So that alone is pretty cool. But typically for this kind of thing, we're lucky to get only a bad audience bootleg, if there's any known recording at all. That's especially true in a venue like the Sweetwater where this took place, which only held a hundred or so people at the most. But somehow, for this concert, we have a perfect soundboard bootleg recording of the entire thing! There's also video of it all that you can find on YouTube.
From the 1940s until 2007, there was a very special record store in Mill Valley, California, north of San Francisco, called "Village Music." Wikipedia has an entry on it, which states, "It was nationally recognized for its extensive collection of old, rare and specialty records." Costello, in his liner notes for his album "Kojak Variety," called it "may be the greatest record collector store in the world." Right next door to this store was a small club called the Sweetwater, or the Sweetwater Saloon. Twice a year, John Goddard, the owner of Village Music, held private concerts at the Sweetwater. Famous musicians from the Bay Area and beyond attended, and the sort of guest star turns as happened in this concert was typical. But while bootleg recordings of most of those concerts aren't publicly available, somehow we got lucky with this one. (Note that although the Sweetwater closed in 2007, another one with the same name opened up nearby in 2012 and continues until today.)
Here's an interesting article about the club, with some photos from these private parties, including another one of Costello and Garcia from this concert:
'One of a Kind': Remembering Jeanie Patterson, Owner of Mill Valley's Sweetwater | KQED
Out of all the unusual guests in the concert, perhaps the most intriguing combination was several covers of country songs sung by Costello with Jerry Garcia assisting on lead guitar. It turns out both of them talked about this very concert in an interview with "Musician Magazine" about a year later. Here's the relevant section:
Costello: "Certainly a candidate for the world's greatest record store is Village Music, in Mill Valley. Every year John Goddard has a party for his friends and customers, and he always has a really good bill of people. So last year on the twenty-first anniversary, I did a show with Nick Lowe, and he invited James Burton and Jerry Scheff, who'd played with me on the road. I did my little set, Nick did his set, and then it was a free-for-all; Charles Brown did a piece, and people were getting summoned to the stage. I was standing in the corridor when I suddenly heard, 'Jerry Garcia to the stage!' And, emboldened by several margaritas, I decided to join him."
Garcia then explained: "Not only that, but it was one of those situations where I had the choice of playing either Elvis' guitar, which is low and it's stiff, and the strings are quite wide as well, and all this confusing script, or of playing Burton's guitar, which is strung with spider webs. I mean it's the absolutely lightest you can string a guitar and still get a sound out of it. I'd take Burton's and play a note on it and it goes "spack." So I opted to play Elvis' guitar as the lesser of two evils. [laughter] And I vowed I would never go to another one of those shows without my own."
Costello then continued: "It was a whole Three Stooges routine -- 'Here, you take my guitar,' 'No, I'll take your guitar.' I think I had Burton's old Telecaster for half a song, and James had my old Martin acoustic which wasn't cranked up so he couldn't solo - and Jerry's struggling with my guitar. But once everybody got settled, we managed to struggle through a couple of Hank Williams songs. Like any sort of jam thing it inevitably came to degenerate towards lots of blues. But we managed a few songs with changes."
Then Garcia concluded, "A pretty high level of jam-sessionry really, considering what it was. Really fun. And Elvis' solo set was phenomenal, I thought. That's one of those things that I can't do at all, just playing the guitar and singing. You're so solid with that, you don't miss a band. I always feel like I'm missing a band."
It's quite a challenge figuring out who was playing on what song, since there was an ever-changing line-up after the initial solo sets by Lowe and Costello. Luckily, there's the video footage of the entire concert which I mentioned above, and person named "grner1" went through the whole thing and carefully noted the exact musicians on each song. I've included the text file that person made if you want all the details. The song order is somewhat different in my song list since I put all the banter on individual tracks, but you can follow along by looking at the song titles.
Because the bootleg already sounded excellent, I didn't have to do much. However, I did cut out some dead air between songs. I probably trimmed about ten minutes from the entire concert that way. And I boosted the vocals of some of the banter so it could be better heard. With my song list, I didn't attempt to list all the performers on each song, but just some of the more famous or prominent ones.
This album is two hours and 44 minutes long.
01 talk (Nick Lowe)
02 Without Love (Nick Lowe)
03 talk (Nick Lowe)
04 Refrigerator White (Nick Lowe)
05 Geisha Girl (Nick Lowe)
06 talk (Nick Lowe)
07 Rocky Road (Nick Lowe)
08 talk (Nick Lowe)
09 [I Wanna Build A] Jumbo Ark (Nick Lowe)
10 Bo Bo Skadiddle (Nick Lowe)
11 talk (Nick Lowe)
12 I Knew the Bride [When She Used to Rock and Roll] (Nick Lowe)
13 talk (Elvis Costello)
14 Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello)
15 Brilliant Mistake (Elvis Costello)
17 talk (Elvis Costello)
16 Deep Dark Truthful Mirror (Elvis Costello)
18 Mystery Dance (Elvis Costello)
19 talk (Elvis Costello)
20 Poisoned Rose (Elvis Costello)
21 God's Comic (Elvis Costello)
22 [The Angels Wanna Wear My] Red Shoes (Elvis Costello)
23 New Lace Sleeves (Elvis Costello)
24 Pads, Paws and Claws (Elvis Costello)
25 Radio Sweetheart (Elvis Costello)
27 talk (Elvis Costello)
26 Jackie Wilson Said [I'm in Heaven When You Smile] (Elvis Costello)
28 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Elvis Costello & Nick Lowe)
29 talk (Elvis Costello)
30 The Big Light (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
31 talk (Elvis Costello)
32 Pouring Water on a Drowning Man (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
33 talk (Elvis Costello)
34 Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
35 talk (Elvis Costello)
36 Leave My Kitten Alone (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
37 talk (Elvis Costello & Charles Brown)
38 I Stepped in Quicksand (Charles Brown with Kim Wilson)
39 talk (Charles Brown)
40 Driftin' Blues (Charles Brown)
41 talk (Charles Brown)
42 All My Life (Charles Brown)
43 talk (Austin de Lone & Nick Lowe)
44 One's Too Many [And a Hundred Ain't Enough] (Kim Wilson & Nick Lowe with James Burton)
45 Real Gone Lover (Kim Wilson with James Burton)
46 talk (Austin de Lone)
47 You Win Again (Elvis Costello with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
48 The Bottle Let Me Down (Elvis Costello with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
49 Why Don't You Love Me (Elvis Costello with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
50 talk (Austin de Lone & Commander Cody)
51 Riot in Cell Block No. 9 (Commander Cody with Sammy Hagar, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
52 talk (Austin de Lone)
53 Going Down (Sammy Hagar with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
54 talk (Austin de Lone)
55 C.C. Rider (Bob Weir with James Burton)
56 Turn On Your Lovelight (Bob Weir with Elvis Costello & James Burton)
57 talk (Austin de Lone)
58 Let the Good Times Roll (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
59 Loveable (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
60 talk (Elvis Costello)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/GHKigDxL
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/Y6iW7I2AIpEdyVA/file
The cover photo of Costello and Garcia is from this exact concert.
WoW!! Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteObrigado!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. This sounds so interesting!
ReplyDeleteAmazing!
ReplyDelete