Traffic - Fillmore East, New York City, 11-18-1970

Back in 2018, I posted an album of Traffic in concert from 1970, which I called "BBC Sessions, Volume 3." I included the four songs from this concert that weren't performed at that concert. But recently, I decided to post this concert in full. So here it is.

I suggest you download the latest version of that other 1970 concert I just mentioned. I updated it today. I didn't just remove the four songs at the end. I also added all the banter tracks between songs, which had been missing. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/04/traffic-paris-theatre-london-britain-4.html

Anyway, getting back to this concert, it's the one other great Traffic concert from 1970, in terms of sound quality. They are the only two soundboard recordings from that year, I believe. But there were some problems with this one, which is a reason why I didn't post it previously. However, I now have fixed those problems.

The main problem was that while the music was all there (with one exception, which I'll get to), the banter between songs was missing, and often even the cheering at the ends of songs were missing. However, it turns out the band performed at the Fillmore East the next day as well, and six songs from that were included on the 2011 deluxe edition of the "John Barleycorn Must Die" album. So I used those songs to get the banter and applause whenever possible. For instance, I used the November 18th version of "Medicated Goo," but pasted in the applause from the November 19th version at the end. For some songs that otherwise didn't have applause (since only a few of the November 19th versions have been released), I just recycled and patched in what applause there was in ways that you hopefully won't notice.

So that was one problem licked. Another problem is that a big chunk of the song "Glad" was missing - about six minutes. Luckily, the November 19th version was one of the released bonus tracks, so I used that version to patch it in. Frankly, you can hear this November 18th version has better sound quality than the patched in November 19th section in the middle, so I wonder why they didn't release November 18th tracks instead. But I digress.

There was yet another problem. While the recording quality was excellent, to be sure, worthy of an official live album, the vocals were low in the mix. I used the UVR5 audio editing program to bring those up.

The end result is that this sounds better than ever before, perhaps making it the best live Traffic concert recording out there. Many of the same songs were played as on the BBC concert from earlier in the year, but this has four more songs. Plus, that concert took place over six months earlier. In the meantime, Traffic went from a trio to a quartet, thanks to the addition of Ric Grech on bass. That allowed the others to be freer with their soloing, when they didn't have to do the work of the bass player as well.

The songs here are generally unreleased. But note there are bits and pieces that come from the November 19th versions, as mentioned above. The sound quality is truly excellent now.   

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bill Graham (Traffic)
02 Medicated Goo (Traffic)
03 Pearly Queen (Traffic)
04 talk (Traffic)
05 Empty Pages (Traffic)
06 Heaven Is in Your Mind (Traffic)
07 talk (Traffic)
08 [Roamin' thro' the Gloamin' With] 40,000 Headmen (Traffic)
09 John Barleycorn [Edit] (Traffic)
10 Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring (Traffic)
11 talk (Traffic)
12 Every Mother's Son (Traffic)
13 Glad - Freedom Rider [Edit] (Traffic)
14 Means to an End (Traffic)
15 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MVr3WG5P

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/UcfuG3VuBpSWbsu/file

The cover photo shows Steve Winwood at a concert at the Bristol University Students Union, in Bristol, Britain, on April 25, 1970. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

John Sebastian & David Bromberg - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-9-1974

I recently posted a "PBS Soundstage" episode starring Donovan. I noted that another episode recorded that same day at the same location jointly starred John Sebastian and David Bromberg, which allowed Donovan to have them as guests on one of his songs. A commenter noticed that and asked me to post the Sebastian and Bromberg show sooner rather than later. So here it is.

Sebastian and Bromberg are singer-songwriters. (Both are still alive as I write this in 2025.) Sebastian had a lot more success than Bromberg, first with his band the Lovin' Spoonful in the 1960s, and then with his Number One smash "Welcome Back" in 1976. Bromberg did a lot more work as a session musician in the 1970s, while also releasing a series of solo albums.

At first glance, there doesn't appear to have been much connection between these two. For instance, they never put out an album together, or were in a band together. According to their banter between songs in this concert, they were working on a studio album, said to be called "Fish and Fire." I don't know if that was supposed to be a Sebastian album or Bromberg album or what, but no such album ever came to be. However, I did notice that in later years, meaning 1980s and after, they did tour together sometimes.

In any case, they were very collaborative in the concert. The first half was dominated by Bromberg and the second half by Sebastian, but both of them generally played on all the songs.

Generally speaking, the sound quality is pretty good, though not great. The only major problem I had was the last song, "Summer in the City," which was a Number One hit by the Lovin' Spoonful in the 1960s. Unfortunately, it got cut off before the song ended. I couldn't find another version from around this time. But I patched in a part from earlier to at least give it a better sounding ending.

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Hard Working John [Instrumental] (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
02 talk (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
03 Don't Put That Thing on Me (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
04 talk (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
05 Si Bheag, Si Mhor [Instrumental] (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
06 Nobody's (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
07 talk (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
08 I'm a Hog for Ya Baby (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
09 Stealin' (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
10 Guitar and Harmonica Duet [Instrumental] (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
11 talk (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
12 Friends Again (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
13 Harmonica Song [Instrumental] (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
14 Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
15 You Didn't Have to Be So Nice (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
16 Do You Believe in Magic (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
17 talk (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
18 Summer in the City [Edit] (John Sebastian & David Bromberg)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xv13TJvj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hrzGeMuWIm5iie4/file

I couldn't find any photos or video footage from this exact concert. But I as I mentioned above, Sebastian and Bromberg guested on a song in a Donovan concert recorded that same day. I managed to find a moment in it showing just Sebastian (playing harmonica) and Bromberg (playing guitar). So I took a screenshot of that. It was pretty low-res and blurry video footage though, so I ran the image through the Krea AI program. 

Suzanne Vega - Close-Up on Suzanne Vega Album (2012) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

This was an idea of guest poster Mike Solof. Between 2010 and 2012, Suzanne Vega rerecorded many of her earlier songs in acoustic mode, and then released them as four albums, each with different themes. Mike noticed that all of the songs from her 1985 self-titled debut album were included. So he gathered them all, then reordered them to the same order as the original album. Finally, he added "Left of Center," which was only released on a movie soundtrack in 1986.

The result is an alternate version of her 1985, with a more acoustic sound. So it's just a nice option if you want to hear that album in a different way sometimes. 

As usual, Mike has more info (and photos) in the PDF file included with the download. 

This album is 42 minutes long. 

01 Cracking (Suzanne Vega)
02 Freeze Tag (Suzanne Vega)
03 Marlene on the Wall (Suzanne Vega)
04 Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
05 Straight Lines (Suzanne Vega)
06 Undertow (Suzanne Vega)
07 Some Journey (Suzanne Vega)
08 The Queen and the Soldier (Suzanne Vega)
09 Knight Moves (Suzanne Vega)
10 Neighborhood Girls (Suzanne Vega)
11 Left of Center (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oJ5agEih 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/devWB7lK6MqdMWd/file

For the album cover, Mike and I wanted something similar to the original album cover, but different. That one had a black and white photo of Vega in the middle, with the names of the songs on the sides. I colorized the photo, using the Kolorize program. Then I enlarged it instead of keeping the song titles. Finally, I made some changes to the text.

Richard Thompson Album Updated

A week ago as I write this, I posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 6" album for Richard Thompson, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/10/richard-thompson-bbc-sessions-volume-6.html 

A couple of days ago, an anonymous commenter said they had a different version that was missing two songs, but also had two other songs. They kindly sent that version to me, and sure enough, it was the same concert. I went through that version and added the two extra songs, plus some other banter, and reordered the songs a bit, and so forth. So if you downloaded the album already, I suggest you do it again to get this improved version. 

Various Artists - A Celebration of Townes Van Zandt, University of Texas at Austin, Austin City Limits, Austin, TX, 12-7-1997

Here's something I only recently discovered, so it went to the top of my pile of albums to post, while it was still fresh in my mind. It's a tribute to singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, from 1997.

Van Zandt died on January 1, 1997 from heart failure. That wasn't that surprising, since he fit the profile of a "live hard and die young" kind of person. He had addictions with alcohol and heroin pretty much is entire adult life, and was manic depressive as well. But he was a much beloved figure in the Texas country music community. So most of his musical friends took part in this concert, put on by the "Austin City Limits" TV show, to honor his legacy.

As you can see from the cover photo, all the various singers were arranged in a large semi-circle facing the audience. There was a largely unseen band in the background supporting them. Each performer generally got one song, though Guy Clark got two, and sometimes there were duets or backing vocals.

If you're not familiar with the songwriting of Van Zandt, this is a good way to learn his best known songs. He didn't write many hit songs (with "Pancho and Lefty" being a big exception), but his songs were often covered by other country artists due to their quality.

As far as I know, everything here is unreleased. I found this on YouTube, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. The sound quality is very good.  

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 To Live Is to Fly (Guy Clark)
02 talk (Guy Clark)
03 talk (Peter Roman)
04 No Lonesome Tune (Peter Roman with Nanci Griffith)
05 talk (Steve Earle)
06 Ft. Worth Blues (Steve Earle)
07 talk (Steve Earle)
08 talk (Nanci Griffith)
09 Tecumseh Valley (Nanci Griffith)
10 talk (John T. Van Zandt)
11 Highway Kind (John T. Van Zandt)
12 talk (John T. Van Zandt)
13 talk (Willie Nelson)
14 Pancho and Lefty [Edit] (Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris)
15 talk (Emmylou Harris)
16 If I Needed You [Edit] (Emmylou Harris with Steve Earle)
17 talk (Rodney Crowell)
18 Heavenly Houseboat (Rodney Crowell with Emmylou Harris)
19 talk (Lyle Lovett)
20 Lungs (Lyle Lovett with Steve Earle)
21 talk (Lyle Lovett)
22 talk (Jack Clement)
23 For the Sake of the Song (Jack Clement)
24 talk (Guy Clark)
25 Don't Take It Too Bad (Guy Clark)
26 talk (Guy Clark & Susanna Clark)
27 White Freightliner (Everybody)
28 talk (Guy Clark)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/peaMv6Ki 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/fAfL3f83E5vmOhc/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, John T. Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle, and Peter Rowan. The others were part of the circle (on the other side of Harris). But I chose not to fit them in, because if I did, everyone would have looked significantly smaller.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 12: Willie Nelson and Family

Here's the 12th and final album I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is a set by country legend Willie Nelson. 

I credited it to "Willie Nelson and Family" in part because that's how he was actually billed as, but also because it fits. Not only did family members like his songs Micah and Lukas Nelson play on all the songs, but Micah Nelson sang lead on one of the songs ("Everything Is Bullshit") and band member Waylon Payne sang lead on another ("Help Me Make It through the Night"). 

At the time of this concert, Nelson was a remarkable 92 years old! It's pretty amazing to be that damn old and still be headlining a concert with lots of big names like this one. Unfortunately, I have to say that age has been affecting his voice. He largely dodged this issue by singing songs that didn't challenge his vocal range, but still, sometimes it was hard not to notice as I listened to this.

This set was the longest one from the concert by about ten minutes. For the last three songs, Nelson was joined on stage by most of the other stars from the concert (other than the elusive Bob Dylan), though it isn't that obvious on the song performances.

For some reason, the YouTube feed that I recorded of the entire concert went silent about 2/3rds into Nelson's set. That delayed my posting of the entire concert. Just when I was starting to worry that I'd have to only post part of this set, the whole set finally showed up on bootleg sites. So all's well that ends well. 

This was a particularly impressive Farm Aid, in my opinion, in terms of the quality of the musical acts that performed in it. Let's hope they raised a lot of money to help farmers, and that next year's concert will be as good, or better. 

This album is 53 minutes long. 

01 Whiskey River (Willie Nelson & Family)
02 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
03 I Never Cared for You (Willie Nelson & Family)
04 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (Willie Nelson & Family)
05 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
06 Will You Remember Mine (Willie Nelson & Family & Lily Meola)
07 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson & Family)
08 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
09 Just Breathe (Willie Nelson & Family)
10 Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (Willie Nelson & Family)
11 Georgia on My Mind (Willie Nelson & Family)
12 Help Me Make It through the Night (Willie Nelson & Family)
13 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
14 Everything Is Bullshit (Willie Nelson & Family)
15 Last Leaf (Willie Nelson & Family)
16 Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (Willie Nelson & Family)
17 Will the Circle Be Unbroken - I'll Fly Away (Willie Nelson & Family)
18 It's Hard to Be Humble (Willie Nelson & Family)
19 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
20 I Saw the Light (Willie Nelson & Family)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v6T9ow9c

alternate:

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

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 11: Neil Young

We're getting near the end of the albums I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is the 11th out of 12 albums I'm posting from it. This one is a set by Neil Young, backed by his latest band, the Chrome Hearts.

Young was 79 years old at the time of this concert, and frankly he was looking it, but he was still singing and playing lead guitar very capably. Most of the songs were older classics. However, he played one new song, "Big Crime," which was released in a live version earlier in September 2025. It is a scathing criticism of President Trump's many illegal actions.

This album is 38 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Neil Young)
02 Big Crime (Neil Young)
03 Rockin' in the Free World (Neil Young)
04 Long Walk Home (Neil Young)
05 talk (Neil Young)
06 Be the Rain (Neil Young)
07 talk (Neil Young)
08 Southern Man (Neil Young)
09 Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black] (Neil Young)
10 Old Man (Neil Young)
11 talk (Neil Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aHFCtB3s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xqiq9XCMK5KsHct/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Boz Scaggs - Live at the Record Plant, Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA, 3-10-1974

Here's another episode of the "Live at the Record Plant" radio show, starring Boz Scaggs in 1974 (with a guest appearance on lead guitar by Steve Miller on the last song). But note this is an actual concert from a concert venue, not the usual show recorded in a recording studio before little to no audience.

I've done some digging about this radio show, and I found that, sometimes, it had a mobile recording unit that recorded concerts in Bay Area concert venues. Apparently, this became more common after 1975, when the host of the show, Tom Donahue, died of a heart attack. However, it's been very hard for me to figure out which concerts were broadcast as part of this show, versus other ones broadcast by the same radio station in that era, KSAN, that weren't part of the show. This is just about the only concert I've found so far where I found a mention that confirmed it was part of the "Record Plant" radio series. If anyone has any further information about this, please let me know. Then I could post more such concerts, and properly label them.

At the time of this concert, Scaggs was only moderately popular. His most recent studio album, "Slow Dancer" in 1974, was his first one to go Gold in the U.S. (meaning sales topping 500,000). But the next album he'd released in 1976, "Silk Degrees," would go to Number One in the U.S. and sell over 5 million copies, turning him into a big star. So this is a good long look at his concerts before "Silk Degrees."

The sound quality here is fantastic for a bootleg from this era, easily good enough for an official live album. One can tell this isn't just a soundboard, but a professionally recorded one. The lead vocals were low on a few songs, but I fixed that with the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is an hour and 41 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Boz Scaggs)
02 Near You (Boz Scaggs)
03 Just Don't Want to Be Lonely (Boz Scaggs)
04 Runnin' Blue (Boz Scaggs)
05 Painted Bells (Boz Scaggs)
06 Moments (Boz Scaggs)
07 Monkey Time (Boz Scaggs)
08 Downright Women (Boz Scaggs)
09 Might Have to Cry (Boz Scaggs)
10 Dinah Flo (Boz Scaggs)
11 talk (Boz Scaggs)
12 You Make It So Hard [To Say No] (Boz Scaggs)
13 Sail On White Moon (Boz Scaggs)
14 Angel Lady [Come Just in Time] (Boz Scaggs)
15 There Is Someone Else (Boz Scaggs)
16 Pain of Love (Boz Scaggs)
17 Take It for Granted (Boz Scaggs)
18 Let It Happen (Boz Scaggs)
19 Hercules (Boz Scaggs)
20 Slow Dancer (Boz Scaggs)
21 talk (Boz Scaggs)
22 I'll Be Long Gone (Boz Scaggs)
23 talk (Boz Scaggs with Steve Miller)
24 I'm Easy (Boz Scaggs with Steve Miller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1hgmqUCR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/j4mxDpr57PxGGAz/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Midnight Special" TV show in 1974. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 10: Bob Dylan

This is the tenth album I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is a set by Bob Dylan, with his band.

It seems Dylan has become increasingly reclusive as he gets older, for instance wearing hoodies at all his concerts. He's gotten particularly annoyed at people taking pictures with their cell phones, and generally being so focused on their phones that they don't pay much attention to the actual concert. In his own concerts, he has security carefully enforce a policy of not using cell phones. In an appearance at the Outlaw Music Festival earlier in the year, where he couldn't control cell phone use, he all but made himself invisible, hiding behind a piano and other equipment, and shining lights in a way so that he basically couldn't be seen.

Here's an article about his appearance at the Farm Aid concert by Rolling Stone Magazine: 

Watch Pro-Shot Footage of Bob Dylan's Masterful Farm Aid Set 

The article says: "He wound up wearing the hoodie, though not pulled as tightly around his face as it has been at recent shows, and he agreed to both the projection screens and the livestream. There weren’t closeups, the stage was pretty dark, and much of the stadium audience had a hard time seeing him clearly, but these were major concessions given his history. Very few Never Ending Tour shows have been professionally filmed like this, let alone broadcast on the Internet."

In terms of his performance, I was a bit disappointed that it was rather short, shorter than all the other major acts. And his song selection was pretty conservative, all 1960s classics plus "I Can Tell," a cover of a Bo Diddley song. Still, some Dylan is better than no Dylan, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 23 minutes long. 

01 talk by John Mellencamp (Bob Dylan)
02 All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
03 I Can Tell (Bob Dylan)
04 To Ramona (Bob Dylan)
05 Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)
06 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Bob Dylan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CDHup6V1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/G3rSkqbJ1kYm6UH/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Note how Dylan is wearing a hoodie and generally shrouded in darkness. It took me a while before I could even find a decent photo showing this much of him.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 9: John Mellencamp

Here's the ninth album from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. It's a set by John Mellencamp.

I'm getting close to the end posting all the sets from the concert that got enough votes in the poll I made. The later the festival, the bigger the names of the stars, and sometimes the longer the sets.

Like Dave Matthews, who was the star of the set just before this one, Mellencamp hadn't released an album for the two years prior to the concert. He mostly stuck to older hits, with the most recent song being "Lawless Times," released in 2014 on the album  "Plain Spoken."

This album is 38 minutes long. 

01 talk by Dave Matthews (John Mellencamp)
02 Lawless Times (John Mellencamp)
03 Small Town (John Mellencamp)
04 Paper in Fire (John Mellencamp)
05 talk (John Mellencamp)
06 Longest Days (John Mellencamp)
07 Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp)
08 Rain on the Scarecrow (John Mellencamp)
09 Pink Houses (John Mellencamp)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yNFYvjtu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/7hkPw3vVmDYXsrM/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 8: Dave Matthews

This is the eighth album from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is a set by Dave Matthews.

At the time of this concert, Matthews hadn't released a new studio album since 2023. However, he did play one new, unreleased song, "Peace on Earth." He was backed by Tim Reynolds for the whole set. The last three songs also featured Jake Renick Simpson on fiddle.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 talk by Margo Price (Dave Matthews)
02 talk (Dave Matthews)
03 Oh (Dave Matthews)
04 talk (Dave Matthews)
05 Grey Street (Dave Matthews)
06 talk (Dave Matthews)
07 Peace on Earth (Dave Matthews)
08 talk (Dave Matthews)
09 Don't Drink the Water - This Land Is Your Land (Dave Matthews)
10 talk (Dave Matthews)
11 Crush (Dave Matthews)
12 talk (Dave Matthews)
13 Warehouse (Dave Matthews)
14 Ants Marching (Dave Matthews) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fPy1fLjv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/94EfrRULzARPQ0o/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 7: Margo Price

Here's the seventh album I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefix concert. This one is a set by country singer-songwriter Margo Price.

Price released her fifth album, "Hard Headed Woman," just one month prior to this concert. Although she's American, she's been especially popular in Britain, where three of her albums have reached Number One in the country album chart there.

Here's her Wikipedia entry if you want to know more. 

Margo Price - Wikipedia 

The sound quality is excellent. The only edit I made was to the first track, an introduction by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar. I'm politically liberal and I like Klobuchar, but I cut out some political speech and kept her comments to just introducing Price. The other stuff isn't something I would want to hear multiple times.

Note that Billy Stringers, the guitarist who was the star of the set prior to this, helped out on the last song, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm." 

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 talk by Amy Klobuchar [Edit] (Margo Price)
02 Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down (Margo Price)
03 Red Eye Flight (Margo Price)
04 Wild at Heart (Margo Price)
05 talk (Margo Price)
06 Nowhere Is Where (Margo Price)
07 talk (Margo Price)
08 Kissing You Goodbye (Margo Price)
09 talk (Margo Price)
10 Deportee [Plane Wreck at Los Gatos] (Margo Price)
11 Don't Wake Me Up (Margo Price)
12 Love Me Like You Used to Do (Margo Price)
13 talk (Margo Price)
14 Maggie's Farm (Margo Price with Billy Strings) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/673L1PDV

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/HwJMvsJLPRlUBGW/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 9-7-2001

Given I've posted well over 3,000 albums by now, it surprises me I haven't posted anything starring Michael Jackson until now. But I only came across something worthy a few days ago, when I found this concert. I think it's a really interesting concert even if you're not a big Michael Jackson fan. It's got a lot of big stars singing classic songs.

Jackson's solo music career began in 1971, even as he continued to perform as part of the Jackson 5 (later renamed to the Jacksons) for many years. So someone came up with the idea of a concert to celebrate the first 30 years of his solo career. This concert was his first major concert appearance in the mainland U.S. since 1993, and in any country since 1997. (I say "major" because he occasionally sang a song or two for awards shows and the like.) It also would prove to be his last major concert appearance. (When he died in 2009 of cardiac arrest related to drug use, he was a few weeks away from starting his next major world tour.)

Before I go further, I need to explain that the title has this taking place on September 7, 2001, but that's not entirely true. There actually were two very similar concerts, one on September 7th, and the other on September 10th. A second concert was added because of the great ticket demand. Highlights from the concert were shown on CBS in the U.S. a couple of months later. They picked the best performances from the two nights. I don't know which songs is from which in most cases, so I'm just saying this took place on September 7th, for simplicity's sake, and because it was reported that most of the footage came from the 7th. 

However, in a few cases I do know which song is from which date, because some of the acts only performed in one of the two concerts. For instance, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Gloria Gaynor, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, and Aaron Carter all only performed on the 10th. Others, like Whitney Houston and Britney Spears, only performed on the 7th. But I'd say about 80 percent of the song list was the same both nights.

You can see the set list from both nights at the Wikipedia page about this concert event:

Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration - Wikipedia 

The vast majority of this album is from a DVD released from the concert, which is very similar to the TV broadcast. I guess there were some slight differences though, and maybe different songs in different broadcasts, because I was able to find a few more songs when I kept digging. For instance, the celebrated duet between Jackson and Britney Spears on the song "The Way You Make Me Feel" apparently wasn't shown on the original broadcast, but eventually did make it into a later rebroadcast.

After digging around, mostly on YouTube, I was able to find the vast majority of the songs, all in pretty good sound quality. However, a few remained elusive. For instance, Ray Charles and Cassandra Wilson performed a duet of the song "Crying Time" that I really would have liked to hear. But the only version I found was from some shaky audience video footage with pretty bad sound quality, so I skipped that one. A humanitarian speech by actor Marlon Brando also wasn't found, probably because it was reportedly booed by the crowd. A medley of "Never Never Land" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Liza Minnelli wasn't found. I did find "My Baby" by Lil' Romeo and Master P, but I disliked the song so much that I couldn't bear to include it. It was just "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 with rapping on top. Ugh! The original, performed at the concert, is a million times better.

Surprisingly, the finale song "We Are the World," the 1985 famine relief charity single co-written by Michael Jackson, was not included in the DVD or any of the TV broadcasts. I found a version from an audience bootleg that sounded pretty rough, but I decided to include it due to its key role in the concert, with everyone from earlier in the concert on stage and many of the big names singing individual lines. I tried to clean it up as best I could, running it through the MVSEP program two times for various reasons, but there was only so much I could do. That was the case with the talking track right after it as well. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles.

Probably the biggest news of this concert, other than the rarity of Michael Jackson performing for the first time in several years, was the reunion of the Jacksons (a.k.a. the Jackson 5). This was the first time in 17 years they performed together, and it would be the last with Michael's inclusion. Actually, it was one of the rare times all six performed together. (In the mid-1970s, Jermaine Jackson left the group and was replaced by Randy Jackson.)    

This album is two hours and two minutes long. I checked, and Michael Jackson was on stage for slightly less than half of that.

01 talk (Samuel L. Jackson)
02 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Whitney Houston, Mya & Usher)
03 Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight)
04 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
05 I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
06 Get Ur Freak On (Missy Elliott & Nelly Furtado)
07 I Want Candy (Aaron Carter)
08 Home (Monica)
09 You Can't Win (Jill Scott)
10 Ease On Down the Road (Deborah Cox, Al Jarreau, Monica & Jill Scott)
11 Ben (Billy Gilman)
12 Angel - It Wasn't Me (Shaggy, Rayvon & Rikrock)
13 Heal the World (Deborah Cox, Rah Digga, Monica, Mya & Tamia)
14 She's Out of My Life (Marc Anthony)
15 Bootylicious (Destiny's Child)
16 You Are Not Alone (Liza Minnelli)
17 I Just Can't Stop Loving You (Gloria Estefan & James Ingram)
18 Man in the Mirror (98 Degrees, Usher & Luther Vandross)
19 talk (Elizabeth Taylor)
20 Can You Feel It (Jacksons)
21 ABC - The Love You Save (Jacksons)
22 I'll Be There (Jacksons)
23 talk (Jacksons)
24 I Want You Back (Jacksons)
25 Dancing Machine (Jacksons & NSYNC)
26 Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground] (Jacksons)
27 The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson & Britney Spears)
28 talk (Chris Tucker)
29 Black or White (Michael Jackson, Jason Paige & Slash)
30 Beat It (Michael Jackson, Jason Paige & Slash)
31 Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
32 You Rock My World (Michael Jackson)
33 We Are the World [Edit] (Michael Jackson, Ray Charles & Everybody)
34 talk [Edit] (Michael Jackson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iBBo6SCr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zGamSEAhq7LPvJS/file

There are two parts to the cover art. The top part was taken from promotional material from the concert, with some extra text added by me at the bottom. The main photo shows Michael Jackson and Britney Spears singing a duet during this exact concert.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2012

Here's another MusiCares tribute show. This one celebrates Paul McCartney's music career. It's a bit short as far as these types of concerts go, but what's here is very good.

The usual format for these kinds of tribute concerts is a series of stars sing covers by the performer being honored, then there's an acceptance speech, and then the performer plays a couple of songs at the end. That's how this one went as well, except Paul McCartney performed two songs at the beginning as well as three at the end.

Actually, he did one more: a cover of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" performed as a duet with Diana Krall. However, this is sourced from a DVD, and that wasn't included, so I don't have it here. Also, Katy Perry sang "Hey Jude," and the Foo Fighters sang "Jet," and those aren't here either, for the same reason. If anyone has those missing songs, please let me know and I'll be happy to add them in. 

Additionally, Cirque du Soleil started the concert with a medley of "Get Back," "Hello Goodbye," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." But I edited that out because it was a visual performance done to the record versions. 

What's here is pretty great though, which isn't shocking considering McCartney was one of the best and possibly the most commercially successful songwriters of all time. Particularly interesting is the finale, a version of the Beatles medley "Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End" with McCartney, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl dueling on guitars.

As mentioned above, this has been officially released on DVD. However, there have been no audio releases. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Magical Mystery Tour (Paul McCartney)
03 Junior's Farm (Paul McCartney)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Alicia Keys)
06 Blackbird (Alicia Keys)
07 talk (emcee)
08 No More Lonely Nights (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 talk (emcee)
10 And I Love Her (Duane Eddy)
11 talk (emcee)
12 Oh, Darling (Norah Jones)
13 talk (emcee)
14 I Saw Her Standing There (Neil Young)
15 talk (emcee)
16 The Fool on the Hill (Sergio Mendes)
17 We Can Work It Out (Coldplay)
18 Yesterday (James Taylor with Diana Krall)
19 talk (James Taylor)
20 For No One (Diana Krall with James Taylor)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Neil Portnow)
23 talk (Paul McCartney)
24 My Valentine (Paul McCartney, Diana Krall & Joe Walsh)
25 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (Paul McCartney)
26 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
27 talk (Paul McCartney) 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KaZyTRqs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MaVF1LXhP4bCOhQ/file

The cover photo is from the finale of this exact concert. From left to right on guitars: Joe Walsh, Paul McCartney, and Dave Grohl. 

Taj Mahal - WLIR Ultrasonic Concert Series, Ultrasonic Recording Studios, Hempstead, NY, 10-15-1974

Here's an album from blues musician Taj Mahal, from 1974. It's part of my focus on posting albums from "Ultrasonic" radio show concerts.

I'm a fan of Taj Mahal's music. I've posted a couple of sets from him that were part of rock festivals, as well a concert from when he was with the band the Rising Sons in the 1960s, but this is the first time I've posted an entire concert just starring him. I had been meaning to do that for a long time, so I'm glad the Ultrasonic series gave me a good reason.

One thing I like about his music is that while he is mainly known as a blues musician, he hasn't been afraid to play songs from other genres sometimes.  His Wikipedia entry puts it well: "Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific." 

For instance, in this concert he played a couple of reggae songs, including "Johnny Too Bad," which was included on the classic "The Harder They Come" movie soundtrack in 1972. At the time of this concert, he was promoting his 1974 studio album "Mo Roots," which had a strong reggae influence on it.

Here's his Wikipedia entry: 

Taj Mahal (musician) - Wikipedia 

Note that it was usual in this radio series to have an interview in the middle of the concert. I'm less interested in that, so I moved the interview to the end as a mere bonus track. However, I did keep a bit of that section in the concert itself, where he mentioned the names of his backing band. That's why there are two talking tracks in row in the song list, because they're from either end of the interview track.

If anyone know the name of the instrumental that makes up track 15 here, please let me know so I can give it a proper title. 

The music here is unreleased (although I noticed a "grey market" bootleg that looks like a legit release), and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 59 minutes long, not including the interview bonus track. 

01 talk (Taj Mahal)
02 Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue (Taj Mahal)
03 talk (Taj Mahal)
04 Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl (Taj Mahal)
05 talk (Taj Mahal)
06 Black Jack Davey (Taj Mahal)
07 talk (Taj Mahal)
08 Why Did You Have to Desert Me (Taj Mahal)
09 talk (Taj Mahal)
10 talk (Taj Mahal)
11 Further On Down the Road (Taj Mahal)
12 talk (Taj Mahal)
13 Stealin' (Taj Mahal)
14 talk (Taj Mahal)
15 Instrumental (Taj Mahal)
16 talk (Taj Mahal)
17 Johnny Too Bad (Taj Mahal)
18 talk (Taj Mahal)
19 Take a Giant Step (Taj Mahal)

Interview (Taj Mahal) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CFf3jVPK

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/jTA3YhLH6MHzqrE/file

The cover photo is from an appearance on an ABC TV show in 1973. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 6: Billy Strings

Here's the sixth album I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This one features Billy Strings.

Strings has developed quite a reputation for his guitar playing. He is also an accomplished singer and songwriter. He specializes in bluegrass music, but has also made a name for himself in "jam band" circles.

Here's his Wikipedia entry: 

Billy Strings - Wikipedia

This album is 31 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Billy Strings)
02 talk (Billy Strings)
03 Dust in a Baggie (Billy Strings)
04 Hellbender (Billy Strings)
05 talk (Billy Strings)
06 Away from the Mire (Billy Strings)
07 New Country Blues (Billy Strings)
08 talk (Billy Strings)
09 Gild the Lily (Billy Strings)
10 talk (Billy Strings)
11 Doin' My Time (Billy Strings)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ePPeCutT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/7tPv5HJnG8JKBYk/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 5: Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell

Here's the fifth album from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This one stars Lukas Nelson. I've included Sierra Ferrell in a supporting role in the title as well. She wasn't officially named as part of this musical act, but she had a prominent role in five out of the six songs, and that seems pretty significant to me. Note also that the one song without Ferrell is a duet with Dave Matthews.

Lukas Nelson is one of the children of country music legend Willie Nelson who has pursued a career in music. He has had success leading the Promise of the Real as the backing band for both Neil Young and Willie Nelson for many years. He also had a prominent role writing and producing songs for the 2018 movie "A Star Is Born."

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Lukas Nelson - Wikipedia 

Here's a music bigger entry about him and the Promise of the Real: 

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real - Wikipedia 

And here's the entry for Sierra Ferrell:

Sierra Ferrell - Wikipedia 

This album is 30 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Lukas Nelson)
02 talk (Lukas Nelson)
03 Ain't Done (Lukas Nelson with Dave Matthews)
04 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
05 The Maker (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
06 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
07 Friend in the End (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
08 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
09 [Forget About] Georgia (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
10 talk (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
11 Unknown Legend (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)
12 Find Yourself (Lukas Nelson with Sierra Ferrell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mXLaVS7m

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/9qc6H0vYJIJKtFr/file

The cover photo of Nelson and Ferrell is from this exact concert.

REO Speedwagon - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-2008

I like REO Speedwagon at about the greatest hits level. If I were to post a concert from them, I would have preferred it to be from their early 1980s peak in popularity. But they performed for "PBS Soundstage" in 2008, so that's what I'm posting here. I'm committed to posting most any episode of this show I can find.

Given that this is a fairly recent professionally recorded TV broadcast, I was surprised to discover there was a major flaw: the vocals were way too low in the mix. It was very noticeable. But I was able to fix that using the UVR5 audio editing program. After that change, this sounds very good.

REO Speedwagon sold about 40 million records, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s. They were led by two singer-songwriters, Kevin Cronin and Gary Richrath. Some founding band members left by the time of this concert, including Richrath. But Cronin still led it, and they played all their biggest hits here, including the ones written by Richrath. It seems the band retired in 2024.

Here's their Wikipedia page:

REO Speedwagon - Wikipedia 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Find Your Own Way Home (REO Speedwagon)
02 Take It on the Run (REO Speedwagon)
03 Keep Pushin' (REO Speedwagon)
04 Can't Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon)
05 Dangerous Combination (REO Speedwagon)
06 Time for Me to Fly (REO Speedwagon)
07 Don't Let Him Go (REO Speedwagon)
08 talk (REO Speedwagon)
09 Keep On Loving You (REO Speedwagon)
10 Roll with the Changes (REO Speedwagon)
11 Riding the Storm Out (REO Speedwagon)
12 talk (REO Speedwagon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nbFbScBh

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/s5lUq7uefF0BxlU/file

The cover is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. I used Krea AI to flesh out the details of a low-res image.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 4: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

Here's the fourth album I've prepared from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This one is set by  Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. (In reality, a couple of the Steve Earle songs from the previous set were performed after this set ended, but I put all the Earle songs together in one album.)

Nathaniel Rateliff's biggest success so far is probably the song "S.O.B.," which was a surprise hit in some countries in 2015 after he performed it on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Kimmel. His style is a kind of upbeat mix of soul and country. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Nathaniel Rateliff - Wikipedia

This album is 29 minutes long.

01 talk (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
02 I'm on Your Side (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
03 Heartless (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
04 Look It Here (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
05 Intro (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
06 I Need Never Get Old (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
07 S.O.B. (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
08 Love Don't (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)
09 talk (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CbyAgqV5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/XiMOWTdry17qiY3/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 3: Steve Earle

Here's the third album I've made from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This one features singer-songwriter Steve Earle. Note that it's quite short, only 16 minutes long.

This is probably the strangest of all the sets from the Farm Aid concert. First, it's strange in that it's easily the shortest of all the sets that day. But also, it was split in two. He performed two songs, then Nathaniel Rateliff came on and played a set. Then Earle came back and played two more songs.

My strong suspicion is that this was a kind of impromptu bonus appearance. Meaning he was attending the concert and decided to just get up on stage and play a few songs while he was there. The fact that it was a solo acoustic set is further evidence, since having a band would have meant a bunch of preparation. But anyway, some Steve Earle is better than no Steve Earle.

I decided to take the two short sets he did and merge them into one. That's why there's an "[Edit]" in the title of "The Rain Came Down." Near the end of the song, between saying "thank you" twice, he mentioned that Nathaniel Rateliff was going to come on for a set and then he'd come back. I used the MVSEP audio editing program to edit those comments out, since they don't fit when these songs are presented together.

As mentioned above, this album is 16 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Steve Earle)
02 talk (Steve Earle)
03 Guitar Town (Steve Earle)
04 talk (Steve Earle)
05 The Rain Came Down [Edit] (Steve Earle)
06 The Galway Girl - Copperhead Road (Steve Earle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Nzk4mhSa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/uqlWz4ymz3Xccu2/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. 

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to James Taylor, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-6-2006

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. I only have a couple more of these after this one, and I want to post them in the next days. This one honors James Taylor.

This concert followed the usual format for these kinds of things: a bonus of famous musical acts sang covers of his songs, then he accepted an award and gave a speech, and finally he played a couple of his songs. If you look at the song lists, a lot of big names showed up to perform his songs, including Bruce Springsteen. 

Another big name also played one of his songs at the concert: Paul Simon sung "Sweet Baby James." But unfortunately, this is sourced from a DVD, but that song wasn't included, and I couldn't find any version of it anywhere. If anyone has it, please let me know so I can add it in.

I know Simon played that song in this concert, because it's mentioned in this article, which is a good summary of the concert in general:

MusiCares Honors Singer James Taylor - CBS News 

Also, while trying to find a good photo for the cover art, I went through a stash of hundreds of photos from the concert, and noticed that other big names like Neil Young and Brian Wilson attended. But I doubt they performed, or they probably would have been mentioned in that news article I just linked to. 

As mentioned above, this is sourced from an official DVD, so the sound quality is excellent. No version is any audio format has been released. As I sometimes do, I converted the video to audio, then broke it into mp3s.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 talk (Bill Clinton)
02 talk (emcee)
03 talk (Dixie Chicks)
04 Shower the People (Dixie Chicks)
05 talk (emcee)
06 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
07 Rainy Day Man (Bonnie Raitt)
08 talk (emcee)
09 talk (India.Arie)
10 Secret o' Life (India.Arie)
11 talk (emcee)
12 talk (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
13 Mexico (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Sting)
16 You Can Close Your Eyes (Sting)
17 talk (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
18 Everybody Has the Blues (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
19 talk (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
20 Carolina in My Mind (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Keith Urban)
23 Country Road (Keith Urban)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Millworker (Bruce Springsteen)
27 talk (Carole King)
28 You've Got a Friend (Carole King with James Taylor)
29 talk (Neil Portnow)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Shed a Little Light (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (James Taylor)
34 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/T6dgDM1s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5ezYaz8DOi7Zc9L/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Taylor receiving the award from Neil Portnow, the head of MusiCares at the time. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 2: Wynonna Judd

The second album from the 2025 Farm Aid concert is a set by Wynonna Judd.

Judd is a big country star who has sold millions of albums, first as part of the duo the Judds with her mother Naomi, and then as a solo act. The famous actress Ashley Judd is also her half-sister.

Here's her Wikipedia entry:

Wynonna Judd - Wikipedia 

This album is 30 minutes long. 

01 talk by Angie Craig (Wynonna Judd)
02 I Saw the Light (Wynonna Judd)
03 Rockin' with the Rhythm of the Rain (Wynonna Judd)
04 Rock Bottom (Wynonna Judd)
05 talk (Wynonna Judd)
06 She Is His Only Need (Wynonna Judd)
07 talk (Wynonna Judd)
08 Why Not Me (Wynonna Judd)
09 talk (Wynonna Judd)
10 No One Else on Earth (Wynonna Judd)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zbfdAkCk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2fGQTuSvWKJPn1h/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 1: Waxahatchee

It's time I start posting albums from the Farm Aid benefit concert that took place about three weeks ago as I write this in October 2025. This was the fortieth Farm Aid concert. As you probably know if you're reading this, I posted a poll to see which of the acts that performed in the concert are popular enough to merit having their sets posted here. Twelve of the musical acts made the cut, and only five did not.

I'm posting these in the order the ones that got chosen performed that day. Note that I plan to keep my write-up short. If I do that, I'll be more likely to post music from this big festivals in the future.

Waxahatchee is basically the name of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, though it also applies to her backing band. Her music is country influenced. Here's her Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Waxahatchee - Wikipedia 

This album is 25 minutes long. Note that most of the sets from this festival are fairly short, about the same length at this one, other than a couple of the headliner acts.

01 talk (Waxahatchee)
02 Can't Do Much (Waxahatchee)
03 Problem with It (Waxahatchee)
04 Right Back to It (Waxahatchee)
05 Crowbar (Waxahatchee)
06 talk (Waxahatchee)
07 Much Ado about Nothing (Waxahatchee)
08 talk (Waxahatchee)
09 Fire (Waxahatchee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mVMDhg5N

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/15SFcZb1BHWqwBQ/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. I took the "Farm Aid 40" text and logo at the top from promotional material from the concert.

Donovan - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-30-1974

Here's yet another album that's an episode from the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one features singer-songwriter Donovan, in 1974.

In the early 1970s, Donovan's sales dropped. I think his songwriting remained strong, but also more inconsistent. This concert took place shortly after the release of his 1974 album "7-Tease." That was one of his weaker albums from the time, but it still had some good songs, like the first one here, "Rock and Roll Souljer." Three more songs, "Salvation Stomp," "How Silly," and "The Ordinary Family," also come from that album. 

One highlight here is a cover song, "Travelling Light." On the same day Donovan was taping this TV episode, John Sebastian and David Bromberg were taping a joint episode for the show as well, as Donovan's finished. So Donovan had them join him on that song.

Note that Donovan's episode was shared by Dave Mason, who separately performed a short set. That's why this is well short of an hour long. I would have included the Mason part, except I haven't been able to find it in worthy sound quality. If anyone does have it, please let me know so I can add it in.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is pretty good. One banter track has "[Edit]" in its title. That's because there were some loud bursts of static while Donovan was talking for a few seconds. However, I was able to use the MVSEP program to get rid of nearly all the static. 

This album is 34 minutes long. 

01 Rock and Roll Souljer (Donovan)
02 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
03 talk (Donovan)
04 Salvation Stomp (Donovan)
05 Lalena (Donovan)
06 talk (Donovan)
07 How Silly (Donovan)
08 There Is a Mountain (Donovan)
09 talk (Donovan)
10 The Ordinary Family (Donovan)
11 talk (Donovan)
12 Travelling Light (Donovan with John Sebastian & David Bromberg)
13 talk [Edit] (Donovan)
14 Happiness Runs (Donovan)
15 Colours (Donovan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7tuLXjn1

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Khwj7OiyMBiHbr1/file

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

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1972-1973

Here's another album that I'm posting due to the big BBC poll from a few months ago. It's an album of studio sessions from the Incredible String Band. 

Note that, right now, I'm concentrating on posting albums by Richard Thompson and the Incredible String Band for that poll. I've got two more from this band after this one, and lots more from Thompson. Once I finish with those two, XTC and Elvis Costello will probably be my next main targets from that poll.

This album consists entirely of music from four BBC studio sessions in 1972 and 1973. Seven of the 14 songs - exactly half - have been officially released on the official album "Across the Airwaves." Most of the sessions are split, with some songs appearing from a session and some not. However, the sound quality is pretty close between the released and unreleased ones.

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 Restless Night (Incredible String Band)
02 Down Before Cathay (Incredible String Band)
03 Secret Temple (Incredible String Band)
04 Oh Did I Love a Dream (Incredible String Band)
05 Rends-Moi Demain (Incredible String Band)
06 Hangman's Medley (Incredible String Band)
07 Maker of Islands (Incredible String Band)
08 Raga Tune (Incredible String Band)
09 Saturday Maybe (Incredible String Band)
10 At the Lighthouse Dance (Incredible String Band)
11 Black Jack David (Incredible String Band)
12 Dreams of No Return (Incredible String Band)
13 Jane (Incredible String Band)
14 Dear Old Battlefield (Incredible String Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VSHsMUz2

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WSE9ujK4cIo1XGP/file

I don't know any details of when or where this cover photo of the band was taken. But I have very few good color photos from this band from around this time. 

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 8-18-1991

Months ago, I posted a poll about posting more albums from people's favorite musical acts. I've been distracted by a lot of things since then, including new polls, but I want to keep going back to that. So here's another BBC album from one of the top voters from that poll, Richard Thompson.

This is a concert from 1991, the year Thompson released the studio album "Rumour and Sigh." It got a lot of critical acclaim, and I believe its probably his best solo album. This concert heavily leans into that album, with eight songs out of the 13 songs coming from it. Note also this was performed with a full band.

There was one problem with this recording, and that was the very common problem of the lead vocals being too low in the mix. So, as usual, I fixed that with the use of the UVR5 audio editing program.

When I first posted this album, I posted a version that was a little under an hour long, and I thought that was all there was. But a commenter sent me a different version that was missing two songs ("Backlash Love Affair" and "1952 Vincent Black Lightning"), but also had two other songs I didn't have ("Oh I Swear" and "Crash the Party"). I compared the different versions and found that it was definitely the same concert, with the exact same banter and so forth. But it seems the BBC played different versions at different times with different edits. I did my best to put everything together to create the longest version yet available.   

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is close to excellent.

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long. The BBC edited down a longer concert to fit in an hour-long radio show slot. But this is longer than an hour, since it comes from two slightly different versions.

UPDATE: On October 15, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file, after adding the two songs and making other edits as described above. 

01 Read about Love (Richard Thompson)
02 Backlash Love Affair (Richard Thompson)
03 Gypsy Love Songs (Richard Thompson)
04 talk (Richard Thompson)
05 Keep Your Distance (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Richard Thompson)
07 Tear Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)
08 talk (Richard Thompson)
09 Oh I Swear [Edit] (Richard Thompson & Shawn Colvin)
10 talk (Richard Thompson)
11 talk (Richard Thompson)
12 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (Richard Thompson)
13 talk (Richard Thompson)
14 I Misunderstood (Richard Thompson)
15 I Feel So Good (Richard Thompson)
16 Valerie (Richard Thompson)
17 Mother Knows Best (Richard Thompson)
18 Mystery Wind (Richard Thompson)
19 Crash the Party (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/o2uXCNZc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/uk6qAJUpgQK1y39/file

The cover photo was taken at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, California, on July 17, 1991.

Tom P*tty & the Heartbreakers - Live at the Record Plant, Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 4-23-1977

As I've discussed before on this blog, I've had more copyright troubles with this particular band than any other. The good news is, it's been months and months since I've had even one copyright violation notice! That's the longest time by far since I started this blog. I think the way I name the zip files now makes all the difference. But just to be safe, I'm still putting an asterisk in the name of the main band member here, and not posting the song list.

Anyway, P*tty and his band released their self-titled debut album in November 1976. So this took place just five months after that. Just four of the songs played here came from that album. Two more would be released on the next album, as well as two other non-album originals. Furthermore, there were two covers: "Jaguar and Thunderbird" by Chuck Berry and the often covered "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66," written by Bobby Troup.

This is from the "Live at the Record Plant" radio show. That show started in 1973 and ran strong until 1975, when the main DJ behind it, Tom Donahue, died of a heart attack at just the age of 46. But there were occasional episodes after that until about the end of 1978, when the main radio station behind the show, KSAN, changed formats. This is one of those later shows.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

As mentioned above, I'm not posting the song list here, also due to the reasons mentioned above. But you can find it in the download file. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vMtxPRxo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/s7fjCMdVn1sRbHs/file

The cover photo of the band was taken backstage in Los Angeles, California, in August 1977.

Farm Aid Poll Results

Here's the results from my latest poll, to see which of the Farm Aid sets from September 2025 I would post here.

These are the ones that got enough votes: 

Bob Dylan                 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Neil Young                XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
John Mellencamp      XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Steve Earle                XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Willie Nelson            XXXXXXXXXX
Margo Price              XXXXXXXXXX
Billy Strings              XXXXXXX
Waxahatchee             XXXXXXX
Nathaniel Rateliff      XXXXXX
Dave Matthews         XXXXX
Wynonna Judd          XXXXX
Lukas Nelson            XXXXX

And these are the ones that didn't make the cut: 

Jesse Welles                 XXXX
Madeline Edwards       XX
Eric Burton                  XX
Kenny Chesney           XX
Trampled by Turtles    X 

I have all the albums ready to go, and I'll start posting them very soon. There was a delay because it turns out the audio of the YouTube webcast of Willie Nelson's set got cut off part way through his set. So I was waiting to see if the rest of that would emerge. Happily, it eventually did.

Thanks again for your feedback. 

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-30-2009

I just posted the first day of the two-day long 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, in 2009. Here's the second day.

This second day concert followed the same format as the one on the first day. Read my write-up for more details about this two-day concert in general. Suffice to say that for this day, four major musical acts were chosen: Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2. Each of them hosted one fourth of the concert, and each had special guests join them during their sections. 

I was a bit surprised by the choice of Jeff Beck, since his record sales weren't nearly as big as the others. It turns out that section was supposed to be for Eric Clapton, but he got sick at the last minute and had to back out. So Beck was another "guitar hero" to fill a similar role.

I detailed in my write-up for the first day of this concert how I put a longer concert out of material from a DVD, plus the HBO broadcast, plus an audience bootleg. That's the same case here, except I didn't find an audience boot for all the otherwise missing songs. I did find such a boot for some of the Metallica songs, but that didn't even have the entire Metallica set. But it did get me "You Really Got Me," with Ray Davies of the Kinks as the guest. 

The Wikipedia page for this concert lists all the songs that were performed, in their correct order. Here's that page:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

Based on that, it looks like I'm missing five songs. Here are the songs that I couldn't find:

Drown in My Own Tears - Jeff Beck (or possibly Aretha Franklin, I'm not sure)
Cause We've Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck
Rough Boy - Jeff Beck & Billy Gibbons
One - Metallica
Stone Cold Crazy - Metallica 

That's too bad, but at least the vast majority is here. If anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know. The first day concert that I posted is a little over four hours long, whereas this one is two and a half hours long. If you add in the missing songs, this probably totals about three hours, not four. So I think the first day one is a little longer, and better. I'll bet some of that was due to Bruce Springsteen, as his section on the first day was extra long.

One interesting note about this concert is that the collaboration of Metallica with Lou Reed - a very unexpected pairing - eventually led to the recordings of the album "Lulu," a joint Metallica and Lou Reed release, in 2011. 

A couple of performers who appeared in the first day concert also appeared in this one. Jeff Beck played a song on the first day, and had his own section here. Sting sang duets on both days. And Bruce Springsteen had his own section on the first day, and sang two songs with U2 here. Jerry Lee Lewis also opened both days with a song.

The sound quality is generally excellent. The quality is actually higher here than on the first day, because I only have one song sourced from an audience boot this time ("You Really Got Me," as mentioned above). I ran into many of the same problems with the first day, such as having to smooth over the transitions between songs by adding extra cheering noises. Read my write-up about the other concert for more details on all that. 

This album is two hours and 33 minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Baby, I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
04 Don't Play That Song [You Lied] (Aretha Franklin)
05 Make Them Hear You (Aretha Franklin)
06 talk (Aretha Franklin)
07 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox)
08 Theme from New York, New York (Aretha Franklin)
09 Think (Aretha Franklin & Lenny Kravitz)
10 [I Never Loved a Man] The Way I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
11 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
12 People Get Ready (Sting & Jeff Beck)
13 Freeway Jam [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
14 talk (Jeff Beck)
15 Let Me Love You Baby (Buddy Guy & Jeff Beck)
16 Big Block [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
17 Rice Pudding [Instrumental] (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
18 Foxy Lady (Billy Gibbons & Jeff Beck)
19 A Day in the Life [Instrumental Version] (Jeff Beck)
20 For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica)
21 talk (Metallica)
22 Turn the Page (Metallica)
23 talk (Metallica)
24 Sweet Jane (Lou Reed & Metallica)
25 talk (Metallica)
26 White Light-White Heat (Lou Reed & Metallica)
27 talk (Metallica)
28 Iron Man (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
29 Paranoid (Ozzy Osbourne & Metallica)
30 talk (Metallica)
31 You Really Got Me (Ray Davies & Metallica)
32 All Day and All of the Night (Ray Davies & Metallica)
33 Enter Sandman (Metallica)
34 Vertigo (U2)
35 Magnificent (U2)
36 talk (U2)
37 Because the Night (U2, Bruce Springsteen & Patti Smith)
38 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2 & Bruce Springsteen)
39 Mysterious Ways (U2)
40 Where Is the Love - One (U2 & the Black Eyed Peas)
41 talk (U2)
42 Gimme Shelter (U2, Mick Jagger, Fergie & will.i.am)
43 talk (U2)
44 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2 & Mick Jagger)
45 Beautiful Day (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UZjACSG5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mtktsXHvZPk8rgE/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: Bono, The Edge, Fergie, and Mick Jagger.

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-29-2009

Here's a really great concert filled with lots of big stars performing classic songs. It was a two-day concert in New York City, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm posting both days of the concert, and this is the first one. I highly recommend this.

This two-day long concert had an unusual and interesting format: eight major artists were chosen: Crosby, Stills and Nash, Paul Simon (with and without Art Garfunkel), Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen for the first day, and Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2 for the second day. Each of those major stars were hosts for one fourth of the days they were on. Then they invited other stars to join them, to play a song or two. For instance, the first major artist, Crosby, Stills and Nash, had Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor as their guests. The result was that, between the major stars and their guests, most of the major areas of rock and roll going back to the 1950s were represented. 

There were some key gaps though. For instance, although Mick Jagger was a guest on the second day to represent the Rolling Stones, there really wasn't any special representation of the Beatles, the most important musical act of all. (Although there were occasional covers of Beatles songs, at least.) Bob Dylan was also very missed. But then again, you can only do so much in two concerts containing about four hours each. 

I spent a long time putting this together. It was quite tricky. I was able to find all the songs from this, the first night, but only two and a half hours from the second night, even though that one probably lasted about four hours as well. The main source I used was an officially released DVD. But the longest version of that was only about three hours for both concerts combined. Plus, many of those were bonus tracks, which meant they were out of order and often had the starts and ends cut off.

Luckily for me, Wikipedia came through for me particularly well, with a list of all the songs performed in the correct order, including lots of details. You can see that, and more info about the concert, here:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

From that, I was able to figure out the songs I was missing, and try to find them. It turns out four hours of highlights were shown on HBO the year the concert happened. That was longer than the DVD, so I found some extra songs there. Then I found an audience bootleg of the entire first day. That's why I was able to include all the songs. However, the sound quality of the songs from the audience bootleg was significantly poorer than the songs from the DVD and the HBO broadcast. But, luckily, I was able to clean things up quite a lot, by putting a lot of effort into audio editing. I ran all the audience boot sourced songs through two processes that I use in cases like this. For one thing, I used the MVSEP audio editing program to raise the volume of the lead vocals in contrast to the instruments. (That is such a common problem for concert bootlegs.) Then I also used MVSEP to wipe out the crowd noise during the songs, while keeping the cheers at the beginnings and ends of songs. In my opinion, that made the quality gap between the different sources a lot smaller, though still noticeable. ("Marrakesh Express" is an example of one of the audience boot sourced songs, and the songs just before and after it are not, if you want to make a comparison.)

However, I still had a lot of work to do. Another problem with the audience boot-sourced song is that the cheering at the ends of songs sounded quite different, with the sound of clapping of individual people near the taper more prominent. I mostly fixed this by copying and pasting cheering from the ends of DVD-sourced songs, and slathering it over the cheering of the audience boot-sourced songs. I also had a lot of transition issues. It was rare to have two songs in a row from the same source. I generally fixed that by patching in more generic cheering. Yet another problem was the banter between songs. The ones from the audience boot-sourced songs sounded really weak. So I did extra editing to pull the actual talking out from the background noise. 

I could go on and on. There were lots of little tweaks. But I'm hoping that the end result is this will sound like one coherent concert from one source, more or less, and you won't notice the "making of the sausage" with all the editing to get it to sound that way. It would be really great if this whole thing gets officially released one day, in top quality. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that.

One thing that makes this concert special is all the collaborations. There are too many to count. Lots and lots of big names performing songs together, and usually the only time they ever did that for the songs. There were some interesting cover versions as well, as an attempt to have some inclusion of famous musician who died or otherwise didn't attend. Stevie Wonder singing the Michael Jackson song "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Paul Simon with Crosby and Nash singing "Here Comes the Sun" are just two examples of that.

This should particularly delight Bruce Springsteen fans. He dominated this first night, which his section of the concert lasting an hour and a half, easily the longest. And he assisted Jerry Lee Lewis on the first song of the night as well. (Plus, he showed up on the second night as well, as we shall see later.)

This album is four hours and eight minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On (Jerry Lee Lewis with Bruce Springsteen)
04 Woodstock (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
05 Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
06 talk (Graham Nash)
07 Almost Cut My Hair (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
08 talk (David Crosby)
09 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
10 Love Has No Pride (Bonnie Raitt & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
11 Midnight Rider (Bonnie Raitt & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
12 talk (Graham Nash)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 The Pretender (Jackson Browne & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Mexico (James Taylor & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
17 Love the One You're With (James Taylor & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 Rock and Roll Woman (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
19 talk (Graham Nash)
20 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills & Nash & Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne & James Taylor)
21 Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon)
22 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
23 You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon)
24 talk (Paul Simon)
25 Here Comes the Sun (Paul Simon with Crosby & Nash)
26 talk (Paul Simon)
27 The Wanderer (Dion & Paul Simon)
28 Late in the Evening (Paul Simon)
29 talk (Paul Simon)
30 Two People in the World (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
31 The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)
32 Mrs. Robinson - Not Fade Away (Simon & Garfunkel)
33 The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel)
34 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
35 Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel)
36 Blowin' in the Wind (Stevie Wonder)
37 talk (Stevie Wonder)
38 Uptight [Everything's Alright] (Stevie Wonder)
39 I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder)
40 For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder)
41 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
42 Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder)
43 talk (Stevie Wonder)
44 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & Stevie Wonder)
45 talk (Stevie Wonder)
46 Mercy Mercy Me [The Ecology] (Stevie Wonder & John Legend)
47 The Way You Make Me Feel (Stevie Wonder with John Legend)
48 talk (Stevie Wonder)
49 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King & Stevie Wonder)
50 Living for the City (Stevie Wonder)
51 Higher Ground - Roxanne - Higher Ground (Sting & Stevie Wonder)
52 Superstition (Stevie Wonder & Jeff Beck)
53 10th Avenue Freeze-Out (Bruce Springsteen)
54 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
55 Hold On, I'm Comin' (Bruce Springsteen & Sam Moore)
56 Soul Man (Bruce Springsteen & Sam Moore)
57 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
58 The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
59 Fortunate Son (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
60 Proud Mary (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
61 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
62 Oh, Pretty Woman (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
63 Jungleland (Bruce Springsteen)
64 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
65 A Fine, Fine Boy (Darlene Love & Bruce Springsteen)
66 Do Run Run Run (Darlene Love & Bruce Springsteen)
67 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
68 London Calling (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
69 Badlands (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
70 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
71 You May Be Right (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
72 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
73 Only the Good Die Young (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
74 New York State of Mind (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
75 Born to Run (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
76 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher (Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QU2h1WV1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/7oTCzzonspG0GVX/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: John Fogerty, Darlene Love, Bruce Springsteen, and Sam Moore.