Home (Valerie June)
18 Lonesome Valley (Valerie June)
19 Longest Days (John Mellencamp)
20 Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp)
21 Easy Target (John Mellencamp)
22 Rain on the Scarecrow (John Mellencamp)
23 The Eye (Brandi Carlile)
24 The Mother (Brandi Carlile)
25 Field of Opportunity (Neil Young)
26 Homegrown (Neil Young)
26 talk (Neil Young)
27 Harvest (Neil Young)
28 Old Man (Neil Young)
29 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
30 You Don't Know like I Know (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
31 All My Tears [Be Washed Away] (Jamey Johnson)
32 Every Night Is Saturday Night in New Orleans (Jamey Johnson)
33 Far Away (Edie Brickell with Charlie Sexton)
34 Jubilee (War & Treaty)
35 Little Boy Blue (War & Treaty)
36 Letting Me Down (Margo Price)
37 Prisoner of the Highway (Margo Price)
38 American Life (Particle Kid)
39 Focus on the Music (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
40 King Harvest [Has Surely Come] (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
41 Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (Willie Nelson with Micah Nelson & Lukas Nelson)
42 I Thought about You, Lord (Micah Nelson with Lukas Nelson & Willie Nelson)
43 Hands on the Wheel (Lukas Nelson with Micah Nelson & Willie Nelson)
44 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson & Micah Nelson)
45 I'll Fly Away (Jon Batiste)
46 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Willie Nelson & Jon Batiste)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/p27jfimd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q4dteikU0RLjn9p/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/inCmM

For the album cover, I decided to use the official logo for the concert. This appeared at the very start of the concert video when it appeared on YouTube. I made some adjustments to the date at the bottom, but otherwise left it unchanged.

Various Artists - A Night for Austin Benefit Concert, 6-10-2020

Back in June 2020, there was a benefit concert to help concert venues in Austin, Texas that were in financial danger due to the coronavirus lockdown ending all concerts for a while. It was organized by the married couple Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, and they got a lot of big names to help out. I missed hearing about the concert when in happened, but I'm catching up to it now.

Generally speaking, each artist only performed one song. As the hosts, Paul Simon took part in three songs, and Edie Brickell took part in two. Because this was recorded at the height of coronavirus related problems, there was no fixed location. Instead, all the performances were recorded in advance in the musician's homes. 

I've cut this down a fair amount to make it better for repeat listenings. I didn't remove any of the music. However, there was a lot of talking between songs, and I cut that down quite a lot. There was a lot of talk praising Austin, Texas as a musical hub, and people complimenting Simon and Brickell for arranging the benefit concert, and asking people for donations to help out, and so on.

There have been a lot of these kinds of benefit concerts since the pandemic began. Most of them don't interest me that much. But I like most of the artists here, and the song selection. Simon and Brickell kept the quality control high. 

The concert is an hour and forty minutes long.

By the way, I had to figure out the names of all the songs. I think I got them all right, except for one. I didn't know the title of the 19th track, done by Flaco Jimenez, but a kind commenter gave me the name, so I've fixed that one.

01 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
02 Sailin' On Through (Terry Allen)
03 Rainy Taxi (Britt Daniel)
04 The Governor (Gary Clark, Jr.)
05 Lonestar (Norah Jones)
06 Shadows (Kalu & the Electric Joint)
07 Roll with What You've Got (Charlie Sexton with Doyle Bramhall II)
08 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66 (Asleep at the Wheel)
09 Easy Does It (David Ramirez)
10 [Hey Baby] Que Paso (Augie Meyers with Flaco Jimenez & Los Texmaniacs)
11 When It Don't Come Easy (Patty Griffin)
12 Baby, Please Come Home (Jimmy Vaughan)
13 Five Hearts Breaking (Alejandro Escovedo)
14 Colors (Black Pumas)
15 Mr. Lee (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
16 The Last Thing on My Mind [Instrumental Version] (Jerry Douglas)
17 Too Sick to Pray (Ethan Hawke & Indiana Hawke)
18 Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Shawn Colvin)
19 Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio (Flaco Jimenez & Los Texmaniacs)
20 No Wicked Grin (John Hiatt)
21 When Something Is Wrong with My Baby (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
22 Pontiac (Ryan Bingham)
23 Just Outside of Austin (Lukas Nelson)
24 If I Had a Boat (Lyle Lovett)
25 Little Brother (Vince Gill)
26 Keep Believing (Edit Brickell)
27 America (James Taylor)
28 Homeward Bound (Paul Simon)
29 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zxh3gDTF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/yi07m5b1AQ7NlgH/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/e8Hmd

The album cover is based on a promotional poster for the concert. The poster was rectangular, with the bottom portion listing all the artists who took part. I simply cut that part off, and the rest fit in a square space very nicely. So I didn't make any changes except cropping the image, and pasting in the date of the concert at the bottom.

Joan Osborne - The Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, 10-3-2020

I think Joan Osborne is great, one of the most talented singers active today.  I haven't posted much from her so far, except for three albums of live covers early in her career. But that's just because I have so many things to post from so many musicians that I have a hard time keeping up. I plan on posting a lot more from her later. But this rises to the top because it's awesome and it's a concert that took place just the day before yesterday.

Osborne released a new studio album of all original material in mid-September 2020, called "Trouble and Strife." I must say, I'm really surprised at how excellent the album is! If you're a fan of her at all, please check it out. In my opinion, her greatest attribute has been her voice. Her songwriting has only been okay, so I've often preferred when she's done cover material. But all the songs on the new album are written by her, with the exception of two co-writes. I'm surprised that she's really stepped up her songwriting, because that's a highly unusual thing to happen to someone 25 years after their debut album!

By the way, one thing I really like about her new album is that maybe half of the song deal with politically progressive themes. She's never been political with her songwriting before, so that's another surprise twist this far into her career. One of the songs, "Hands Off," is all about President Trump. I included it on my recent compilation of songs critical of Trump, "Rock Trump Out."

Anyway, the reason I mention all that is because this concert leans heavily on material from her new album. In fact, she plays every single song from it but one ("Meat and Potatoes," which is unfortunately missed, because I think it's one of the best). Her previous album consisted entirely of Bob Dylan covers, and she does five of his songs from that, plus a Grateful Dead cover ("Brokedown Palace"), and well as two songs from her excellent 1995 debut album. But she didn't play her one big hit from back then, "One of Us."

The concert took place in very strange circumstances. It's not a home concert, but it's very close. It took place with a full band at a club, but the audience is VERY small due to social distancing restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic. At one point she mentions there were only about ten people in the audience! TEN! It sounds like it too. Occasionally, you can clearly hear individual comments by people in the audience when get responded to by Osborne, as if she was playing to a few friends in her living room.

In terms of sound quality, it's excellent, as good as it gets. It was professionally videotaped from multiple angles and put on YouTube, which is where I found it. I didn't have to do much editing, except sometimes adjusting the volume of her between song banter.

If you want to find out what Osborne has been up to musically in recent years, and check out the songs from her new album, this is an ideal way to go. The concert is exactly two hours long.

01 Trouble and Strife (Joan Osborne)
02 talk (Joan Osborne)
03 What's That You Say (Joan Osborne)
04 talk (Joan Osborne)
05 Highway 61 Revisited (Joan Osborne)
06 talk (Joan Osborne)
07 Spider Web (Joan Osborne)
08 talk (Joan Osborne)
09 Whole Wide World (Joan Osborne)
10 talk (Joan Osborne)
11 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Joan Osborne)
12 talk (Joan Osborne)
13 Take It Any Way I Can Get It (Joan Osborne)
14 talk (Joan Osborne)
15 Buckets of Rain (Joan Osborne)
16 St. Teresa (Joan Osborne)
17 talk (Joan Osborne)
18 That Was a Lie (Joan Osborne)
19 talk (Joan Osborne)
20 Hands Off (Joan Osborne)
21 High Water [For Charley Patton] (Joan Osborne)
22 talk (Joan Osborne)
23 Boy Dontcha Know (Joan Osborne)
24 Panama (Joan Osborne)
25 talk (Joan Osborne)
26 Brokedown Palace (Joan Osborne)
27 talk (Joan Osborne)
28 Tangled Up in Blue (Joan Osborne)
29 talk (Joan Osborne)
30 Serve Somebody (Joan Osborne)
31 Never Get Tired [Of Loving You] (Joan Osborne)
32 talk (Joan Osborne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hEyFm1Jw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/oLtS2ERkS6kaeFS/file

The cover art photo is a screenshot from the YouTube video of this exact concert.

Janis Joplin - Honolulu International Center Arena, Honolulu, HI, 7-6-1970

I haven't published any of Janis Joplin's music until now. She's one of many big name musicians I haven't gotten to at all yet, because I don't want to have too many balls juggling in the air at once. But today, I was listening to the radio and it was mentioned that this was the exact 50th anniversary of Joplin's death, on October 4, 1970. I normally miss those kinds of anniversaries, but since I happened to catch one, I figured I'd post something from her.

This seems to be the best concert recording from her that hasn't been officially released. There's surprisingly little well recorded live material from her, especially considering what a big star she was in the last few years of her life, and one that was well known for her exciting concert performances. There are only three official live albums, plus some other live material here and there.

This bootleg, I'm happy to say, is a soundboard. The sound quality is generally pretty good, but it's not without its flaws. I've tried to fix those flaws the best I could, and I think I succeeded most of the time, but not all the time. It was a long slog getting this ready to post, because I had to fix little things with almost every song. For instance, removing little bursts of feedback, or patching in some audience noise when the crowd reaction faded too fast, or boosting the volume of Joplin's comments between songs. I had to do a lot of volume adjustment in particular. Many songs got louder or quieter for long stretches, for no particular reason. The good thing is that's an easy thing to fix with no loss of sound quality.

But there were some issues like that I couldn't entirely fix. Especially for the last couple of songs, the volume sometimes wobbles up and down, as if someone was turning a volume knob up and down every couple of seconds. Luckily, it's not that noticeable during a song, and I did some extra editing to make it less noticeable between songs.

One nice thing about the concert is that it shows a lot of spirit of the times, and Joplin's personality in particular. It's a good guess that she was drunk, but she sang as well as usual. The crowd was especially rowdy too, with the emcee trying to calm down during the encore and at the end.

Another thing I like about this concert is that it came near the end of her life, during the time she was recording her classic album "Pearl," which wouldn't be released until after her death. Three songs are from that.

The concert is 54 minutes long, and appears to be complete.

01 talk (Janis Joplin)
02 Tell Mama (Janis Joplin)
03 talk (Janis Joplin)
04 Half Moon (Janis Joplin)
05 talk (Janis Joplin)
06 Move Over (Janis Joplin)
07 talk (Janis Joplin)
08 Maybe (Janis Joplin)
09 Summertime (Janis Joplin)
10 talk (Janis Joplin)
11 Get It while You Can (Janis Joplin)
12 Kozmic Blues (Janis Joplin)
13 talk (Janis Joplin)
14 Piece of My Heart (Janis Joplin)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15905244/JanisJ_1970c_HonluluInternationalCenterArena__7-6-1970_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes for her appearance on the Dick Cavett Show on August 5, 1970.

Various Artists - Rock Trump Out, Volumes 1 and 2 (2015-2020)

I'm a very politically progressive person. I'm trying hard to keep this blog focused just on the music. But with the critically important November 2020 presidential election coming up, I don't think I'll be able to keep entirely quiet about politics. Needless to say, I hope you all vote for Joe Biden! As Bernie Sanders put it recently, "This is not just an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy."

I've put together a collection of songs that combines my political feelings with my love of music. All the songs are either about Trump or at least they're Trump adjacent, addressing the dire situation the country is in due to the Trump presidency. I found so many songs that I've made two albums out of them that are about an hour long each. But, and this is key, these are all GOOD songs that stand on their own musically. I culled them down from a larger bunch based both on topic relevance and musical quality. So if you're feeling frustrated about the Trump presidency and want something to help motivate you to work for his defeat while also entertaining you, this is for you.

Whereas if you're a Trump supporter, you're probably going to skip this. If you post pro-Trump comments here, be warned I'm likely to delete them. Sorry. This is not a place for heated political arguments. If you're not into this, then please move on.

Also, there are NO song parodies here. A lot of those are entertaining, but that's an entirely different thing. All the songs here are serious, and a majority of them are done by big name musicians. 

I've split the songs into two albums. The first album's songs were all released between 2015 and 2018. The second album's songs date from 2018 until, well, right now.  One of them, the Ani DiFranco song, was released just two days ago as I write this. Within each album, I worked with a friend to sort the songs in a way that hopefully makes for a good musical flow.

In order for a song to be included, it had to be one that I liked. I'm not really a fan of rap or hip hop, so there's very little of that here, even though there have been some big anti-Trump songs in those genres. There are a couple that are rap influenced, especially the ones by the Prophets of Rage (made up of members of Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine) and Janelle Monae. Still, if someone else put this together, they probably would have included more.

The title is "Rock Trump Out." The idea there is that we can rock while we kick Trump out on election day. The word "rock" is intentional because my musical tastes are based in classic rock, and I want these to be rocking albums. So I excluded some good anti-Trump songs that were good but too folky or country or the like to fit. I did include some soul and funk songs and the like, since those fit the upbeat mood.

I've looked around the Internet, and I haven't seen anyone else put a collection together like this, at least not that I could find. I'm sure there are some really good songs that fit the theme that I missed. If you know of any, please let me know and I may well add them in.

If you're someone who wants Trump voted out, please spread this to your friends and family and beyond. It's something that can lift spirits in these difficult times.

I'm almost done with my comments here, but I have a couple of interesting notes about a few songs. Believe it or not, the words to "Old Man Trump" were written by the famous folksinger Woody Guthrie, before he died in the 1960s! In his later years, he lived in an apartment building owned by Donald's father Fred Trump, who not surprisingly was a racist asshole like his son. It's interesting to note that Guthrie complained about the Trump family's bias against black people even back then!

The song "Fergus Laing" by Richard Thompson is another interesting case. Thompson wrote it about Trump before Trump began his run for president, and released it on album the same week Trump's campaign began! It seems Thompson must have been one step ahead of everyone else.

By the way, this is an example of a song that may not appear to have anything to do about Trump at first glance. (Thompson has confirmed in interviews that it is.) Many of the other songs are like that, where they're more subtle. But if you listen closely, the relevance will sink in. The two Sheryl Crow songs are good examples of that. They just sound like really catchy pop songs until you pay attention to the lyrics with Trump in mind. (By the way, Crow is the only musician to have more than one song here.)

I debated whether or not to include a song by Barbra freaking Streisand! Who knew she would ever release a pointed protest song about Trump? It doesn't fit the rocking theme, and I'm not a Streisand fan at all. But in the end it was too good and too relevant to leave out. I'm very surprised to say that.

There are all sorts of really great songs here, too many for me to single out by name. But I'd be curious to hear which ones you like the most or the least.

Normally, I would make different blog posts for the two albums that make up this project. But I've only made one post to make it easy for you to share the whole thing with others if you want to. Note though that there are two zip file links below, not one, so click on both. I've made covers for both albums too.

VOLUME 1:

01 That's What Makes Us Great (Bruce Springsteen & Joe Grushecky)
02 Old Man Trump (Ryan Harvey, Ani DiFranco & Tom Morello)
03 Justice (Dumpstaphunk with Trombone Shorty)
04 Hail to the Chief (Prophets of Rage)
05 Make America Great Again (Pussy Riot)
06 Wouldn't Want to Be like You (Sheryl Crow with Annie Clark)
07 Tin Foil Hat (Todd Rundgren with Donald Fagen)
08 Million Dollar Loan (Death Cab for Cutie)
09 Season of Change (Stone Foundation with Bettye LaVette)
10 Make This World (Lee Fields & the Expressions)
11 Can't You Tell (Aimee Mann)
12 What's He Gonna Say Today (Eric Bibb)
13 Is This the Life We Really Want (Roger Waters)
14 Fergus Laing (Richard Thompson)
15 Don't Lie to Me (Barbra Streisand)

VOLUME 2:

01 March March (Chicks)
02 Two Steps Forward (Kirk Fletcher)
03 Above the Law (O'Jays)
04 Shame (Tedeschi Trucks Band)
05 [Keep Mar-a-Lago But] I Want America Back (Eric Hirshberg)
06 Man without a Soul (Lucinda Williams)
07 What the Hell (Elvin Bishop & Charlie Musselwhite)
08 Hands Off (Joan Osborne)
09 Hung Out to Dry (Hoodoo Gurus)
10 Despite Repeated Warnings (Paul McCartney)
11 In the End (Sheryl Crow)
12 Turntables (Janelle Monae)
13 Do or Die (Ani DiFranco)
14 This Man (Robert Cray)
15 Vote That Fucker Out (Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby)
16 Lookin' for a Leader 2020 (Neil Young)

NOTE: I've removed the download links, because I replaced this with a three album version that is better in every way. You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/10/various-artists-rock-trump-out-volumes_24.html

I couldn't decide what to do for the album cover art. Then I had the idea to do a Google image search for the phrase "Kick Trump Out." I found a poster with that phrase in big letters made by someone named 4personnen. So I took that and changed "Kick" to "Rock," as well as adding more text at the bottom. I also changed the colors. Note how there's a change from red to blue from the first volume to the second one. Let's hope that's what happens with the election as well. :)

Stephen Stills - Bread and Roses Festival, Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, 9-4-1978

I just posted a concert from Joni Mitchell which took place at the Bread and Roses Festival on September 3, 1968. I only discovered that a few days ago. When I did, I thought about the name of the festival and the year, and I realized I had a Stephen Stills concert that also took place at the same festival in the same year. So as long as I was posting that one, I'm posting this one too.

In my opinion, this is the best acoustic concert recording from Stills' long career, at least that I know of. It's an excellent performance, excellent sound, and he plays lots of interesting songs instead of just the usual suspects. So if you're a Stephen Stills fan at all, you should give this a listen.

It was a three day festival. This is from the last day, and took place one day after the Joni Mitchell concert I just posted. Apparently, Stills wasn't scheduled to play, but one or more of the big names on the last day couldn't make it, so Stills was a last minute addition.

I believe the reason a recording of this has been bootlegged is because it was played live on the radio at the time. So that's why the sound is so good, though there's a bit of background hiss. 

For nearly all the songs, it's just Stills on guitar. But he's briefly joined by a harmonica player, then by a fiddle player. As I mentioned above, some of the songs were only rarely done by him, especially a few cover songs. Of special note is "Spanish Suite." In my opinion, it's a great original song by him, but for some inexplicable reason he never really did anything with it. A very different studio version wasn't released until 2005, though that recording was done in the late 1970s.

I made a few minor fixes to the recording. For the talking between songs, I generally boosted the volume of Stills' voice some. Also, for three songs near the end, the audience reaction faded out quickly. I patched in some more cheering from the ends to other songs to make those sound complete.

Finally, the last song, "Come On in My Kitchen," is a bonus song of sorts, because it comes from a different concert altogether, in 1979. But the sound and performance is so similar that it fits exactly in, in my opinion. It even works great as an extra encore. The previous song had backing vocals by the Persuasions (who were playing at the festival too). I'm not sure, but they might be backing him up on the bonus song too.

01 talk (Stephen Stills)
02 Love the One You're With (Stephen Stills)
03 Not Fade Away (Stephen Stills)
04 talk (Stephen Stills)
05 Spanish Suite [One Moment at a Time] (Stephen Stills)
06 Everybody's Talkin' (Stephen Stills)
07 4 + 20 (Stephen Stills)
08 talk (Stephen Stills)
09 Colorado (Stephen Stills)
10 talk (Stephen Stills)
11 Take Me Back to the Ohio Valley (Stephen Stills)
12 talk (Stephen Stills)
13 Jesus Gave Love Away for Free (Stephen Stills)
14 talk (Stephen Stills)
15 Fallen Eagle (Stephen Stills)
16 talk (Stephen Stills)
17 Ole Man Trouble (Stephen Stills)
18 Thoroughfare Gap (Stephen Stills)
19 Crossroads - You Can't Catch Me (Stephen Stills)
20 49 Bye Byes - For What It's Worth (Stephen Stills with the Persuasions)
21 Come On in My Kitchen (Stephen Stills)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288180/StephenS_1978_BreadRsesFestivalGreekTheatreBrkeleyCA__9-4-1978_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is from 1978, but it's from another concert. It's from a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert in San Francisco. I cropped it so only Stills was in the frame. For the logo at the bottom, I found that from a concert poster of the 1978 festival. I cropped out just the part I wanted, and added some text at the bottom.

Joni Mitchell - Bread and Roses Festival, Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, 9-3-1978

I have some other albums from Joni Mitchell that I plan on posting as I continue to move through her music career in a roughly chronological manner. But this is a short concert that I didn't even know existed, and I just discovered it a few days ago. I like it so much that I've moved it to the front of the line on what to post.

I love all of Mitchell's music from the start of her career through about the mid-1970s. Then she went in much more of a jazz direction, and I'm not much of a jazz fan. She had some missteps in the 1980s, but came back strongly in the 1990s. 

The reason I really like this concert is because she performed most of them in the solo acoustic format. (For two songs, she was assisted by Herbie Hancock on piano.) Her songwriting has always been top notch, so this is a rare opportunity to hear some of her late 1970s jazz songs done in the acoustic style from earlier in her career.

Her performance was part of the Bread and Roses Festival, a three-day music festivals with lots of big names. She actually gave performances on two different days, if not all three days. But only one was played live on the radio, giving us an excellent sounding recording. It's known she did a few other songs in her other performances during the festival, such as "Coyote," "Shadows and Light," and "Just like This Train." Hopefully, those will become publicly available someday. As it is, the concert is fairly short, only about 35 minutes long.

By the way, for the last song, she's joined by some of the other musicians playing at the festival as a singalong encore.

01 talk (Joni Mitchell)
02 Furry Sings the Blues (Joni Mitchell)
03 talk (Joni Mitchell)
04 The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Joni Mitchell)
05 talk (Joni Mitchell & Herbie Hancock)
06 A Chair in the Sky (Joni Mitchell & Herbie Hancock)
07 Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Joni Mitchell & Herbie Hancock)
08 talk (Joni Mitchell)
09 The Wolf that Lives in Lindsey (Joni Mitchell)
10 The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell with the Persuasions, Tim Hardin, Tom Paxton & Odetta)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15256337/JoniMchl_1978_BreadandRsesFestivlGreekTheatreBerkeleyCA__9-3-1978_atse.zip.html

I'm happy to say that the cover art photo comes from the 1978 Bread and Roses Festival. Since she gave two of three performances, I'm not sure if it's from the exact day or not.

For the logo at the bottom, I found that from a concert poster of the 1978 festival. I cropped out just the part I wanted, and added some text at the bottom.

Brandi Carlile - Home Concerts 1: Maple Valley, WA, 4-8-2020 to 9-26-2020

What has Brandi Carlile been up to musically during the coronavirus pandemic? I haven't posted any of her music until now, but she's been very busy. She's had a whole series of home concerts where she has performed each of her studio albums from start to finish. The problem for me is that one has had to pay to get access to those. Other than that, she's only played the occasional song here and there. But I've collected those, and I finally had enough for a full 45-minute-long album.

All the songs here are performed acoustically, and without drums. For some of the songs it's just Carlile by herself. For others, she was backed by "the twins," Tim and Phil Hanseroth, who are her long-time musical collaborators.

Most of the songs are originals, and Carlile is a talented songwriter. There are a few covers: "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke, "Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore" by John Prine, "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty, and "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.

Nothing here has been officially released, but the sound quality is very good throughout.

01 Summer’s End (Brandi Carlile)
02 Hello in There (Brandi Carlile)
03 talk (Brandi Carlile)
04 Looking Out (Brandi Carlile)
05 Crowded Table (Brandi Carlile)
06 Most of All (Brandi Carlile)
07 Keep Your Heart Young (Brandi Carlile)
08 A Change Is Gonna Come (Brandi Carlile & Gary Clark Jr.)
09 talk (Brandi Carlile)
10 Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore (Brandi Carlile)
11 Most of All (Brandi Carlile)
12 The Joke (Brandi Carlile)
13 The Things I Regret (Brandi Carlile)
14 The Mother (Brandi Carlile)
15 I Won't Back Down (Brandi Carlile)
16 Poison and Wine (Kelly Clarkson & Brandi Carlile)
17 Mad World (Brandi Carlile)
18 The Eye (Brandi Carlile)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17362424/BRANDICRLLE2020HomeConcrts1MpleValleyWA__4-8-2020_to_9-26-2020_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ce7KUFAS

The cover art photo was taken during one of her home concerts, on June 24, 2020.

Neil Finn - Home Concerts 8, Los Angeles, CA, 5-12-2020 to 6-6-2020

Sadly, this is the eighth and last of my collections of home concert performances from Neil Finn of Crowded House (and, lately, Fleetwood Mac). 

As I mentioned in my last post about him, for the first two months or so of the coronavirus lockdown, mostly March and April of 2020, he played home concerts of about half an hour to an hour nearly every single day. But as you can see by the dates on this album, he began doing a lot fewer by May, and then stopped altogether in June. Since then, he hasn't done any more. Maybe that'll change, but for now this is the end of this series.

The material is the same as the rest of the series. It's a mix of originals and covers, mostly done totally solo by Finn. One song, "Find Your Way Back Home," is a brand new song. He recently released a full band version with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac helping on vocals.

The covers are "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys, "Sexy Sadie" by the Beatles, "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor, and "Something" by the Beatles. "Something" actually was performed in late April 2020, but I missed including in on any earlier album. I had an alert commenter point it out to me recently, so I found it and included it here. I was tempted to redo one of the earlier albums with that one added in, but that album was long and it would have made it longer. This album is shorter than the others, so I just stuck it on the end here.

Three of the songs are repeats of songs on earlier albums in this series. Normally, I would skip the repeats, but I included them here because each of them were played on piano on these versions whereas the previous versions were acoustic guitar versions.

01 People Are like Suns [Piano Version] (Neil Finn)
02 More than One of You (Neil Finn)
03 Pour le Monde (Neil Finn)
04 Gentle Hum (Neil Finn)
05 Faster than Light (Neil Finn)
06 God Only Knows (Neil Finn)
07 Walking on the Spot [Piano Version] (Neil Finn)
08 Try Whistling This [Piano Version] (Neil Finn)
09 What's the Matter with You (Neil Finn)
10 Sexy Sadie (Neil Finn)
11 Fire and Rain (Neil Finn)
12 Find Your Way Back Home (Neil Finn)
13 Weather with You (Neil Finn)
14 I Feel Possessed (Neil Finn)
15 Something (Neil Finn with Elroy Finn)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363168/NEILFNN2020HmeConcrts08LsAnglesCA__5-12-2020_to_6-6-2020_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UMs8Wk5n

The cover art photo comes from early 2020, just before the pandemic hit. In the photo, he actually was hugging people on each side, but I made some minor edits in Photoshop to make it look like it was just him.

Elton John - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: Sounds for Saturday, BBC Studios, Elstree, Britain, 12-8-1971

Here's the third in my series of albums of Elton John at the BBC. This one is a lot easier to explain that the previous two, because all but the last song is from a single appearance, in the last month of 1971.

The main show here was called "Sounds for Saturday." It was performed in front of a small studio audience. Although the audio has never been released on album, you can find high quality videos of it on YouTube. The sound is great, and he talks some between most songs.

The last song, "All the Nasties," is from an appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show, recorded just two days prior to the main show here. He also played "Tiny Dancer," but I didn't include it because a very similar version is included here from the main show.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Tiny Dancer (Elton John)
02 talk (Elton John)
03 Rotten Peaches (Elton John)
04 talk (Elton John)
05 Razor Face (Elton John)
06 talk (Elton John)
07 Holiday Inn (Elton John)
08 Indian Sunset (Elton John)
09 talk (Elton John)
10 Levon (Elton John)
11 talk (Elton John)
12 Madman Across the Water (Elton John)
13 Goodbye (Elton John)
14 All the Nasties (Elton John) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/15835568/EltonJn_1971_BBSessionsVolume3SoundsforSaturday__12-8-1971_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from the exact concert in question, thanks to the videos available from it.

Adele - Acoustic - Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW, Santa Monica, CA, 11-17-2008

There are a lot of so-called "divas" who can really belt out a song. But, in my opinion, Adele stands heads and shoulders above the typical diva by having lots more talent than just an impressive voice. A real test of musical talent is how you do in a solo acoustic format. Adele's music is more acoustic than most people realize, especially her first album, and she's capable playing the guitar. So she excels playing acoustic.

As far as I know, she's never played a full concert acoustically. The closest she's probably come that is publicly available and has great sound are two performances for the KCRW radio station in 2008. She was promoting the same album and played many of the same songs. So I used all the songs from the second appearance, and just the different ones for the first appearance. The four songs from the first appearance start this album.

The KCRW material is forty minutes long, and makes up the bulk of this album. She also has some entertaining talk between most of those songs, though she's usually brief. There was no crowd noise since it was all recorded live at the radio station studio. Sometimes, a guitar backs her so she can concentrate on singing (though she's fully capable of playing the guitar for all those songs, as you can see in some YouTube videos). Occasionally, the backing instrument is keyboards or piano, though it's usually guitar.

But I wanted to make this into the ultimate Adele acoustic album, as much as possible. So I've added five extra songs at the end. Four of those are from her second album, including the all-time classics "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone like You." There's also a cover of the Cure hit "Lovesong" to go with the earlier cover of "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan for the only two cover songs here.

Altogether, the album is an hour and two minutes long.

As you've probably noticed if you follow this blog, I'm not a fan of most of the musical mega-stars from the last couple of decades. But Adele is the real deal. If you're not that familiar with her, this is a good place to start.

01 Crazy for You (Adele)
02 talk (Adele)
03 Melt My Heart to Stone (Adele)
04 talk (Adele)
05 Make You Feel My Love (Adele)
06 talk (Adele)
07 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On (Adele)
08 Daydreamer (Adele)
09 talk (Adele)
10 Right as Rain (Adele)
11 talk (Adele)
12 Hometown Glory (Adele)
13 talk (Adele)
14 Fool that I Am (Adele)
15 First Love (Adele)
16 talk (Adele)
17 Cold Shoulder (Adele)
18 talk (Adele)
19 My Shame (Adele)
20 talk (Adele)
21 Chasing Pavements (Adele)
22 Lovesong (Adele)
23 Rolling in the Deep (Adele)
24 Turning Tables (Adele)
25 Don't You Remember (Adele)
26 Someone like You (Adele)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15123390/Adel_2008_AcousticMrningBecomesEclecticKCRW__11-17-2008_atse.zip.html

The cover art is a photo of Adele in concert in 2008. I don't know the exact date or location.

Liz Phair - XPNFEST Weekend, Manhattan Beach, CA, 7-26-2020

So far, I've only posted one Liz Phair album. I plan to continue moving forward through her career chronologically. But first, here's something relatively new, from July 2020.

What's Phair been up to doing the coronavirus pandemic? For a long time, there was no sign of any musical activity, She completely finished the recording of a new album, her first one in years, but its release has been postponed until 2021. She didn't do any home concerts at all that I could see, not even a single song.

Until this concert. She played a 22-minute set, just with her on acoustic guitar plus an extra guitarist. Most of the songs are originals from her earlier albums. However, she played "Good Side," a single release from last year that I think will be on her new album. She finished with "Soberish," a song she's never played in public before. It'll be the title cut of her new album. Both new songs sound quite good.

Because the show is so short, I've added two extra songs at the beginning. These actually come from very late 2019, before the pandemic. But you wouldn't know it wasn't from the same concert. They were recorded live for a radio station, with the exact same two guitar instrumentation.

I've also added an extra song at the end, from an even more recent single song home concert performance. It's a cover of the Tears for Fears hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." This has a full band backing, with the music sounding so much like the Tears for Fears version that it's a bit uncanny.

Even with the extra songs, this is still a short album, at 33 minutes. If she does one or two more short home concert performances, I'll add that to the end.

01 Divorce Song (Liz Phair)
02 Why Can't I (Liz Phair)
03 6'1 (Liz Phair)
04 talk (Liz Phair)
05 Mesmerizing (Liz Phair)
06 talk (Liz Phair)
07 Good Side (Liz Phair)
08 talk (Liz Phair)
09 Polyester Bride (Liz Phair)
10 talk (Liz Phair)
11 Explain It to Me (Liz Phair)
12 talk (Liz Phair)
13 Soberish (Liz Phair)
14 Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Liz Phair)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15262395/LizPh_2020_XPNFESTWeekndManhattnBeachCA__7-26-2020_atse.zip.html

I could have used a pretty decent screenshot from the main concert included here. But I prefer a screenshot I took from the radio station appearance that makes up the first two songs.

Neil Finn - Home Concerts 7, Los Angeles, CA, 4-22-2020 to 4-27-2020

As a  reminder, Neil Finn is the main singer and songwriter for the band Crowded House, and now he's a part of Fleetwood Mac. For the first couple of months of the coronavirus pandemic, Finn was a home concert maniac. He played a home concert nearly every single day, and then made them available for free at his website: https://www.neilfinn.com/fangradio

I don't know what happened, but he began doing them less and less, and then seemingly stopped altogether. The last home concert he posted was in early June 2020. He mentioned working on a new album, so maybe that's still taking all his time.

I previously posted six albums of his home concert material. But I waited a long time before posting any more, because I wasn't sure how to organize it. If he did more home concerts, then I would have to shuffle things around. Since it's been so long since his last home concert, I'm going to post the rest of what I have. It happens to nicely fit on two albums. This one is 54 minutes long, and the one still to come is 45 minutes long.

As I've previously mentioned, Finn has played both acoustic and full band home concerts. I've focused entirely on the acoustic ones, because I find that more interesting. He also does a mix of originals from his Split Enz, Crowded House, and solo phases of his career, plus covers. This is more of that exact same good stuff.

The notable covers this time are "When Doves Cry" by Prince, "Here, There and Everywhere" by the Beatles, "Nobody's Fault but My Own" by Beck, "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke, and "Happy Together" by the Turtles. There are some other song snippets and repeats of songs he did in earlier home concerts and the like that I left out.

01 When Doves Cry (Neil Finn)
02 Fall at Your Feet (Neil Finn)
03 Here, There and Everywhere (Neil Finn)
04 Carried Away (Neil Finn)
05 True Colours (Neil Finn)
06 Pour le Monde (Neil Finn)
07 Nobody's Fault but My Own (Neil Finn)
08 Nobody Wants To (Neil Finn)
09 You Send Me (Neil Finn)
10 You Are the One to Make Me Cry (Neil Finn)
11 Happy Together (Neil Finn)
12 Lester (Neil Finn)
13 Pineapple Head (Neil Finn)
14 Distant Sun (Neil Finn)
15 Astro (Neil Finn)
16 Dirty Creature - You Sexy Thing (Neil Finn)
17 People Are like Suns (Neil Finn)
18 Recurring Dream (Neil Finn)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363153/NEILFNN2020HmeConcrts07LsAnglesCA__4-22-2020_to_4-27-2020_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/A1PTb2jc

Finn posted a YouTube video of him playing the version of "When Doves Cry" that starts this album. So I took a screenshot from that video for the cover art photo.

Yet More on Vitamin D

I try to keep the focus here on music. But I've been posting from time to time about the coronavirus and vitamin D, since I see a baffling lack of attention from the media and politicians about it. Everybody's talking about a possible vaccine. But, in a sense, the vaccine is already here, and it's called vitamin D. 

Multiple studies now show that it's effective against the vaccine. This new article I'm linking to describes research where having a sufficient level of vitamin D cuts the chance of getting the coronavirus by 54%, and then cuts the chance of dying if you get it by another 51%. A vaccine, if and when it comes, may not be much better than that. The FDA has already indicated they're willing to approve a vaccine that's only 50% effective.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/coronavirus-vitamin-d-reduces-infection-and-impact-of-covid-19-studies-find-12081132

Furthermore, a significant percentage of people have vitamin D deficiency, especially those who don't spend a lot of time in the sun. So I don't understand why medical professionals aren't pushing taking vitamin D regularly as much as they push social distancing and wearing masks. The virus is at a relative lull now in the US and many other countries, but it's very likely to surge back in the cold winter months, so it's more important than ever to take care. Oh, and vitamin D helps against other viruses too. Seems like taking it is a no-brainer to me.

Anyway, back to the music.

Sam Phillips - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, 7-25-1994

Have you even heard of Sam Phillips? Unfortunately, most people haven't. I think her music is really good, especially her poppy phase from the late 1980s through the 1990s. 

She's had a strange career. She started out as Leslie Phillips, doing Christian music. But after releasing a few albums like that, she changed her name to Sam and changed her musical style, almost entirely dropping the Christian aspect. Her new style was highly commercial, in my opinion, very catchy and Beatlesque, and with her writing all of it. But it didn't sell well at all, and she remained obscure. At the start of the 2000s, she switched styles again, going for a more sedate and stripped down sound.

Personally, her 1994 album "Martinis and Bikinis" is my favorite. It's a five-star album in my book, for sure. I would post that here, except I assume it's still in print. So instead I'm posting this concert. It's from the supporting tour for that album, and the vast majority of the songs from it are played, as well as some of the best songs from her previous album (though with the "Leslie Phillips" years forgotten). 

There are very few Sam Phillips bootlegs, since she'd never been that popular. But this is an excellent soundboard. I made a few minor fixes. For a couple of songs, such as "The Turning" and "Same Rain," the volume sometimes dropped down for no reason, so I balanced those spots to match the rest of the song. Also, because it's a soundboard with very little crowd noise, it sounded odd to me when each song ended and barely any audience reaction could be heard. So I boosted the volume of the clapping and cheering. It's still rather quiet, but at least now you don't have to strain to hear it.

This concert is an hour and two minutes long. Most of the songs are played with a full band. But a few, including the first one, are just done acoustically.

If you like this, definitely check "Martinis and Bikinis" too. Then also check out "The Turning," The Indescribable Wow," "Cruel Inventions," and her other albums.

Anyway, if you're looking for some lost gems, check this out.

01 talk (Sam Phillips)
02 The Turning (Sam Phillips)
03 Same Rain (Sam Phillips)
04 talk (Sam Phillips)
05 Signposts (Sam Phillips)
06 Circle of Fire (Sam Phillips)
07 talk (Sam Phillips)
08 Baby I Can't Please You (Sam Phillips)
09 Holding On to the Earth (Sam Phillips)
10 talk (Sam Phillips)
11 Strawberry Road (Sam Phillips)
12 talk (Sam Phillips)
13 Same Changes (Sam Phillips)
14 If I Fall (Sam Phillips)
15 Raised on Promises (Sam Phillips)
16 talk (Sam Phillips)
17 Fighting with Fire (Sam Phillips)
18 talk (Sam Phillips)
19 I Need Love (Sam Phillips)
20 Wheel of the Broken Voice (Sam Phillips)
21 Lying (Sam Phillips)
22 talk (Sam Phillips)
23 Private Storm (Sam Phillips)
24 Answers Don't Come Easy (Sam Phillips)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15249590/SamPhps_1994_VarietyPlyhouseAtlantaGA__7-25-1994_atse.zip.html

It's shocking to me how few photos I can find of Sam Phillips in the 1990s. I found a video of her playing on a song on TV in 1994, but it was rather low-res. So instead of using a screenshot from that, I prefer this photo of a concert from 1989. She's blonde, but I like how the red lighting makes it look like she has bright red hair and even reddish skin.

Duffy - Rain on Your Parade - Non-Album Tracks (2006)

Duffy has had a very strange musical career. She had a huge year in 2008. Her debut album "Rockferry" was the best selling album in Britain that year. But her next album, "Endlessly" in 2010, was a critical and commercial disappointment, and she hasn't released another album since then, apparently due to a sexual trauma in the early 2010s that totally derailed her career.

Personally, I really like the "Rockferry" album, but I think "Endlessly" is best forgotten. However, it turns out she has a de facto second album of all original material that's much, much better. Like Oasis with their first couple of albums, she blew lots of very good songs on B-sides that few people listened to. If one puts together all the "Rockferry" related B-sides, there's exactly enough songs for an album that's very much in the "Rockferry" style, and is nearly as good. This is that album.

The first song was a significant hit for her. It, plus the next three songs, were released as bonus tracks to a deluxe version of "Rockferry." All the other songs are B-sides, except for "Enough Love" and "Smoke without Fire," which were released first on movie soundtracks. 

In my opinion, "Endlessly" was a mistake, with terrible production that tried to make her sound like all the other generic pop crap on the radio, overwhelming the soulful singing that makes her special. It's much better to consider this her real second album. I think it is impressive that she wrote or co-wrote all the songs. Hopefully someday she'll fully reconnect with her musical mojo and put out more music like this and "Rockferry."

01 Rain on Your Parade (Duffy)
02 Fool for You (Duffy)
03 Stop (Duffy)
04 Breaking My Own Heart (Duffy)
05 Oh Boy (Duffy)
06 Save It for Your Prayers (Duffy)
07 Tomorrow (Duffy)
08 Loving You (Duffy)
09 Put It in Perspective (Duffy)
10 Big Flame (Duffy)
11 Enough Love (Duffy)
12 Frame Me (Duffy)
13 Smoke without Fire (Duffy)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110776/Duff_2008_RainonYurParade_atse.zip.html

The album cover photo is a promotional photo from 2008. For the next of both her name and the album title, I exactly imitated the text on the cover of the "Rain on Your Parade" single. I originally wanted to use that single cover for the cover here, but I could only find blurry, low quality versions. I prefer this photo anyway.

Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, plus the Grateful Dead with Stephen Stills - The Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 10-25-1969

This is a very curious bootleg. I only found out it existed today, and I was so psyched about it that I posted it straight away. I didn't know about it because it only emerged in the last year or so. It's an excellent soundboard of an excellent performance. The main downside is that it's rather short.

Crosby, Stills and Nash released their first album, simply called "Crosby, Stills and Nash," in May 1969. By October 1969, they were well into recording their second album with Neil Young, which would turn out to be called "Deja Vu." I'm sure, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young all either lived near San Francisco at the time or spent a lot of time there. On this night, October 25, 1969, both the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane were going to play at the Winterland. One or more of the opening bands had to cancel, and Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were there. So they got up and performed a short acoustic set just as a duo, without any preparation whatsoever.

This is virtually the only time Stills and Nash appeared on stage as a duo, without David Crosby. (They also did about three concerts together in the early 1980s, when Crosby was flirting with death due to his drug use.)

It's fascinating to hear what the two of them came up with on stage at the spur of the moment. As they stated at the outset, their intention was to try out some new songs, and that's just what they did. Nash wanted to start out with "Teach Your Children." This could well be the very first time that classic song was sung in public. (Setlist.fm claims it was played four times with CSNY in 1969, but all of them were after this.) However, after introducing the song, Nash briefly left the stage to get something to drink, so Stills filled the time with a cover of the blues classic "Crossroads." Only then did they get around to doing "Teach Your Children" together.

"How Have You Been," a song written by John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful, followed. Given that Stills and Nash worked out harmonies for it, and there's a studio outtake version of it, it's likely this song was strongly considered to go on "Deja Vu." In fact, CSN briefly toyed with having Sebastian join their band before settling on Neil Young instead.

The next song, "Lonesome Valley," is a real treat, because no version of CSN or any variation thereof has ever known to have sung the song. It was originally done by Woody Guthrie.

The short Stills and Nash concert ended with "Black Queen." Like "Crossroads," it was an acoustic guitar showcase for Stills.

That's the end of the short set they did together, only 22 minutes long. (By the way, the man welcoming them on and off the stage is Bill Graham.)

But that's not the end of this album. It turns out that when the Grateful Dead played their set later that night, Stills joined them for one song, "Turn On Your Lovelight." When the Dead played that cover song, it was always was sung by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and that's the case here. But Stills added backing vocals as well as helping with lead guitar. If you listen carefully, you can definitely hear his voice at times.

Since this version of "Lovelight" is over 20 minutes long, it almost doubled the length of this album, all by itself. By the way, McKernan's voice was very low in the mix. It was mostly in one stereo channel, so I boosted the volume of that channel and lowered the volume of the other channel. That helps, but it's still somewhat low. I didn't want to overdo things by making one channel much louder than the other.

That's the end of the material from the Winterland show. But Stills made one more guest appearance with the Grateful Dead a couple of months later. That also is available on a soundboard bootleg, and it's a nice performance, so I've added it in as a quasi-bonus track. It's the song "Black Queen," which was played in the Winterland show. But that had been Stills alone on his acoustic guitar. This drastically different version was played by all of the Grateful Dead, yet with Stills singing lead vocals as well as playing more lead guitar. Apparently, Stills wrote the song with the intention of giving it to the Dead to record, but they never did. However, they learned it well enough to back him up. 

If you include that last song from a different concert, this album is 55 minutes long. It's kind of a strange beast, half acoustic with Stills and Nash, and half electric with Stills and the Dead. But I think it's an interesting album just the same that's a "must have" for any fan of CSN in their glory years.

01 talk (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
02 Crossroads (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
03 talk (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
04 Teach Your Children (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
05 talk (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
06 How Have You Been (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
07 talk (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
08 Lonesome Valley (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
09 talk (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
10 Black Queen (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
11 talk (Stephen Stills & Graham Nash)
12 Turn On Your Love Light (Grateful Dead with Stephen Stills)
13 Black Queen (Grateful Dead with Stephen Stills)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363397/STEPHNSTLLSNSH1969WnterlndSnFrncscoCA__10-25-1969_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cMFJ9523

I have no idea when or where the cover art photo of Stills and Nash was taken. But judging by their appearance, I think it's a safe bet it's from either 1969 or 1970. If anyone knows, please let me know. It might be from the famous Woodstock concert. I moved Stills a little bit closer to Nash so I could make their heads larger.

Elton John - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1970

I got some good comments in response to posting the first in my series of Elton John's albums of his BBC performances. So here's the second one already.

The album mostly consists of two BBC appearances, one from April 4, 1970 and the other from June 25, 1970. The April one actually comes one month before the BBC performance that makes up the vast majority of the first album in this series. But I wanted to keep each of the appearances together, and it worked out best if I arranged them this way.

The first four songs are from the April 4th appearance. The next song ("Border Song") is from a different appearance that took place just one day later. The three songs after that are from the June 25th appearance. The album then ends with one song from August 1970 and one from March 1971.

Once again, with these BBC performances, it's either feast or famine. Meaning we either have the song in great quality, or we don't have it publicly available at all. Six of the songs here have been released as bonus tracks to deluxe versions of his albums "Elton John" and "Tumbleweed Connection." The rest remain unreleased, but sound just as good, in my opinion. The April 4th and June 25th appearances are complete and in the correct order. But there were more songs played at the April 5th and August appearances that haven't even leaked to bootlegs.

I have two bonus tracks this time. Normally, I include a song as a bonus track due to borderline sound quality: it's not good enough as the rest, but it's not so bad to be totally discarded. In this case, both of the bonus tracks sound great. One, "Take Me to the Pilot," has even been officially released on one of those deluxe editions. The only reason they're bonus tracks is because they're other versions of the same songs elsewhere on the album. As I've mentioned before, I hate having two versions of the same song on one album, unless there's something drastically different about them.

I included the unreleased version of "Take Me to the Pilot" over the officially released bonus track one because I thought it's more different from the album version, and thus more interesting. It has more of a gospel feel, with a bigger role for the backing vocals.

01 Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)
02 My Father's Gun (Elton John)
03 Your Song (Elton John)
04 Ballad of a Well-Known Gun (Elton John)
05 Border Song [Holy Moses] (Elton John with Hookfoot)
06 Country Comfort (Elton John)
07 Amoreena (Elton John)
08 Burn Down the Mission (Elton John)
09 Bad Side of the Moon (Elton John)
10 The King Must Die (Elton John)

Border Song [Holy Moses] (Elton John)
Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15904984/EltonJn_1970_BBSessionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from an appearance by Elton John at "Top of the Pops" in 1971. Although "Top of the Pops" was a BBC TV show, I haven't included any songs from his appearances on that show because they were always lip-synced. 

Elton John - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1968-1970

There's some good news for Elton John fans. He's releasing an archival box set in November 2020 called "Elton: Jewel Box." This eight CD collection will include three CDs of previously unreleased early demos from 1967 to 1971, and two more CDs of hard-to-find B-sides. But unfortunately what won't be included at all is any of his BBC performances. 

So I'm going to try to make up for that by posting a series of BBC albums. I've found seven albums of BBC material just for the years 1968 to 1976, with four of them being full concerts. I have to admit I'm still not a huge Elton John fan, although I've been getting into his stuff more lately. But I'm particularly impressed by his BBC performances. I think they're often better than the studio versions.

John performed for the BBC twice in 1968 and three times in 1969, playing 18 songs (some of them repeats). This is surprising, because he wouldn't make it to any charts until 1970. Unfortunately, nearly all of these early performances are lost, or at least not currently publicly available. Only two songs are known, a version of "Lady Samantha" from 1968 and a version of "Sails" from 1969. I like both of these performances a lot more than the studio versions.

He played for the BBC even more in 1970, appearing six different times and playing multiple songs each time. Unfortunately, most of those performances are lost or unavailable too. But one show that exists in full is his appearance on May 22, 1970. I've included all of it, including the talking between songs.

With Elton John and his early BBC performances, it's either feast or famine. Meaning, either the recording isn't available at all, or it is available and sounds great. I think that's because these particular performances on this album were all replayed by the BBC many years later. So these aren't copies of copies of copies recorded off the radio back in 1970.

About 30 seconds of instrumental music at the start of "Lady Samantha" was missing due to a BBC DJ talking over it. But I was able to find that section from a podcast, with the rest of the song missing or talked over! I put the two parts together to have the full song. "Sails" also had DJ chatter over the intro, but I was able to wipe that out using X-Minus sound editing software.

This album is rather short, at only 34 minutes. But hopefully it'll grow longer if and when more of his early BBC appearances emerge.

01 Lady Samantha [Edit] (Elton John)
02 Sails [Edit] (Elton John)
03 Your Song (Elton John)
04 Border Song [Holy Moses] (Elton John)
05 talk (Elton John)
06 Sixty Years On (Elton John)
07 Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)
08 talk (Elton John)
09 The Greatest Discovery (Elton John)
10 I Need You to Turn To (Elton John)
11 talk (Elton John)
12 Burn Down the Mission (Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15904970/EltonJn_1968-1970_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

Videos for all of the songs from the 1970 show here are available on YouTube. I took a screenshot from one of them for the cover art photo.

Norah Jones - Home Concerts 7, New York City, 6-25-2020 to 7-2-2020

Norah Jones is tireless. She's been holding her weekly home concerts once a week with the regularity of a Swiss watch. It's been about six months, and I don't think she's missed one yet. I've been falling behind in posting these. This is number seven, but I already have material for eleven. So here at least is a start in getting caught up.

The main reason I've delayed posting this is because on July 10, 2020, instead of posting her home concert on YouTube as usual, she only made it available through something called "Amazon Live." They posted it publicly, but only for a few days, and I missed it. I was hoping to add that to this. But I eventually realized that three of the songs she played then she'd played at other home concerts. So I'm really only missing the song "Flame Twin," and she'll probably play that one in a home concert eventually. Still, if anyone has that "Amazon Live" recording, please let me know. 

This album is a bit short, at only 37 minutes. But I'd prefer not to split up her weekly home concerts, and adding four or so songs would make it longer than usual. 

In terms of musical content and sound quality, this is more of the same good stuff, like the other albums in this home concerts series. The songs are all Norah Jones originals, or covers that she's done on album (such as "The Grass Is Blue," originally by Dolly Parton). Two of the songs, "Heaven Above" and "Say No More," are from her 2020 album, and have never been played live for the public before.

01 The Grass Is Blue (Norah Jones)
02 Something Is Calling You (Norah Jones)
03 talk (Norah Jones)
04 Heaven Above (Norah Jones)
05 I've Got to See You Again (Norah Jones)
06 Wintertime (Norah Jones)
07 Take It Back (Norah Jones)
08 Say No More (Norah Jones)
09 I'll Be Gone (Norah Jones)
10 talk (Norah Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15634106/NorahJ_2020_HomeCncerts7__6-25-2020_to_7-2-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is a screenshot taken from the first of the two home concerts here.