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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This concert is two hours and six minutes long.

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

https://www.imagenetz.de/j4Nmz

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