Ed Sheeran - VH-1 Storytellers, Whelan's, Dublin, Ireland, 1-24-2015

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a Taylor Swift album. Now, I'm posting an Ed Sheeran one. I'm starting to threaten to post music from currently popular music acts! ;) The reason Sheeran has come across my radar screen is because he did an episode of "VH-1 Storytellers" in 2015. Here it is.

I plan on posting most of the Storytellers episodes I can find. But most is not the same as "all." There are a handful that I've found that I won't be posting because I just can't stand the music. (For instance, Kanye West, the Backstreet Boys, Jay-Z, and Kid Rock.) With Sheeran, I was on the fence. But I gave this album a listen, and I decided it's okay. Not my favorite by any means, but there's real musical talent here. 

Perhaps I was helped by the fact that this doesn't suffer so much from modern overproduction issues due to it being a relatively stripped down live performance. Most of the songs feature just Sheeran and his acoustic guitar.

From what I can gather, the Storytellers show was basically finished in 2012. But three years later, it came back for one more episode, at Sheeran's request. Since then, in 2023, the show has kind of been revived by CMT, a country music channel, and has broadcast a few episodes of country artists. I haven't been able to find any full episodes of those.

As I write this in 2024, Sheeran is massively popular, and has sold over 150 million albums worldwide. At the time of this concert, he had only released two albums. But both of them were massively popular. For instance, his second album, "x" (a.k.a. "Multiply"), sold about ten millions albums worldwide. So even though he performed in a club that could only hold a couple hundred people, he had a super enthusiastic crowd. As you'll hear listening to this, it sounds to be mostly women, who screamed quite a lot and also sang along with the songs. 

But the crowd noise you'll hear is actually toned way down, because I ran all the songs through the MSVEP audio editing program specifically to separate out the crowd noise. I didn't remove it entirely, since it was part of the overall sonic picture, but I lowered the volume of the crowd way down during the songs, while keeping it high at the ends of songs.

It seems some extra songs from this performance were made available on the Internet but not as part of the TV show. I couldn't find them. If you have them, let me know and I'll add them in.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Don't (Ed Sheeran)
02 talk (Ed Sheeran)
03 The A Team (Ed Sheeran)
04 talk (Ed Sheeran)
05 Bloodstream (Ed Sheeran)
06 talk (Ed Sheeran)
07 Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran)
08 talk (Ed Sheeran)
09 Take It Back - Superstition (Ed Sheeran)
10 talk (Ed Sheeran)
11 Photograph (Ed Sheeran)
12 talk (Ed Sheeran)
13 Sing (Ed Sheeran)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17110418/EDSHERN2015StrytllrsWhlansDblnIrlnd__1-24-2015_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KUopBbpu

The cover is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Norah Jones - VH-1 Storytellers, New York City, 4-27-2012

Here's yet another "VH-1 Storytellers" album. This time, it's Norah Jones.

I'm especially pleased to present this, because it seems exceedingly rare. I've been looking high and low for these Storytellers episodes, but not only could I not find this one, I barely even found many mentions of it through Google searches. But eventually, to my great surprise, a search request at SoulseekQT finally came through. Hopefully, this posting will help rescue this from obscurity.

In 2012, Jones released her fifth studio album, "Little Broken Hearts." This performance was part of the tour to support that album. She played three songs from the album, "Little Broken Hearts," "Happy Pills," and "Miriam."

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Come Away with Me (Norah Jones)
02 talk (Norah Jones)
03 Little Broken Hearts (Norah Jones)
04 talk (Norah Jones)
05 Happy Pills (Norah Jones)
06 talk (Norah Jones)
07 Don't Know Why (Norah Jones)
08 talk (Norah Jones)
09 Miriam (Norah Jones)
10 talk (Norah Jones)
11 Man of the Hour (Norah Jones)
12 talk (Norah Jones)
13 Rosie's Lullaby (Norah Jones)
14 talk (Norah Jones)
15 How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart (Norah Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17110416/NORHJONS2012StrytllrsNwYrkC__4-27-2012_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TKuwP9zU

The cover is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

The (Dixie) Chicks - VH-1 Storytellers, Los Angeles Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 9-2006

Next for the VH-1 Storytellers series is an album by the Dixie Chicks. Note that in 2020 this band changed their name to just "the Chicks." But I'll still call them "the Dixie Chicks" for the music they did prior to the name change.

In 2003, lead singer Natalie Maines told an audience that she didn't approve of the U.S. involvement in the Iraq War and she was ashamed President Bush Jr. was from her home state of Texas. Many country music fans tend to be politically conservative, so the band had a hard time getting played on country radio after that. Even so, in 2006, they put out the successful album "Take the Long Way." This concert was from the tour to support that album, and about seven of the songs performed here were from it. After the tour was over, the band would go on a very long hiatus. They would eventually tour some, but they wouldn't release another studio album until 2020. 

In 2011, the video of this concert was officially released. However, there never was an album release, which is why I'm posting this here. Thanks to the video, we get the full show, which is about twice as long as the TV episode.

By the way, I don't know the exact date of this concert. If anyone does know, please tell me and I'll update the album title.

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long.

01 talk (Dixie Chicks)
02 The Long Way Around (Dixie Chicks)
03 talk (Dixie Chicks)
04 Truth No. 2 (Dixie Chicks)
05 talk (Dixie Chicks)
06 Silent House (Dixie Chicks)
07 talk (Dixie Chicks)
08 Cowboy Take Me Away (Dixie Chicks)
09 talk (Dixie Chicks)
10 Lullaby (Dixie Chicks)
11 talk (Dixie Chicks)
12 Lubbock or Leave It (Dixie Chicks)
13 talk (Dixie Chicks)
14 Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks)
15 talk (Dixie Chicks)
16 Easy Silence (Dixie Chicks)
17 talk (Dixie Chicks)
18 So Hard (Dixie Chicks)
19 talk (Dixie Chicks)
20 Wide Open Spaces (Dixie Chicks)
21 talk (Dixie Chicks)
22 Sin Wagon (Dixie Chicks)
23 talk (Dixie Chicks)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17115261/TDIXICHKS2006StrytllrsLsAnglsThetrLsAnglesCA__9-2006_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v4uErA1U

The cover is a screenshot I took from the video of this exact concert.

Steely Dan - VH-1 Storytellers, Sony Studios, New York City, 2-1-2000

Next up for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is Steely Dan.

The band Steely Dan, basically a duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen plus supporting musicians, originally existed from 1971 to 1981. Even back then, they stopped touring by the end of 1974. But they reformed in 1993. At first, they just did some tours. But in 2000, they released their first studio album since 1980, "Two Against Nature." The last two songs here, "Cousin Dupree" and "What a Shame about Me," are from that album.

Everything here is officially unreleased. As usual for this series, I had to do a lot of editing, especially to get the applause at the ends of songs to flow naturally into the next track. As usual for this series, part of the first song, "FM (No Static at All)," was cut off. But unusually, most of another song, "Do It Again," was missing. This probably was the case on the TV show and not just the bootleg, since the total time for the episode was typical for the show. But I found alternate versions from other TV shows the band did in 2000, so now both of those can be heard in full. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles (even though most of the rest of the tracks have at least minor edits too).

Becker and Fagen rarely talked much during their concerts, so it's especially welcome to see a lot of banter between songs here.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 FM [No Static at All] [Edit] (Steely Dan)
02 talk (Steely Dan)
03 Peg (Steely Dan)
04 talk (Steely Dan)
05 Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan)
06 talk (Steely Dan)
07 Bad Sneakers (Steely Dan)
08 talk (Steely Dan)
09 Josie (Steely Dan)
10 Do It Again [Edit] (Steely Dan)
11 talk (Steely Dan)
12 Cousin Dupree (Steely Dan)
13 talk (Steely Dan)
14 What a Shame about Me (Steely Dan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17102810/STELYDN2000StrytllrsSnyStdosNwYrkC__2-1-2000_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wsq7yVF4

The cover is a screenshot of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen (with keyboard) from this exact concert.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - VH-1 Storytellers, MTV-VH-1 Studios, Santa Monica, CA, 2-18-2000

The flood of VH-1 Storytellers albums continues. This time, it's a episode of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY).

In 1999, CSNY had one of their occasional reunions, putting out the studio album "Looking Forward." Like most later CSN and CSNY studio albums, it had overproduction issues and song selection issues, so it wasn't nearly as good as it should have been. But all four of them remained talented songwriters just the same. That can be seen by the two songs here from that album, "Dream for Him" and "Seen Enough."

Other than those two, all the songs were classics from the late 1960s and early 1970s. There was a mix of acoustic and full-band performances. This was one of the first concerts for the band's 2000 tour, their first big tour as CSNY since 1974.

As I've done with most of these, I had to do a lot of editing to fix the flow from song to song. For instance, oftentimes, the applause cut off abruptly, so I'd have to patch in more applause from somewhere else. I made an especially big edit for the song "Helplessly Hoping," which is why that one has "[Edit]" in its title. As this series usually did, it started part way through the first song. So I found a soundboard version from the band's 2000 tour, and used that to fill in the missing part.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Helplessly Hoping [Edit] (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
02 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
03 Our House (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
04 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
05 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
06 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
07 Guinnevere (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
08 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
09 Long May You Run (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
10 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
11 Dream for Him (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
12 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
13 After the Goldrush (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
14 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
15 Seen Enough (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
16 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
17 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17102811/CROSBSTLLSNSHYNG2000Strytllrs_MTVH1StdosSntaMncaCA__2-18-2000_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vnAmSyFi

I could have used a screenshot from this exact concert, but it would have been poor quality, based on a low-res video file. Instead, I used one from a concert in San Jose, California, on February 4, 2000, just two weeks prior to this concert.

Jackson Browne - VH-1 Storytellers, The Hit Factory, New York City, 4-18-1996

Here's yet another episode of the "VH-1 Storytellers" show. This time, it's Jackson Browne.

A couple of months before this episode, Browne released the studio album "Looking East." No doubt the songs selected for the show were taken from a longer concert, since that was the usual procedure for the concert. Whoever picked them only chose one song from the new album, "Barricades of Heaven." Pretty much all the other songs were from the 1970s.

As usual, the episode had the annoying habit of starting in the middle of the first song. But in this case, I was able to find a very similar sounding version of the first song, "Running on Empty," from a different 1996 concert. I merged the two versions together. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title. But really, I could have put "[Edit]" in most of the titles, because I had to do a lot of editing to make this more listening. As I'm doing for most of these Storytellers, I often had to add bits of applause at the ends of songs because those frequently were suddenly cut short in order to go to a commercial break on the TV show.

I believe all the performances here are officially unreleased.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Running on Empty [Edit] (Jackson Browne)
02 talk (Jackson Browne)
03 Rock Me on the Water (Jackson Browne)
04 talk (Jackson Browne)
05 Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)
06 talk (Jackson Browne)
07 Rosie (Jackson Browne)
08 talk (Jackson Browne)
09 Barricades of Heaven [Lost Verse] (Jackson Browne)
10 Barricades of Heaven (Jackson Browne)
11 talk (Jackson Browne)
12 Something Fine (Jackson Browne)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 The Pretender (Jackson Browne)
15 talk (Jackson Browne)
16 For Everyman (Jackson Browne)
17 talk (Jackson Browne)

The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue, sorry.

I could have taken a screenshot from a video of this concert, but that would have looked low-res and blurry. Instead, I used a photo from a concert that took place at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California, on September 14, 1996.

Stone Temple Pilots - VH-1 Storytellers, Metropolis Studios, New York City, 3-8-2000

Next with the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is Stone Temple Pilots.

This popular grunge band has gotten a lot of flack over the years about sounding too derivative of other grunge bands like Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains. I'm not much into grunge in general, but I must say the band has a number of undeniable classics, so they deserve more respect.

The band had a rocky history, in large part due to their lead singer Scott Weiland, who suffered off and on with drug addiction. In the 1990s, the band sold about 40 million albums worldwide. But in 1999, Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession. At the time of this concert, the band hadn't released an album since before Weiland's jail time, with the album "No. 4" in 1999. This was the band's first "real" concert since the jail time, with only some unannounced warm-up shows before it.

In 2001, the band would release their fifth album, "Shangri-La Dee Da." But they would break up a year after that. There would be later reunions, but Weiland would die of a drug overdose in 2015.

Here's the Wikipedia page if you want to know more:

Stone Temple Pilots - Wikipedia

This is one of the rare cases where the entire "Storytellers" concert appeared as a bootleg, not just the 45 or so minutes of the TV broadcast. That allowed me to add in two extra songs, "Creep" and "Down," that weren't included in the TV show. Plus, as usual, the show only started with the last part of one song. In this case, that song was "Big Empty." But I was able to include the full version instead. I also added in a bunch of banter that wasn't on the show. Unfortunately though, most of the rest of the bootleg material were second or even third takes of songs. I didn't include any of those, since they had only minor differences.

This album is an hour and one minute long.

01 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
02 Big Empty (Stone Temple Pilots)
03 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
04 Creep (Stone Temple Pilots)
05 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
06 Interstate Love Song (Stone Temple Pilots)
07 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
08 Sour Girl (Stone Temple Pilots)
09 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
10 Kitchenware and Candybars (Stone Temple Pilots)
11 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
12 Atlanta (Stone Temple Pilots)
13 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
14 Plush (Stone Temple Pilots)
15 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
16 Vasoline (Stone Temple Pilots)
17 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
18 Sex Type Thing (Stone Temple Pilots)
19 talk (Stone Temple Pilots)
20 Down (Stone Temple Pilots)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17090962/STONTMPLPILTS2000StrytllrsMtrplisStdosNwYrkC__3-8-2000_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/M1cT2q4Q

The cover photo shows the band's lead singer Scott Weiland performing with the band on the "Late Night with Jay Leno" TV show in May 2000.

Stevie Nicks - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 8-18-1998

Next up for my "VH-1 Storytellers" series is Stevie Nicks.

Nicks has had incredible success as a long-time member of Fleetwood Mac. That band has sold over 120 million albums, most of them from the years Nick was a member. But she's had great success as a solo artist too, selling over 65 million albums.

This concert took place a few months after she released a box set dealing with her entire career, called "Enchanted." As a result, she didn't have the usual new studio album to promote, so pretty much all the songs here are classics from years earlier. The one partial exception is the song "Rhiannon." While it's a Fleetwood Mac classic from the 1970s, she put out a solo piano version on the "Enchanted" box set, and she also performed it here in a solo piano format.

I believe everything here is officially unreleased. As I've done with nearly all of these, I made some edits to get rid of traces of commercial breaks. Mostly that meant editing the applause after songs when they ended abruptly to go to a commercial.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Dreams [Incomplete] (Stevie Nicks)
02 talk (Stevie Nicks)
03 Landslide (Stevie Nicks)
04 talk (Stevie Nicks)
05 Stand Back (Stevie Nicks)
06 talk (Stevie Nicks)
07 Rhiannon (Stevie Nicks)
08 talk (Stevie Nicks)
09 After the Glitter Fades (Stevie Nicks)
10 talk (Stevie Nicks)
11 Edge of Seventeen (Stevie Nicks)
12 talk (Stevie Nicks)
13 Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You (Stevie Nicks)

The download link has been removed due to a copyright issue.

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert.

Garth Brooks - VH-1 Storytellers, New York City, 10-20-1996

I've previously said I'm not a Garth Brooks fan. But albums like this one are changing my mind. Brooks could have performed for the "VH-1 Storytellers" show with a full band, as most acts on the show did, but instead he decided to do it in a solo acoustic format. That completely gets rid of a slick country pop production that I don't like and that is all over his studio albums. What we're left with is a talented singer performing good songs, very much in a James Taylor mode that arguably sounds more folky than country. (Not surprisingly, he mentions in his banter here that Taylor is one of his biggest influences.) So if you don't like Brooks, or even country music in general, you may still like this.

It so happens I found an article from the Chicago Tribune reviewing the concert shortly after it happened. It includes a quote from Brooks about playing solo acoustic for it:

"It was definitely the first time since I got a deal in 1989 that I played this way. I was pretty much petrified. Oh man, I never get to play for 75 people. And you always have a band to hide behind. And you have lights and tricks to hide behind, so when your vocal is not there, I can laugh it off and say I was joking with somebody. But there wasn’t nobody but me and my guitar up there this time. ... Everybody should go through a show like this. I wasn’t too comfortable when it started, but by the end I was having a blast."

Keep in mind that Brooks was selling insane amounts of records at the time. For instance, his 1990 album "No Fences" sold 18 million copies, and his 1991 album "Ropin' the Wind" sold 14 million. So for him to perform for a mere 75 people was pretty wild. Kudos to him for doing this. Much later in his career, around 2010 to 2014, he did occasional solo acoustic shows in Las Vegas. But this may well be the only such show from the 1990s, when he was at the height of his fame. Even those later acoustic shows were for big audiences of many thousands, so this was quite a unique concert for him, I think.

By the way, I couldn't find the name of the exact venue this concert took place in, so if anyone knows, please let me know and I'll update this.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Papa Loved Mama [Incomplete] (Garth Brooks)
02 talk (Garth Brooks)
03 The River (Garth Brooks)
04 talk (Garth Brooks)
05 Sweet Baby James (Garth Brooks)
06 talk (Garth Brooks)
07 That Summer (Garth Brooks)
08 talk (Garth Brooks)
09 That Summer [Version 2] (Garth Brooks)
10 talk (Garth Brooks)
11 That Ol' Wind (Garth Brooks)
12 The Thunder Rolls (Garth Brooks)
13 talk (Garth Brooks)
14 Unanswered Prayers (Garth Brooks)
15 talk (Garth Brooks)
16 We Shall Be Free (Garth Brooks)
17 talk (Garth Brooks)
18 Much Too Young [To Feel This Damn Old] (Garth Brooks)
19 talk (Garth Brooks)
20 If Tomorrow Never Comes (Garth Brooks)
21 talk (Garth Brooks)
22 The Dance (Garth Brooks)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17072503/GARTHBRKS1996StrytllrsNwYrkC__10-20-1996_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/r8bAVpm7

The cover photo is rather low-res and blurry, but it's the only photo I could find actually from this exact concert.

Billy Joel - VH-1 Storytellers, Sony Studios, New York City, 9-11-1997

I'm discovering most of these "VH-1 Storytellers" episodes for the first time as I put them together for this music blog. I find most of them interesting, but this Billy Joel one is extra special. For one thing, it's extra long. This was a rare case when the concert was edited down to two episodes of about 45 minutes each, instead of one. Furthermore, I was able to find a YouTube video of some outtakes, and I added those in. So this is longer than it's ever been presented as one piece before, and it feels like a full concert (even though there probably are still some missing bits). For another thing, Joel really let it all hang out in this. He talked quite freely and extensively between songs, and played many songs he otherwise never would have played in his regular concerts, instead of most of the expected big hits. Consider that this includes cover versions of "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, and even "Good Times, Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin!

Technically, I suppose Joel did this concert to help promote his "Greatest Hits, Volume III" album, which was released the month before. But that had only three new songs on it, and he didn't play any of them. He didn't even mention the album. He barely even did any concerts that year. Other than this, he played a couple of songs on a TV show, and did two classical music performances. Instead, he seemed to just playing whatever came to mind based on audience questions, and there were lots of audience questions. For instance, one person asked a question about the song "No Man's Land." He clearly wasn't ready to play that, but he stalled for time with talking while giving his band a chance to quietly talk amongst themselves to get ready, then he played it.

The songs I added in were "Purple Haze" and "Good Times, Bad Times." The outtakes video I took these from didn't have the same quality as the rest. There were many sonic flaws on them, to the point that I wasn't sure if I should include them. But I noticed that the vast majority were just on one of the two stereo channels. So I deleted that channel and duplicated the other one. So those two songs are effectively mono. But they sound much better that way, even though there are still some sonic flaws. I also found some other bits of banter from the outtakes video and added those in. That included adding some to the end of the brief "lounge version" of "Just the Way You Are."

If you're a Billy Joel fan, I think this is a must have. I'll bet he's never done another concert like this one before or since.

The album is an hour and 30 minutes long.

01 talk (Billy Joel)
02 River of Dreams (Billy Joel)
03 talk (Billy Joel)
04 Movin' Out (Billy Joel)
05 talk (Billy Joel)
06 Allentown (Billy Joel)
07 talk (Billy Joel)
08 Sunshine of Your Love (Billy Joel)
09 talk (Billy Joel)
10 Purple Haze (Billy Joel)
11 talk (Billy Joel)
12 Honesty (Billy Joel with David Krout)
13 talk (Billy Joel)
14 Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (Billy Joel)
15 talk (Billy Joel)
16 Just the Way You Are [Lounge Version] (Billy Joel)
17 I Go to Extremes (Billy Joel)
18 A Matter of Trust (Billy Joel)
19 talk (Billy Joel)
20 No Man's Land (Billy Joel)
21 talk (Billy Joel)
22 Good Times, Bad Times (Billy Joel)
23 talk (Billy Joel)
24 Summer, Highland Falls (Billy Joel)
25 talk (Billy Joel)
26 A Room of Our Own (Billy Joel)
27 Don't Ask Me Why (Billy Joel)
28 talk (Billy Joel)
29 A Hard Day's Night (Billy Joel)
30 talk (Billy Joel)
31 Gimme Some Lovin' (Billy Joel)
32 talk (Billy Joel)
33 Eroica Highlights and Discussion (Billy Joel)
34 talk (Billy Joel)
35 We Didn't Start the Fire (Billy Joel)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17069218/BILLYJL1997StrytllrsSnyStdosNwYrkC__9-11-1997_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P4mECUFi

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert.

Electric Light Orchestra - VH-1 Storytellers, Altman Building, New York City, 4-20-2001

Next up for the Storytellers series is an episode by Electric Light Orchestra.

In 2001, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) reformed after disbanding back in 1986, and released a new album, called "Zoom." But it was basically just the band's lead singer and songwriter Jeff Lynne using the ELO name. Only one other original member, Richard Tandy, was involved, and he only played on one song. 

The plan was to tour to support the album. However, the tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. But two concerts were performed. There was a full show done for PBS, which was later released on DVD, and which I've posted in full here. Then there also was this concert, for the "VH-1 Storytellers" TV show. For both concerts, Tandy played on all the songs, making it somewhat more of an actual ELO performance. 

ELO typically has a very full and produced sound, with lots of musicians performing on any given song. Sometimes, whole orchestras are involved. But this concert, while not exactly "unplugged," at least was more stripped down, making these arrangements a bit unique. The fact that the concert took place in front of only a couple hundred people was also highly unusual. The band only played two songs from the new album: "Alright" and "Moment in Paradise." Everything else were classic hits from the 1970s.

The actual concert had more songs. Unfortunately, as usual for this show, the first song, "Do Ya," started midway through.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Do Ya [Incomplete] (Electric Light Orchestra)
02 Evil Woman (Electric Light Orchestra)
03 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
04 Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra)
05 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
06 Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
07 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
08 Alright (Electric Light Orchestra)
09 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
10 Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
11 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
12 Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra)
13 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
14 Livin' Thing (Electric Light Orchestra)
15 talk (Electric Light Orchestra)
16 Moment in Paradise (Electric Light Orchestra)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17069742/ELECTRCLGHTO2001StrytllrsAltmnBildngNwYrkC__4-20-2001_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8WR8jNme

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Bonnie Raitt - VH-1 Storytellers, Sony Studios, New York City, 5-12-1998

Here's another "VH-1 Storytellers" episode, this time of Bonnie Raitt.

In 1998, Raitt released a new studio album, "Elemental." As part of her tour, she did a Storytellers episode. However, only two of the songs, "Blue for No Reason" and "One Belief Away," were from that album.

She mostly played slide guitar as part of a full band. But, very usually, she also played a short solo version of "Give It Up or Let Me Go" on piano, which is not her usual instrument.

I couldn't find any audio bootleg of this show. But I found a video of it, so I converted that to mp3s. I believe everything here is officially unreleased.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Something to Talk About (Bonnie Raitt)
02 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
03 Give It Up or Let Me Go [Solo Piano Version] (Bonnie Raitt)
04 Give It Up or Let Me Go (Bonnie Raitt)
05 Thing Called Love (Bonnie Raitt)
06 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
07 One Part Be My Lover (Bonnie Raitt)
08 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
09 Nick of Time (Bonnie Raitt)
10 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
11 Blue for No Reason (Bonnie Raitt)
12 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
13 I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt)
14 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
15 One Belief Away (Bonnie Raitt)
16 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
17 The Road's My Middle Name (Bonnie Raitt)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17056598/BONNIRTT1998StrytllrsSnyStdosNwYrkC__5-12-1998_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dC8XRq75

The cover is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Eurythmics - VH-1 Storytellers, Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center, New York City, 9-28-1999

Here's another album from the VH-1 Storytellers TV show. This time, it's the Eurythmics. (Technically, their name is just "Eurythmics" without the "the," but I think most people add the "the.")

The band was very popular during the 1980s. But by 1990, after eight albums in eight years, they were burned out and the band went on a long hiatus. They finally reunited with a new album, "Peace," in 1999. They toured to support it through 1999 and 2000, and this show was part of that tour. Since then, they've only done less than ten shows, most of them short appearances at awards shows.

One nice thing about these Storytellers shows is that some musical acts who rarely talk on stage are put in a position to talk. This show is a case in point. Lead singer Annie Lennox even mentions in her banter that she almost never talks on stage, yet once she got started talking, it was like she couldn't stop and went on for about three minutes before the next song. The only other member of the band, Dave Stewart, talked about an equal amount.

By the way, I list "McGinty's Meal and Ale" as a song in the set list, but that's a stretch. In reality, Lennox just sang a snippet of this song acappella that lasts only about 20 seconds. But I did a little Googling to figure out the song title, so I figured it was useful to include that information.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Who's That Girl (Eurythmics)
02 talk (Eurythmics)
03 Missionary Man (Eurythmics)
04 talk (Eurythmics)
05 McGinty's Meal and Ale (Eurythmics)
06 talk (Eurythmics)
07 Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This] (Eurythmics)
08 talk (Eurythmics)
09 17 Again (Eurythmics)
10 talk (Eurythmics)
11 Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves (Eurythmics)
12 talk (Eurythmics)
13 Why (Eurythmics)
14 talk (Eurythmics)
15 Here Comes the Rain Again (Eurythmics)
16 talk (Eurythmics)
17 I'm Alive (Eurythmics)
18 Ball and Chain - Would I Lie to You (Eurythmics)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17056550/TEURYTHMCS1999StrytllrsGrndBllromMnhttnCntrNwYrkC__9-28-1999_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XhkaEZYk

The cover photo of Annie Lennox is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert.

VH-1 Storytellers, Seeley G. Mudd Theater, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, 10-17-2012

I never thought I'd post a Taylor Swift album on my music blog. But I've been collecting episodes of the "VH-1 Storytellers" TV show, and I noticed she performed on the show in 2012. If you've followed this blog, you'll probably have noticed that I'm not a big fan of most modern pop music. But I have to give Swift credit that she writes or co-writes nearly all of her own songs, and she's quite talented. So I don't put her in the same category as many other modern pop stars who I think will soon be forgotten. But her stuff isn't my cup of tea, especially since it appeals to a different, younger demographic.

That said, this concert is more up my alley than most of the stuff she does. I find a lot of modern pop slick and overproduced, with more of a focus on looks and spectacle than the actual music. But for this one concert, Swift put aside all the dancing and posing and frequent costume changes and such, and just stayed seated with a guitar and performed some songs with a small band. This concert isn't going to turn me into a "Swiftie," but I think it shows she has undeniable musical talent.

As I write this in 2024, Swift is probably the most popular musician on the planet. Back when this concert took place in 2012, she was still a rising star, but already a kind of Swift-mania had set in. So this concert wasn't done in the usual way. Instead, there was a kind of contest for her to do this special concert at a U.S. college. I don't know the details, but somehow Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California won, so that's where this took place.

I found a high quality video of this full show. (There are lower quality versions on YouTube.) I was surprised that I didn't see any conversions to audio format at places like SoulseekQT, so I did the conversion myself. In so doing, I trimmed a couple of minutes at the start talking about the contest that consisted of interviews with college students and wasn't actually part of the show. I also did some editing of the applause at the ends of some songs. Unfortunately, for most of the songs, the cheering came to a sudden halt, probably so the show could go to a commercial break. So I copied and pasted in bits of applause from elsewhere to create smooth transitions.

According to setlist.fm, she played one additional song, "Begin Again," but I couldn't find that one. As far as I know, all the performances from this remain unreleased.

At the time of this concert, she was a few weeks away from releasing her album "Red." She played three songs from that, the previously mentioned "Begin Again," plus "Red" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." All three had recently been released as A- or B-sides. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" in particular went on to sell a bazillion copies worldwide, going platinum six times over in the U.S. alone.

This show is different from most Storytellers shows in that Swift had a lot of audience interaction, taking questions from audience members several times. Maybe because of this there was more banter between songs than usual, with two or three minutes of talking between most songs.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 You Belong with Me (Taylor Swift)
02 talk (Taylor Swift)
03 Red (Taylor Swift)
04 talk (Taylor Swift)
05 Ours Intro (Taylor Swift)
06 Ours (Taylor Swift)
07 talk (Taylor Swift)
08 Mean (Taylor Swift)
09 talk (Taylor Swift)
10 We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor Swift)
11 talk (Taylor Swift)
12 Our Song (Taylor Swift)
13 talk (Taylor Swift)
14 Love Story (Taylor Swift)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17053520/TAYLRSWFT2012StrytllrsSelyGMddThetrHrveyMddCllgeClrmntCA__10-17-2012_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RyaaVX5N

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

The Pretenders - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 6-26-1999

Here's another album from the "Storytellers" TV show. This time, it's the Pretenders.

In 1999, the Pretenders released a new studio album called "Viva El Amor." As part of their tour to support the album, they did a turn on this TV show. However, only two of the songs performed actually come from the album: "Popstar" and "Biker." The rest are classics from earlier albums.

Chrissie Hynde, the band's lead singer and main songwriter, usually has little to no banter between songs in her concerts. But she was quite talkative here, sharing interesting stories. Martin Chambers, the band's founding drummer, also talked some.

All the music on this album is unreleased, except for "Back on the Chain Gang," which made it onto a Storytellers various artists collection.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
02 talk (Pretenders)
03 Kid (Pretenders)
04 talk (Pretenders)
05 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
06 talk (Pretenders)
07 The Phone Call (Pretenders)
08 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
09 talk (Pretenders)
10 Don't Get Me Wrong (Pretenders)
11 talk (Pretenders)
12 The Adultress (Pretenders)
13 talk (Pretenders)
14 My City Was Gone (Pretenders)
15 talk (Pretenders)
16 Popstar (Pretenders)
17 talk (Pretenders)
18 Biker (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17053527/TPRETNDRS1999StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__6-26-1999_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uQXnXnAL

I couldn't find a good photo from this exact concert. So instead I went with a photo of lead singer Chrissie Hynde at a memorial concert for Paul McCartney's wife, Linda McCartney, in the same year.

John Fogerty - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 6-11-1997

Here's another Storytellers episode, one of my favorites, by John Fogerty.

In 1997, Fogerty put on an excellent new studio album, "Blue Moon Swamp." It was his first new album in 11 years, and he went on tour to support it. Luckily for us, that included recording a Storytellers episode. For most of the show, he stuck to a solo acoustic mode. But he was joined by a bassist on "Green River," and then a full band from "A Hundred and Ten in the Shade" to the end of the show. Mostly, he did versions of his Creedence Clearwater Revival classics, with only two songs from his new album ("A Hundred and Ten in the Shade" and "Joy of My Life").

I've had this album in my music collection for a long time. When I made it way back when, I added in two songs from an appearance on the "Late Night with David Letterman" TV show just a few days earlier. They fit in very well, since neither of those songs repeated any of them from the Storytellers show. They are unreleased, just like everything else here.

There was a low hum running through nearly the entire recording. I was able to get rid of most of it using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is 50 minutes long. Not including the two extra songs at the end, the Storytellers portion is 44 minutes long.

As an aside, note that when I posted these Storytellers albums today, I also redid the cover art for the ones I'd previously posted: Phil Collins, ZZ Top, Natalie Merchant, and Tom Petty. Now, I'll have the same font type and color for all the album covers in this series moving forward. I also created a new label, "Storyteller Series." So if you want to grab those that were posted before, just click on the side link with that label to get to them all. (The Petty one had been taken down due to copyright issues with all of his music in general, but I'm giving it another try for this one album.)

01 Lookin' Out My Back Door [Incomplete] (John Fogerty)
02 talk (John Fogerty)
03 Proud Mary (John Fogerty)
04 talk (John Fogerty)
05 Lodi (John Fogerty)
06 talk (John Fogerty)
07 Bad Moon Rising (John Fogerty)
08 talk (John Fogerty)
09 Who'll Stop the Rain (John Fogerty)
10 talk (John Fogerty)
11 Born on the Bayou (John Fogerty)
12 talk (John Fogerty)
13 Green River (John Fogerty)
14 talk (John Fogerty)
15 A Hundred and Ten in the Shade (John Fogerty)
16 talk (John Fogerty)
17 Joy of My Life (John Fogerty)
18 talk (John Fogerty)
19 Centerfield (John Fogerty)
20 Walking in a Hurricane (John Fogerty)
21 Fortunate Son (John Fogerty)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17053512/JOHNFGRTY1997StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__6-11-1997_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ucR9JP6n

The cover is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. It's a bit rough, but oh well.

Ray Davies - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 2-10-1996

I'm working on a couple of big music projects for this blog (as I write this in September 2024). I just finished posting 28 albums comprising the 1983 US Festival. I'm happy to say that I've now found most of the 1982 US Festival, and I plan on posting that soon as well.

But also, I'm on a new kick of collecting episodes of the TV series "VH-1 Storytellers." I've posted a few of these already, but I want to post more because this seems to be something else that has slipped into a collective memory hole, much like the US Festivals. A handful of artists have released their Storytellers episodes on audio and/or video, such as Ringo Starr, David Bowie, Billy Idol, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson (as a duet), Meat Loaf, and Culture Club, so those remain well known. But from 1996 to 2015, a remarkable number of major musical acts performed full episodes for the VH-1 Storytellers show, yet most of the music seems to have been forgotten on bootlegs, other than those for a few really big names. I found a website that tracks missing TV episodes, and it turns out many episodes have entirely disappeared, with no audio or video to be found in the public domain. Others remain very obscure. So I plan to post as many good ones I can find on this blog.

It's fitting to start this new effort of mine with this Ray Davies episode, because it was the very first episode, and for good reason. Davies, the lead singer and main songwriter of the Kinks, was starting his solo career as the Kinks were breaking up. He wrote an autobiography titled "X-Ray," which was released in 1994. In 1995, he began touring in an acoustic format (only backed with an additional guitarist), alternating between reading excerpts from his book and playing songs. He called this tour "Storyteller." The people behind this TV show were so taken by his concerts in this format that they basically stole it for the show, even down to the nearly identical title. In his banter during the concert featured here, Davies even half-jokingly said of VH-1, "Out of this, they'll get a series and they'll copyright it, and they'll tell me to piss off" - which is basically what happened.

Three things make this series special, in my opinion. One is that while most acts didn't follow Davies in going fully acoustic, some did, and most at least stripped their sound back, resulting in different versions than what you'd normally find from their concerts. The second is that the episodes were almost always filmed in small clubs of a couple hundred people, resulting in a more intimate atmosphere, and better sound quality, than was typically the case, especially for the big name artists. And third, and really the whole point that was built into the title, was that the artists were told to tell stories relating to the songs. On the downside, these albums are pretty short, typically about 45 minutes, to make up an hour-long TV show with commercials. But a few of the bootlegs have managed to capture the full concerts which usually lasted much longer.

Now, getting to this album, I assumed this wouldn't be so interesting to me, because Davies released a live album in 1998 called "Storyteller" based on these same acoustic tours. I figured it would be basically the same, only shorter, since the Storyteller album is about 75 minutes long, and this is 45 minutes long. But it turns out that Davies has such a deep well of classic songs to draw from that there's almost no overlap. Only two songs - "London Song" and "You Really Got Me" - are performed on both! So if you have that album and like it, this makes for an ideal companion piece.

The sound quality here is generally excellent. However, I made a lot of edits to make it sound better. I was able to find two different videos of the episode, but no audio bootlegs. There were lots of little flaws in the main video I converted to mp3s. For instance, during each of the commercial breaks in the TV show, the show would stop and instead bits of songs from earlier or later in the show were played for a few seconds as teasers. I got rid of all that and stitched things together to make this sound seamless. It was lucky I found two videos to draw from, because sometimes there were missing bits in one that I could find in the other.

I did a more extreme edit for the song "Lola." Unfortunately, the show had a bad habit of starting each episode in the middle of a song, and that was the case here, with "Lola." The episode started with only about the last minute of the song. But then, even more annoyingly, the episode ended with more of the song, about the first minute, before fading out. Had it just been the first snippet, I would have let it slide. But with two snippets, I was tempted to put them together. So I moved the part at the end to the very beginning. However, that left me with a missing chunk of the middle of the song. I went looking for a bootleg of a similar acoustic performance from the same year, and found one. So this version is made up of three different parts stitched together. That's why it has "[Edit]" in the name. But in fact I could have put that in the name of many songs here, mostly due to editing the applause at the endings.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Lola [Edit] (Ray Davies)
02 talk (Ray Davies)
03 Sunny Afternoon (Ray Davies)
04 talk (Ray Davies)
05 Come Dancing (Ray Davies)
06 talk (Ray Davies)
07 London Song (Ray Davies)
08 talk (Ray Davies)
09 Celluloid Heroes (Ray Davies)
10 talk (Ray Davies)
11 Dead End Street (Ray Davies)
12 talk (Ray Davies)
13 A Well Respected Man (Ray Davies)
14 talk (Ray Davies)
15 Harry Rag (Ray Davies)
16 talk (Ray Davies)
17 A Well Respected Man [Reprise] (Ray Davies)
18 talk (Ray Davies)
19 To the Bone (Ray Davies)
20 talk (Ray Davies)
21 You Really Got Me (Ray Davies)
22 talk (Ray Davies)
23 Days (Ray Davies)
24 Waterloo Sunset (Ray Davies)
25 talk (Ray Davies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17053518/RAYDVES1996StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__2-10-1996_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HsYc7s4E

I couldn't find any good photos of Ray Davies from this exact concert. I considered getting a screenshot from the video of it on YouTube, but that was low-res and blurry. So instead I'm using a photo of him on the "White Room" TV show from 1995.