Jackson Browne - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-6-1976

Here's another episode of my newly favorite TV show, "PBS Soundstage." This one stars Jackson Browne in his 1970s prime.

In November 1976, Jackson Browne released the studio album "The Pretender." Frankly, as with many of these shows, I don't know if the date is the recording date or the broadcast date. But either way, this concert must have taken place before people in the audience were familiar with the album. It turned out to be a big hit, eventually selling over three million copies. It would be his second best selling album (behind "Running On Empty" released in late 1977). 

Maybe because "The Pretender" album was just coming out, he only played two songs from it, "The Fuse" and "The Pretender." "The Fuse" has "[Edit]" in the title because there was an emcee voiceover over the beginning. I got rid of that in the usual way for me, using the UVR5 audio editing program.

The last song, "Running on Empty," is not actually from the concert. But the bootleg I took this from had that at the end, and I enjoyed it, so I decided to keep it. It's one of my favorites from him. It was recorded in 1977 for the Saturday Night Live" TV show. That actually took place a few months prior to the release of the album it was on.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 The Fuse [Edit] (Jackson Browne)
02 Rock Me on the Water (Jackson Browne)
03 Late for the Sky (Jackson Browne)
04 The Road and the Sky (Jackson Browne)
05 talk (Jackson Browne)
06 Farther On (Jackson Browne)
07 Fountain of Sorrow (Jackson Browne)
08 Before the Deluge (Jackson Browne)
09 Walking Slow (Jackson Browne)
10 I Thought I Was a Child (Jackson Browne)
11 The Pretender [Edit] (Jackson Browne)
12 Running on Empty (Jackson Browne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tBHFf3rS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/90Z6wKKgWGIK74i/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. The image was very blurry and low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to sharpen it up.

Peter Gabriel - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Reading Festival, Little John's Farm, Reading, Britain, 8-26-1979

Some weeks ago, I posted a poll asking which musical acts you'd like me to post BBC albums from. (Two polls, actually, but I'm going with the second, bigger poll.) I got sidetracks in recent weeks with posting lots of "PBS Soundstage" concerts I newly discovered, and I'm still kind of focused on that. But I'm going to finally start posting BBC albums from the most popular artists in that poll. I'm starting with Peter Gabriel, who got the most votes. I've found five BBC concerts from him. Here's the first one, from 1979.

The annual Reading Festival started in the early 1970s and is still a big festival as I write this in 2025. The 1979 festival lasted three days and had lots of big names, such as the Police, Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Whitesnake, the Climax Blues Band, and the Ramones. Peter Gabriel was the headliner for the third and final night. 

We're lucky that the BBC broadcast this, because while it has often broadcast parts of the Reading Festival in recent decades, it rarely did so back in the 1970s. In this case, it broadcast more of Gabriel's set, but not all of it. Specifically, the last two songs, "Here Comes the Flood" and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," were not included in the broadcast. However, a decent audience bootleg exists for those two songs, so I've used those.

Even though most of this is from a BBC broadcast, the recording was a little rough compared to usual BBC standards. Perhaps they weren't accustomed to recording at really big outdoor festivals. Whatever the case may be, I did a couple of my usual tricks to try to improve the sound. First, I noticed that the lead vocals were somewhat low in the mix compared to the instruments. So I fixed that with the use of the UVR5 audio editing program. Then I noticed the audience noise was rather loud during some (but not all) of the songs, especially the last two from the audience boot. I got rid of most of the cheering where it wasn't needed with the use of the MVSEP program.

Gabriel's first four solo albums were all named "Peter Gabriel." This concert took place after the release of the second one, often known as "Peter Gabriel 2" or "Scratch," released in 1978. However, interestingly, the first song performed, "Biko," was unreleased at the time. It would appear on his next album in 1980. This was only the second time he performed it in public, with the first being a warm-up concert a couple of days earlier.

I find it interesting that Phil Collins played drums on at least a couple of songs. I only know for sure he played on "Mother of Violence" and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," but it's possible he played on more. You can hear Gabriel introduce him in the band intros right after "Mother of Violence." Of course, as any Genesis fan knows, Gabriel was the lead vocalist for Genesis until he left for a solo career in 1975. Collins had been the band's drummer from early in the band's career, but took over as lead vocalist and became a big star. But Gabriel and Collins actually have remained good friends and sometimes played on the other's albums.

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long.

01 Biko (Peter Gabriel)
02 On the Air (Peter Gabriel)
03 D.I.Y. (Peter Gabriel)
04 talk (Peter Gabriel)
05 Humdrum (Peter Gabriel)
06 No Self Control (Peter Gabriel)
07 White Shadow (Peter Gabriel)
08 Mother of Violence (Peter Gabriel)
09 talk (Peter Gabriel)
10 Animal Magic (Peter Gabriel)
11 I Don't Remember (Peter Gabriel)
12 Modern Love (Peter Gabriel)
13 Moribund the Burgermeister (Peter Gabriel)
14 Perspective (Peter Gabriel)
15 Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel)
16 Here Comes the Flood (Peter Gabriel)
17 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Peter Gabriel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PkAQoovW

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

B.B. King & Bobby 'Blue' Bland - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 3-17-1977

Here's another "PBS Soundstage" TV show episode. This time, it stars blues legends B.B. King and Bobby 'Blue' Bland.

Both King and Bland had successful music careers going back to the 1940s. While doing some Googling for this write-up, I was surprised to read that they actually were in an informal band together as far back as 1949, called the Beale Streeters. Starting in the mid-1970s, they often performed together. This resulted in the joint albums "Together for the First Time... Live" in 1974 and "Together Again... Live" in 1976. Apparently, they continued to sometimes tour together well into the 1980s, until Bland's health became poor. (However, he didn't die until 2013, while King died in 2015.)

That said, note that for most of this concert, King and Bland largely performed separately. King starts with two songs, then Bland does five, then King performs three more, before the finale, where they play two songs together.

This concert could well have been recorded in late 1976. (With these Soundstage shows, I often don't know if a date is the broadcast date or the actual recording date, and the broadcasts usually happened months after the recording.) However, the songs on this album and their 1976 live album are almost entirely different, with only "Let the Good Times Roll," "Call It Stormy Monday," and "The Thrill Is Gone" appearing on both.

In the mid-1970s, Bland had a commercial resurgence, with the R&B hits "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" and "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog." Unfortunately, neither of those songs are here. Also unfortunately in my opinion, by this time, Bland developed an annoying vocal technique that he heavily leaned on for the rest of his music career. I found a review for the "Together for the First Time... Live" album that describes this better than I could:

"Bland's tremendously irritating later-period singing tic is in full flower: what I refer to as his 'Gollum' sound. That deep, guttural throat sound when he's particularly ripping into a lyric that's as if Bland has a goiter or is trying to hack up the world's largest fur ball. Gollum - I mean Bland - lets loose with this annoying sound with stunning frequency."

Luckily, for this concert, Bland went relatively light on his Gollum sound. I was pleasantly surprised. You'll hear it from time to time, but he certainly did it less than on either of the two live albums mentioned above.

The last song has "[Edit]" in the title due to announcer voiceover while the song was playing. As I usually do, I used the UVR5 program to get rid of that talking while keeping the underlying music, but there was some damage for about half a minute near the end of the song.

This album is 58 minutes long. It is unreleased. It also was very difficult for me to find in full, so I'm glad to make it easily available again.

01 Let the Good Times Roll (B.B. King)
02 How Blue Can You Get (B.B. King)
03 Ain't That Loving You (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
04 Today I Started Loving You Again (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
05 The Feeling Is Gone (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
06 Call It Stormy Monday (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
07 Drifting Blues (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
08 I Like to Live the Love (B.B. King)
09 I Got Some Outside Help [I Don't Really Need] (B.B. King)
10 Lie a Little (B.B. King)
11 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King & Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
12 It's My Own Fault [Edit] (B.B. King & Bobby 'Blue' Bland)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t2rxBREC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/JRM17UecqZnByNl/file

The cover image is from a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. The quality was low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to improve it.

Alison Krauss & Union Station - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-2003

Here's yet another from my flood of "PBS Soundstage" albums. This time, it's from Alison Krauss and her backing band Union Station. The band plays a pretty prominent role, with a couple of the songs here being sung by band members other than Krauss.

Alison Krauss is a star of bluegrass and country, and had her biggest success in the 1990s. Normally, I'm not a fan of bluegrass, but she does it in a very accessible way. Note for instance her cover of the song "Baby, Now that I've Found You," a Motown-styled 1960s song by the British band the Foundations, totally redone by her.

By the way, note that Krauss has a connection to the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" She appeared in the movie, singing the song "Down to the River to Pray." But also, probably the best known song from that movie was "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." Krauss, didn't sing that in the movie, but one member of Union Station, Dan Tyminski, did. So he sang it in this concert as well.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Let Me Touch You for a While (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
02 The Lucky One (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
03 Baby, Now that I've Found You (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
04 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
05 Bright Sunny South (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
06 Everytime You Say Goodbye (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
07 Stay (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
08 Forget about It (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
10 Maybe (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
11 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
12 We Hide and Seek (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
13 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
14 When You Say Nothing at All (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
15 Oh Atlanta (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
16 talk (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
17 Down to the River to Pray (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
18 There Is a Reason (Alison Krauss & Union Station)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DUAQGoh6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/iu22cNFL8BAJ3NX/file

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

Seals & Crofts with England Dan & John Ford Coley & Walter Heath - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 5-19-1974

Here's a rather unusual episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one stars Seals and Crofts, but also has two guest acts, England Dan and John Ford Coley, and Walter Heath.

In the early 1970s, Seals and Crofts were pretty much the epitome of mellow soft rock. They had a bunch of hits, with the biggest being "Diamond Girl" and "Summer Breeze." 

 I remember hearing their songs on the radio, and I didn't think much about them. They seemed to be pretty typical poppy romantic fare. But what I didn't realize until putting this album together was that they had a pretty heavy religious agenda. It turns out both Seals and Crofts were members of the Bahai faith. There's nothing wrong with that; people can believe whatever they want. But I'm not a fan of proselytizing. It seems Seals and Crofts concerts doubled as efforts for them to gain new concerts to the faith they believed in, to the point that the concerts were usually followed by "rap sessions" where the two of them talked about their religious beliefs. There was some banter like that in this recording. I cut that part out, because it's not something I want to hear each time I play this.

England Dan and John Ford Coley was another soft rock duo remarkably similar to Seals and Crofts. In fact, it turns out the real name of "England Dan" is Dan Seals, and he's the younger brother of James Seals of Seals and Crofts. Due to that family connection, it seems like a no-brainer that England Dan and John Ford Coley would be guests for this show. Note that they would eventually have a bunch of hits, the biggest being "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight." But all of those would come after 1975. So they were relative unknown at the time of this concert.

This concert has a second guest act: Walter Heath. He is a relatively obscure soul singer. It turns out he converted to the Bahai faith in the late 1960s, so that no doubt has something to do with his involvement here. It seems he often toured with Seals and Crofts in the 1970s, as did England Dan and John Ford Coley.

This concert is fine overall if you're into the soft rock sound. But one big problem for me was that the song "Summer Breeze" wasn't included. In my opinion, that's their best known song. It was a hit in 1972, so one would assume it would have been played in all their concerts. Perhaps what made it to this TV show was edited down from a longer concert, I don't know. But I was bothered enough by that song not being included that I stuck it on at the end. The version I chose is from an episode of the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test," recorded in 1975.

This album is 59 minutes long. Everything here is unreleased.

01 Hummingbird (Seals & Crofts)
02 talk (Seals & Crofts)
03 Windflowers (Seals & Crofts)
04 We May Never Pass This Way [Again] (Seals & Crofts)
05 Ruby Jean and Billie Lee (Seals & Crofts)
06 Year of Sunday (Seals & Crofts)
07 talk (Seals & Crofts)
08 Unborn Child (Seals & Crofts)
09 talk (Seals & Crofts)
10 I'm the Pilot (Seals & Crofts with England Dan & John Ford Coley)
11 talk (Seals & Crofts with England Dan & John Ford Coley)
12 Dust on My Saddle (Seals & Crofts with England Dan & John Ford Coley)
13 Diamond Girl (Seals & Crofts)
14 talk (Seals & Crofts with Walter Heath)
15 Made to Love (Seals & Crofts with Walter Heath)
16 talk (Seals & Crofts with Walter Heath)
17 You Know You're Wrong, Don't You Brother (Seals & Crofts with Walter Heath)
18 talk (Seals & Crofts)
19 Foot Stompin', Hand Clappin', Hog Callin' Music [Instrumental] (Seals & Crofts with England Dan & John Ford Coley)
20 Summer Breeze (Seals & Crofts)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wHkvZqLP

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/pC1qqopZNwdoLHi/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. It was rather blurry and low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to add detail and clarity.

Harry Chapin - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 8-1-1974

The "PBS Soundstage" TV program ran from 1974 to 2018, with some big gaps of years without any episodes. But I think the most interesting ones are from the 1970s, resulting in high quality audio and video of some musical acts that we otherwise don't have lots of other live recordings at that quality level. Singer-songwriter Harry Chapin is a case in point. Here's his episode, from 1974.

Today, Chapin is best known for his song "Cat's in the Cradle," which was a Number One hit in the U.S. in 1974. Unfortunately, this concert took place two months before that song was released as a single. I checked at setlist.fm, and it turns out he performed it in concert as far back as October 1973. So I guess it's just bad luck that it wasn't included yet. But it could be he didn't realize how popular it would become.

However, although "Cat's in the Cradle" isn't here, probably his next two biggest hits are, "W.O.L.D." and "Taxi." Additionally, Chapin had a reputation for interesting banter between songs, and he definitely lived up to that in this concert. 

This unreleased album is 59 minutes long.

01 talk (Harry Chapin)
02 Sunday Morning Sunshine (Harry Chapin)
03 talk (Harry Chapin)
04 W.O.L.D. (Harry Chapin)
05 talk (Harry Chapin)
06 Mr. Tanner (Harry Chapin)
07 talk (Harry Chapin)
08 Six String Orchestra (Harry Chapin)
09 talk (Harry Chapin)
10 Better Place to Be (Harry Chapin)
11 talk (Harry Chapin)
12 The Ballad of Jed Clampett [Instrumental Version] (Harry Chapin)
13 Mail Order Annie (Harry Chapin)
14 Taxi (Harry Chapin)
15 What Made America Famous (Harry Chapin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jGUG28xz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/XcwNLYa36Xn4w31/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I took a screenshot from a rather low-res video. So I had to use the Krea AI program to improve the quality some.

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 7: 2005-2018

Here is the seventh and last volume of Stevie Wonder's "Covered" series. Just as a reminder, like all the "Covered" albums I post, the emphasis is on the songwriting. So these are all songs written or co-written by Wonder, but performed by others.

By the time period of this album, 2005 to 2018, Wonder's songwriting had slowed way down. In fact, writing this in 2025, Wonder still hasn't released a new studio album since 2005. So all the songs here are covers from earlier years, especially from his golden era of the 1970s. "You Met Your Match" is the oldest song here, from 1968.

Finally, with this volume, the full scope of Wonder's songwriting genius can be seen. Some of his best songs don't show up until this volume. So all seven volumes should be seen as a whole. 

Just by chance, I didn't find any covers that I liked best from after 2018. But I'm sure more great covers will emerge in the years to come.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 I'm Going Left (Eric Clapton)
02 You Haven't Done Nothin' (Joe Cocker)
03 Village Ghetto Land (Jen Chapin)
04 You Met Your Match (Tower of Power)
05 Sir Duke (Devon Allman)
06 Do I Do (Cuban Jazz Combo)
07 True to Your Heart (Wailing Souls)
08 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Phil Collins)
09 Part-Time Lover (Hyannis Sound)
10 Jesus Children of America (Michele Thomas)
11 Master Blaster [Jammin'] (Minnie Driver)
12 Happier than the Morning Sun (Venice)
13 Another Star (Denise King & Massimo Farao Trio)
14 He's Misstra Know It All (Beverley Knight)
15 I Just Called to Say I Love You (John Prine)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hHACZWCK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/h1RStCF8XSMhnvi/file

The cover photo is from 2003.

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 6: 1994-2005

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted the last volume of Stevie Wonder's "Covered" series. There are two left to go. So I'm posting both of them today to finish them off. Here's Volume 6.

The time period of this album is 1994 to 2005. But note that's the time frame for when cover versions were released, not necessarily when the originals were released. By this time, Wonder's songwriting had slowed down, so most of the songs here are from earlier, usually from the 1970s. 

Wonder was still writing songs for others during this time period. However, in my opinion, they weren't up to snuff compared to the other songs on this album, so I didn't include any of them here.

One song I feel needs a little explaining is "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio with L.V. This is based on Wonder's 1976 song "Pastime Paradise." But Coolio significantly changed it with rap lyrics added. Normally, I'm not a big fan of rap, and I'm especially not a fan of songs where rap lyrics are added over classic songs. But in this case, I think Coolio did a really good job, keeping the heart of the original while adding something worthwhile and new. The general public thought so too, since it was the best selling single of 1995. So I've included this version here, but also I also included a more standard version of "Pastime Paradise" in Volume 4 in this series.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Maybe Your Baby (Prince)
02 Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio with L.V.)
03 You and I (Joe Cocker)
04 Knocks Me Off My Feet (Luther Vandross)
05 As (George Michael & Mary J.Blige)
06 I Wish (Lady Gaga)
07 Isn't She Lovely (Keb Mo)
08 I Ain't Gonna Stand for It (Eric Clapton)
09 Love's in Need of Love Today (Joan Osborne)
10 Too High (Michael McDonald)
11 Overjoyed (Mary J. Blige)
12 If It's Magic (Caetano Veloso)
13 Send One Your Love (Vanessa Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oNS96AJx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5qkLrQoBsrCXuF2/file

The cover photo is from 1993.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 12 (1963-1979) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

Here we go again, with another volume of "The Beatles Uncovered" by guest poster Mike Solof. We've made it all the way to Volume 12.

By now, I hope you know the drill. Once again, Mike has taken the officially released versions of Beatles songs, plus some songs from their solo careers, and heavily edited them to bring out aspects you might otherwise have overlooked. 

There's not much else I need to say, I think, except this time he really outdid himself with an edit of an early demo version of "Something," making hundreds of edits to create something unique. So don't miss that one.

As usual, if you want to know more, including editing details for each song, please check out the PDF Mike has written that's included in the download files.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Old Brown Shoe [Demo Final Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
02 Don't Let Me Down [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 I'm Looking through You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
04 Lady Madonna [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
05 Run for Your Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 She Loves You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Soft-Hearted Hana [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison)
08 Givin' Grease a Ride [Mike's Mix 2025] (Mike McGear & Paul McCartney)
09 Wait [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
10 The Word [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Old Dirt Road [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon)
12 I Will [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 You Won't See Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 What Goes On [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 The Inner Light [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 The Ballad of John and Yoko [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Maxwell's Silver Hammer [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
18 Bluebird [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney)
19 Something [Reconstructed Early Demo] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/acqhwoX5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/09Aiy5VBwP3RatR/file

The cover art was made by a friend of Mike's, Matt Busch. I stretched it out a bit on the top and bottom to fit the square space.

Neil Young - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-17-1992

Here's a "PBS Soundstage" concert performed by Neil Young in 1992.

(By the way, note that for one year, the program used the name "Center Stage" instead of "Soundstage." This is one of the shows from that year. But I'm calling it "Soundstage" to be consistent with all of the other many years of the show.)

Earlier in 1992, Young released the studio album "Harvest Moon." It was billed as a kind of sequel to the mostly acoustic 1972 album "Harvest." Like "Harvest," it was critically acclaimed and sold very well. 

In February 1993, Young put on a concert for the TV show "MTV Unplugged." It was released as a live album called "Unplugged" later that same year. In 2009, an album called "Dreamin' Man Live '92" was released. It consisted of acoustic versions of the ten songs from the "Harvest Moon" album. I think this album is superior to both of those. "Unplugged," while mostly acoustic in nature, was performed by a small band. Young was unhappy with the band for some reason, even doing an entire second concert to try to fix the problems he saw. This is strictly a solo acoustic performance, so obviously there's no band problems here. 

And this is a much longer recording than either "Unplugged" (65 minutes) or "Dreamin' Man Live '92" (56 minutes). He performed nine out of the ten songs on "Harvest Moon." The only one he missed, "Old King," is a kind of jokey song that is no big loss.

This album is an hour and 53 minutes long.

01 talk (Neil Young)
02 Long May You Run (Neil Young)
03 talk (Neil Young)
04 From Hank to Hendrix (Neil Young)
05 Unknown Legend (Neil Young)
06 talk (Neil Young)
07 Love Is a Rose (Neil Young)
08 talk (Neil Young)
09 Pocahontas (Neil Young)
10 talk (Neil Young)
11 Like a Hurricane (Neil Young)
12 talk (Neil Young)
13 War of Man (Neil Young)
14 talk (Neil Young)
15 The Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young)
16 talk (Neil Young)
17 Tonight's the Night (Neil Young)
18 talk (Neil Young)
19 One of These Days (Neil Young)
20 Such a Woman (Neil Young)
21 Harvest Moon (Neil Young)
22 Dreamin' Man (Neil Young)
23 Natural Beauty (Neil Young)
24 Don't Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)
25 talk (Neil Young)
26 Mr. Soul (Neil Young)
27 Powderfinger (Neil Young)
28 talk (Neil Young)
29 Sugar Mountain (Neil Young)
30 talk (Neil Young)
31 You and Me (Neil Young)
32 talk (Neil Young)
33 After the Goldrush (Neil Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dCDDc1LB

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/UGEFCg8bA5JTvIG/file

The cover image is taken from this exact concert.

John Prine with Billy Lee Riley - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 1-6-1980

Here's another "PBS Soundstage" episode. This time, it's a John Prine concert from 1980. 

He was joined on two songs by Billy Lee Riley. Riley had a few hits in the 1950s, especially the song "Red Hot" in 1957. After that, he stayed in the music business for a while, working mostly as a producer. However, by the 1970s, he got a job in the construction industry instead. But in the late 1970s he made a minor comeback, and this appearance was a part of it. He died in 2009 of cancer after some more minor comebacks.

Bob Dylan was a big fan. Here's what he said about him in 2015:

"He was a true original. He did it all: He played, he sang, he wrote. He would have been a bigger star but Jerry Lee [Lewis] came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don't stand a chance. So Billy became what is known in the industry — a condescending term — as a one-hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one-hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who's got 20 or 30 hits behind him. And Billy's hit song was called "Red Hot," and it was red hot. It could blast you out of your skull and make you feel happy about it. Change your life."

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

Billy Lee Riley - Wikipedia

I don't have much to say about John Prine in comparison, because I figure a lot more people interested in this album will know about Prine than they will about Riley. A few months prior to this concert, Prine released his sixth studio album, "Pink Cadillac." It was different from his previous albums. Instead of his usual singer-songwriter style, he focused more on 1950s rock and roll, with about half of the album being covers of songs from that era, and the originals on the album being influenced by that style. We can see some of that in this concert, for instance his cover of the 1950s classic "Ubangi Stomp." And his involvement with Riley on two songs fits perfectly into that.

The recording of this unreleased concert is pretty good. However, I had some trouble with the cheering at the ends of songs ending abruptly. Probably, that was when the TV show quickly cut to commercial breaks. So I did a little editing to add a reasonable amount of cheering after every song. The last song, "How Lucky," had no cheering at all. It probably wasn't actually recorded in the same concert as the rest. But I added some cheering at the end of that one too to help it fit in.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 talk (John Prine)
02 Automobile (John Prine)
03 Spanish Pipedream (John Prine)
04 Fish and Whistle (John Prine)
05 talk (John Prine)
06 Angel from Montgomery (John Prine)
07 The Accident [Things Could Be Worse] (John Prine)
08 Ubangi Stomp (John Prine)
09 talk (John Prine)
10 Hello in There (John Prine)
11 Paradise (John Prine)
12 talk (John Prine)
13 No Name Girl (John Prine & Billy Lee Riley)
14 talk (John Prine & Billy Lee Riley)
15 Red Hot (John Prine & Billy Lee Riley)
16 Bruised Orange [Chain of Sorrow] (John Prine)
17 Saigon (John Prine)
18 How Lucky (John Prine)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H5yZxxWz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Zr4FeU5LUFrPOfu/file

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

Three Dog Night - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 9-4-1975

Here's an episode of the TV show "PBS Soundstage" starring the band Three Dog Night.

Three Dog Night was formed in 1968. It consisted of three lead vocalists, Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, and Cory Wells, with each of them taking lead sometimes but also sometimes the three of them singing together. From 1968 to 1974, they went from success to success, having a string of many hit songs. But by 1975, the usual personality clashes and drug programs of successful bands began to show. Their 1975 album "Coming Down Your Way" sold way less than previous albums. It only spawned one Top Forty hit in the U.S., "Til the World Ends," which would be their last hit. Hutton missed many recording sessions due to drug use. He was kicked out of the band at the end of 1975. Negron also was arrested for drug possession. But the band didn't have much longer to go anyway, breaking up in mid-1976 (though inevitably later getting back together for reunion tours).

Given all that, this is a pretty good time for a concert recording. Although they were faltering in some ways, they still put on a good, energetic concert, and they were able to select from all of their hits. Besides, Negron only took part in early 1980s reunions, and most of the backing band drifted away and were replaced. So this is pretty much the end of the line for the full original band.

There was a minor problem with the song "One." There was some overdubbing of fans talking about the band at the start of the song. I got rid of that in the usual way, with the help of the UVR5 audio editing program. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title. But also, if one looks at the YouTube video of this concert, that first song could have been recorded somewhere else. I don't know about that, but I included it anyway.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 One [Edit] (Three Dog Night)
02 Family of Man (Three Dog Night)
03 talk (Three Dog Night)
04 Shambala (Three Dog Night)
05 Old Fashioned Love Song (Three Dog Night)
06 Til the World Ends (Three Dog Night)
07 Try a Little Tenderness (Three Dog Night)
08 Pieces of April (Three Dog Night)
09 Eli's Coming (Three Dog Night)
10 talk (Three Dog Night)
11 Celebrate (Three Dog Night)
12 The Show Must Go On (Three Dog Night)
13 Joy to the World (Three Dog Night)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/di5FraAx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/1eODW8GazVRKGnn/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. It was rather low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to improve it.

Suzanne Vega: BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, Britain, 2-11-1997

Here's another album of singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega performing for the BBC. This time, it's a concert from 1997.

In late 1996, Vega released the studio album "Nine Objects of Desire." This concert was from the tour supporting that album. Naturally, many of the songs performed are from that album.

Overall, the sound quality is very good. However, there were some concerning gaps. A chunk of the middle of the song "Caramel," was missing, about a minute. The second half of the last song, "Gypsy," was also missing. Furthermore, the start of "Marlene on the Wall" was missing. I generally filled these gaps by using portions of versions recorded at the "Sessions at West 54th" TV show that same year. That's why those three songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. Additionally, some of the audience cheering between songs didn't seem to line up, meaning the cheering of the end of one song didn't match with the start of the next one. I tried to fix that by adding more cheering. But I suspect some songs could be missing, plus there could be missing banter. So if anyone has more of this concert, let me know, so I can add it in. But at least what is here should sound fine, after my fixes.

This unreleased album is 54 minutes long.

01 Stockings (Suzanne Vega)
02 Rock in This Pocket [Song of David] (Suzanne Vega)
03 talk (Suzanne Vega)
04 Caramel [Edit] (Suzanne Vega)
05 Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
06 Marlene on the Wall [Edit] (Suzanne Vega)
07 Fatman and Dancing Girl (Suzanne Vega)
08 The Queen and the Soldier (Suzanne Vega)
09 Room Off the Street (Suzanne Vega)
10 Blood Makes Noise (Suzanne Vega)
11 talk (Suzanne Vega)
12 Luka (Suzanne Vega)
13 Tom's Diner (Suzanne Vega)
14 talk (Suzanne Vega)
15 Men in a War (Suzanne Vega)
16 Gypsy [Edit] (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rbm2Sewe

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from January 1997, but I don't know more details.

Jewel - PBS Soundstage, Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX, 8-31-2006

Here is a "PBS Soundstage" concert by Jewel, also known as Jewel Kilcher.

In 2003, Jewel released the studio album "0304." In it, her style shifted to dance pop. This was not well received by most fans and critics. In 2006, around this time of this concert, she released her next album, "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland." It brought her back to her previous folk and rock styles. It was much better received, although sales weren't great.

For this concert, we luckily get full concert instead of the usual edit down to an hour. Many of the songs are from her latest album, or from previous albums. Just one song, "Intuition," is from her "0304," so if you don't like that album it doesn't really have an impact on this concert. She didn't break to talk much in this recording, but when she does, she usually told long stories.

This album is an hour and 37 minutes long. The music here has been released on video form on DVD, but not as an audio album.

01 1000 Miles Away (Jewel)
02 Near You Always (Jewel)
03 talk (Jewel)
04 Stephenville, TX (Jewel)
05 Morning Song (Jewel)
06 talk (Jewel)
07 Cowboy's Lament [Fly to Me Angel] (Jewel)
08 Foolish Games (Jewel)
09 You Were Meant for Me (Jewel)
10 Long Slow Slide (Jewel)
11 Hands (Jewel)
12 talk (Jewel)
13 Good Day (Jewel)
14 Satellite (Jewel)
15 Everybody Needs Someone Sometime (Jewel)
16 talk (Jewel)
17 Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone (Jewel)
18 Break Me (Jewel)
19 Where You Are (Jewel)
20 Standing Still (Jewel)
21 Intuition (Jewel)
22 Who Will Save Your Soul (Jewel)
23 talk (Jewel)
24 Goodbye Alice in Wonderland (Jewel)
25 Chime Bells (Jewel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fgB2jKxa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/kXlsUIalh9ZSEGO/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to sharpen it up a bit.

Norah Jones - PBS Soundstage, St. Ann's Warehouse, New York City, 1-27-2010

The flood of "PBS Soundstage" concerts continues with a 2010 concert by Norah Jones.

In November 2009, Jones released the studio album "The Fall." It was one of her better reviewed albums, and it sold well, selling three million copies worldwide. She went on practically every show that allows musical performances to promote it, including this one.

Most of the songs are from that album. However, at the end she played her two biggest hits ("Don't Know Why" and "Come Away with Me") plus a cover of "Strangers" by the Kinks.

I had a really tough time finding a source for this. As I write this in April 2025, the video can't be found on YouTube, and the audio isn't on any of the usual bootleg sites. But I dug deep and eventually found a way to stream it, recorded the audio as I streamed, then converted those to mp3s.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 talk (Norah Jones)
02 I Wouldn't Need You (Norah Jones)
03 Tell Your Mama (Norah Jones)
04 talk (Norah Jones)
05 Light as a Feather (Norah Jones)
06 Even Though (Norah Jones)
07 Young Blood (Norah Jones)
08 It's Gonna Be (Norah Jones)
09 December (Norah Jones)
10 Man of the Hour (Norah Jones)
11 talk (Norah Jones)
12 Back to Manhattan (Norah Jones)
13 Sinkin' Soon (Norah Jones)
14 Come Away with Me (Norah Jones)
15 Strangers (Norah Jones)
16 Don't Know Why (Norah Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oE4UTexL

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MyWfdWHpLh5aj5E/file

The cover is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Brian Wilson - PBS Soundstage, Palazzo Theatre, Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, 12-11-2014

Here's another episode of the TV Show "PBS Soundstage." This one stars Brian Wilson, the genius songwriter behind most of the hits by the Beach Boys.

There aren't many Soundstage episodes that have been officially released as audio albums, but this is one of them. The album is called "Brian Wilson and Friends." Normally, I would shy from posting released episodes, since they can easily be found elsewhere. However, I'm making an exception here because it turns out a DVD version was released as well that had a bunch of extra songs. I managed to combine the CD and DVD versions to create a closer approximation of the actual concert.

In 2012, the Beach Boys had a reunion that included most of the long-time members of that band, including Brian Wilson. Wilson remained on good terms with most of the others (with the exception of Mike Love, who kept the rights to the band name). So Wilson reunited with some former Beach Boys in this concert. The main one of note is Al Jardine, who played on a bunch of songs and sang lead vocals on a few. But Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar were also guests. They were members for a short time in the early 1970s.

On top of that, there were some other guest stars. Sebu Simonian, who is part of the indie pop duo Capital Cities, sang one song here. (He actually sang another one, but I thought it was a terrible attempt to mix the Beach Boys sound with the modern pop sound, so I didn't include it.) Mark Isham, who plays trumpet and keyboards and scores films, played trumpet on a couple of songs. Finally, Nate Ruess, singer-songwriter for the band fun, sang on a couple of songs.

This concert took place at the end of 2014. However, it was aired on TV around the time of the release of Wilson's next studio album, "No Pier Pressure," released in April 2015. Many of the songs come from that album. So do most of the collaborations with guest stars. That album was criticized for its use of AutoTune and other bad production choices. So it's better to hear those songs here, in my opinion.

The DVD was rather strange because the vast majority of it stuck to showing the concert, but they occasionally stuck in extra things not from the concert at all. For instance, there were a couple of songs featuring actress and singer Zooey Deschanel. But I didn't include them because they were recorded in a studio, not in this concert. I also cut out some interview segments between songs. Luckily, I managed to get rid of most of them without much trouble. But the song "Saturday Night" has "[edit]" in the name because some of the talking overlapped the start of the song. I got rid of that, as I usually do, with the UVR5 audio editing program.

I found a complete song list of the concert at setlist.fm, which you can see here:

Brian Wilson Concert Setlist at The Venetian Theatre, Las Vegas on December 12, 2014 | setlist.fm 

Both the CD and the DVD has some of the songs out of order, so I did some rearranging to get it as close to the actual concert as possible. Two more songs, "Pacific Coast Highway" and "Summer's Gone," appeared as DVD bonus tracks. When I first posted this, I couldn't find them. But a kind commenter had them and sent them to me, so I added them in. There still are some missing songs, however, including some great ones like "God Only Knows" and "Surfin' U.S.A."

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

01 Our Prayer (Brian Wilson)
02 Heroes and Villains (Brian Wilson)
03 Sloop John B (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
04 Dance, Dance, Dance (Brian Wilson)
05 Good Vibrations (Brian Wilson)
06 This Beautiful Day (Brian Wilson)
07 Don't Worry Baby (Brian Wilson with Sebu Simonian)
08 talk (Brian Wilson)
09 Marcella (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
10 talk (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
11 Wild Honey (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
12 Sail On, Sailor (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
13 Sail Away (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
14 Half Moon Bay (Brian Wilson with Mark Isham)
15 Don't Talk [Put Your Head on My Shoulder] [Instrumental] (Brian Wilson with Mark Isham)
16 The Right Time (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
17 California Saga- California (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
18 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
19 Help Me, Rhonda (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
20 talk (Brian Wilson)
21 Saturday Night [Edit] (Brian Wilson with Nate Ruess)
22 Hold On Dear Brother (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Nate Ruess)
23 Darlin' (Brian Wilson)
24 Pacific Coast Highway (Brian Wilson)
25 talk (Brian Wilson)
26 Summer's Gone (Brian Wilson)
27 California Girls (Brian Wilson)
28 All Summer Long (Brian Wilson)
29 Fun, Fun, Fun (Brian Wilson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/x22YU9ao

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/et3AwKg21SxqTRI/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Cyndi Lauper - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-6-2003

Here's the turn of Cyndi Lauper to perform for the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. Her episode is from 2003. That's the year the show was revived after being dormant for over a decade.

Lauper is best known for his hits from the 1980s. After that, she struggled to get sales and attention. But she never stopped releasing music, and she has an excellent voice. In 2003, the same month as this concert, she released the studio album "At Last." IT was an unusual departure from her pop rock style, because it consisted entirely of jazzy covers of classic songs.

This concert heavily relied on that new album. Most of the songs come from it, with only four of her 1980s hits near the end. Personally, I think she did a good job with this kind of music.

This album is 55 minutes long. This album is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent.

01 At Last (Cyndi Lauper)
02 Walk On By (Cyndi Lauper)
03 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
04 Stay (Cyndi Lauper)
05 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
06 Until You Come Back to Me [That's What I'm Gonna Do] (Cyndi Lauper)
07 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
08 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Cyndi Lauper)
09 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
10 On the Sunny Side of the Street (Cyndi Lauper)
11 True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
12 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
13 Shine (Cyndi Lauper)
14 Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
15 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
16 Money Changes Everything (Cyndi Lauper)
17 Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/42wZmwsw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/G0u3tfjl3cUASqb/file

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

Alanis Morissette - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-14-2003

I just posted an episode of "PBS Soundstage" (the Doobie Brothers from 1979) that required a lot of editing. So I'm going to reward myself by posting a couple that needed very little editing. This episode features a performance by Alanis Morissette in 2003.

Morissette is best known for her 1996 album "Jagged Little Pill," which is one of the best selling albums of all time, selling over 33 million copies worldwide. Her next two albums, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" in 1998 and "Under Rug Swept" in 2002 were also big sellers, although her sales steadily declined for later albums. For instance, "Under Rug Swept" sold about five million albums worldwide. So this was a good time for a concert recording, after she'd released most of her famous songs.

Curiously, this concert seems to have taken place between album releases. "Under Rug Swept" came out in early 2002, and her next album, "So Called Chaos," wouldn't be released until May 2004. So she mostly played songs from "Under Rug Swept" and earlier, but she did play one song that would be on her next album, "Eight Easy Steps."

This album is 55 minutes long. It's unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent.

01 All I Really Want (Alanis Morissette)
02 21 Things I Want in a Lover (Alanis Morissette)
03 Hands Clean (Alanis Morissette)
04 talk (Alanis Morissette)
05 Eight Easy Steps (Alanis Morissette)
06 Head Over Feet (Alanis Morissette)
07 talk (Alanis Morissette)
08 Excuses (Alanis Morissette)
09 talk (Alanis Morissette)
10 Knees of My Bees (Alanis Morissette)
11 This Grudge (Alanis Morissette)
12 You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette)
13 Uninvited (Alanis Morissette)
14 talk (Alanis Morissette)
15 Thank U (Alanis Morissette)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GPhLerG1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/i1tF3vocVOF8D6m/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. I used Krea AI to improve it a bit.

The Doobie Brothers - PBS Soundstage, Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI, 7-21-1979

Here is an episode of the Doobie Brothers performing for the TV show "PBS Soundstage," from 1979. They also did an episode in 1977. I've found about 70 episodes of this show so far, and I believe this is one of only two times a musical act had two episodes so close in time. It was very rare for the same act to get two episodes at all.

Soundstage ran from 1974 to 2018, with some significant gaps in there. Sometimes, during that long run, the concerts would be edited horribly to fit the hour long time slot. Plus, some producers got cute and liked to jazz things up by cutting in interviews and other scenes not from the concerts. Unfortunately, both Doobie Brothers episodes were butchered pretty badly. I'm posting the 1979 show first because I still have to figure out how to fix some of the problems in the 1977 show.

For this show, I found three different versions, all with slightly different song lists and different edits. This was a lucky thing, though also a pain in the butt, because I was able to combine them to make the longest version, while avoiding some of the problems that were present in only some of the versions. For instance, the songs "Sweet Maxine - It Keeps You Runnin'" and "Minute by Minute" are not found in the most commonly traded versions of this bootleg.

Unfortunately though, some stupid edits were present in all versions. For instance, right in this middle of the song "Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels," a song about motorcycles, an interview with a band member about his love of motorcycles was overdubbed over the music. Ugh! It was the same deal with a couple of other songs, with interview segments right in the middle of them, during instrumental solos. In other cases, songs were faded in or out early. Luckily, I was able to use parts of different versions to fix those. For instance, one version of "Listen to the Music" was cut short, and another version had one of those damn annoying interview sections over the soloing. By combining the two, I was able to get the full version without the overdubbed interview. 

However, note there are a couple of places where the sound quality gets a bit rough. I used the UVR5 audio editing program to separate out the talking of the interview from the music, but sometimes there was some damage to the music. Luckily, those damaged parts that remain are petty short, half a minute or so.

Another problem is it turns out the song order in the video was all jumbled up. For instance, "What a Fool Believes" was the third song, which didn't make sense since it was their huge Number One single at the time. I found the correct song list and reordered it to match. (There are a bunch of missing songs, unfortunately.) That meant some of the song transitions didn't sound good. So I fixed those up by adding in more applause. 

Also by the way, many versions of this bootleg state the date was July 20, 1979. But during the banter between songs, a band member clearly stated this was the second night of a two night stand at the venue, which makes it July 21st instead, since they played this venue two nights in a row.

This album is an hour and ten minutes long.

01 Take Me in Your Arms (Doobie Brothers)
02 talk (Doobie Brothers)
03 Clear as the Driven Snow (Doobie Brothers)
04 Dependin' on You (Doobie Brothers)
05 Jesus Is Just Alright (Doobie Brothers)
06 Long Train Runnin' (Doobie Brothers)
07 Sweet Maxine - It Keeps You Runnin' [Edit] (Doobie Brothers)
08 Minute by Minute (Doobie Brothers)
09 talk (Doobie Brothers)
10 Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels [Edit] (Doobie Brothers)
11 Black Water (Doobie Brothers)
12 Slack Key Soquel Rag [Instrumental] (Doobie Brothers)
13 Takin' It to the Streets [Edit] (Doobie Brothers)
14 I Cheat the Hangman [Instrumental] (Doobie Brothers)
15 China Grove (Doobie Brothers)
16 What a Fool Believes (Doobie Brothers)
17 Listen to the Music [Edit] (Doobie Brothers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BJ2kFoiQ 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/tc7vZHS4kYR1WpV/file

The cover shows lead vocalist Michael McDonald. I took a screenshot from a video of this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality.

The writing on his T-shirt intrigued me. I looked at the video to read the whole thing, and found out it was what I'd thought from taking this screenshot: it reads "Bruce Hornsby Band." The odd thing about that is that Hornsby didn't get famous until his first hit single in 1986. I looked it up at his Wikipedia page, and in 1979 his musical career was just getting started. He was only playing small clubs in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia. So why the heck was McDonald wearing a shirt with his name on it?!

I did a little more digging and found out there was an interesting story there. It turns out that in 1979, Hornsby boldly went in search of the Doobie Brothers when they were playing a concert near Williamsburg. He found McDonald in the lobby of a hotel, and invited him to see them perform in a small club that night. Remarkably, McDonald went to the club later that night, despite the band being so unknown that only about 15 people were there. McDonald liked the band so much that he invited the entire Doobie Brothers band to see Hornsby's band the next night, which they did. This then led Hornsby to Los Angeles, where he stayed in McDonald's house for about ten days while they did some recording and tried to get a record company. Ultimately, that didn't work out and it would take many more years for Hornsby to even get a record contract. 

You can read the whole interesting story here:

Don't Call It A Comeback - Style Weekly

That story certainly explains the unusual T-shirt. Kudos to McDonald for recognizing Hornsby's talent so early.

Derek & the Dominos (including Duane Allman) - Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa, FL, 12-1-1970

I want to kick off the month of April 2025 with a special album posting. This album is the one and only concert recording of Derek and the Dominos with Duane Allman taking part. This has been bootlegged many times. But I'm proud to say this version has noticeably better sound quality than any previous version!

The classic album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" was by the band Derek and the Dominos, with Eric Clapton the main star. However, one thing that made that album special was that Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band played his distinctive slide guitar all through the album. That kind of made him one of the Dominos, but only partially because he already had a full time job with the Allman Brothers Band, and they were touring constantly. It turned out during the couple of months that Derek and the Dominos went on tour, in late 1970, Duane Allman only took part in two concerts: this one, in Tampa, Florida, and one the next day in Syracuse, New York. 

Only this one of the two got recorded, and only an average sounding audience bootleg. But due to the unique presence of Allman playing guitar for the entire show, this is probably the most traded Derek and the Dominos bootleg, despite the sound quality issue. Personally, I had this in my music collection for years, but I almost never listened to it, due to the sound. But I noticed last week that a person named Goody posted a new version that adjusted the speed and the pitch. So I downloaded that. Then I tried to see what I could do to improve upon it. 

I used two tricks that I often use. First, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to boost the vocals relative to the instruments. There were some places in particular where the vocals were extra quiet. For instance, I went through parts of "Got to Get Better in a Little While" line by line. Probably, Clapton had his head too far from the microphone at times. I also got rid of most vocals that weren't actually by the band members. For example, in the middle of "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," a sad blues song, a woman in the audience could be heard laughing loudly for a few seconds. I didn't get rid of all of that, but I got most of it. I made a lot of other little changes like that.

Then I used the MVSEP audio editing program to get rid of most of the crowd noise, except at the very beginnings and ends of songs. Since this is an audience boot, there was a low level of crowd noise all through the songs. Sometimes, one could even hear snippets of conversation. I got rid of most of that.

I also cut down on the dead air between songs. There was quite a bit, for instance, guitar tuning. That probably shortened the album by a couple of minutes.

However, my audio editing skills are quite limited. So I then handed the files off to my musical associate MZ. Here's what he said he did to the file: "anomalies repaired, EQ rationalised, compressed (loud parts lowered, quiet parts made louder), etc... Numerous details fixed." When I listened to the music after he sent it back to me, I noticed a difference. 

Mind you, one can only do so much with the source material. This is still an audience boot, not a soundboard or FM boot. But if you compare this with previous versions, I'm confident you'll notice that this sounds better. Let's hope the powers that be who own the rights to this material do a professional job and officially release it, since this is a truly historic concert. There's so much that can be done these days due to improving audio editing technology.

Note that I previously included two songs from this concert, "Layla" and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," on a Derek and Dominos live compilation album called "Live and Rare." I have now removed those, since they're here, and with better sound. Here's the link if you want to get the revised version:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/04/derek-dominos-live-and-rare-1970.html

Also note that in recent days I updated most of the Derek and the Dominos album covers with better versions, using the Krea AI program. They were generally pretty rough images due to the lack of many good photos of the band.

Finally, a big thanks to both Goody and MZ!

This album is an hour and 34 minutes long.

01 talk (Derek & the Dominos)
02 Layla (Derek & the Dominos)
03 Got to Get Better in a Little While (Derek & the Dominos)
04 Key to the Highway (Derek & the Dominos)
05 talk (Derek & the Dominos)
06 Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad (Derek & the Dominos)
07 Blues Power (Derek & the Dominos)
08 Have You Ever Loved a Woman (Derek & the Dominos)
09 Bottle of Red Wine (Derek & the Dominos)
10 Let It Rain - Drum Solo - Let It Rain (Derek & the Dominos)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/68ZtMkmG

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/C1iKYwbanNr5xa6/file

There are two parts to the cover art. The top part is a photograph of a genuine ticket from this historic concert. (That's Clapton on the left, Allman on the right, and bassist Carl Radle in the middle background.) I figured it contained all the important information needed, so I didn't add any text to the cover. The bottom is a photograph from this exact concert. The original was in black and white, and was quite dark. I colorized it using the Kolorize program. I also lightened it some, and used the Krea AI program to improve the quality a bit.

Journey with Albert King and Friends - PBS Soundstage, Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL, 7-9-1978

When I think of Journey, I think of a lot of good hit songs, but I also think of slick "corporate rock," and I'm not a big fan of the latter. However, I've recently discovered that Journey was way more interesting than I'd thought in their early years, especially 1978. That's because 1978 was the year they did the "Super Jam II" concert consisting almost entirely of unexpected cover versions, and it was also the year they did this "PBS Soundstage" concert. Parts of it were typical of Journey concerts from that year. But they also had Albert King as their special guest on a few songs. I certainly never would have expected a Journey and Albert King collection! So kudos to them.

And they didn't just have Albert King as their special guest. He was the main guest star, and sang a couple of songs. However, some other great blues musicians were included as well: Pinetop Perkins, Luther Allison, and Jerry Portnoy. King and the others came on stage and jammed on several songs, mainly tracks six through eight here. So double kudos to Journey for shining the spotlight on all these blues musicians, most of them who made their mark in an earlier era. For instance, Pinetop Perkins, one of the greatest blues piano players ever, was born way back in 1913, so he was a senior citizen at the time of this concert.

As an aside, this was one of the last concerts the band played with Aynsley Dunbar on drums. His leaving was part of the band's transition from progressive rock to more corporate rock.

The one disappointment I have with this recording is that the last song, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town," is sung by Albert King, but it fades out after only a minute and a half. I looked at the video of this concert on YouTube, and there wasn't any more of it because the final credits from the TV were playing during that time. By the way, King sang "Sweet Little Angel" together with Journey lead vocalist Steve Perry. It seems this was the only time Journey ever played that song in concert.

This album is unreleased. There are videos of it for sale, but I suspect they're grey market releases.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Feeling That Way (Journey)
02 Anytime (Journey)
03 Winds of March (Journey)
04 Wheel in the Sky (Journey)
05 talk (Journey)
06 Overall Junction [Instrumental] (Journey with Albert King)
07 Sweet Little Angel (Journey with Albert King)
08 B Flat Blues Shuffle [Instrumental] (Journey with Albert King)
09 On a Saturday Night (Journey)
10 She Makes Me [Feel Alright] (Journey)
11 Lights (Journey)
12 I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (Journey with Albert King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8feQK3dw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/M0T7rZxySCUAw0X/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows Albert King on the left and Journey lead guitarist Neal Schon on the right.

Rod Stewart - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Festival in a Day, Hyde Park, London, Britain, 9-13-2015

Here's the sixth BBC album I'm posting of Rod Stewart performing for the BBC. It's probably the last, unless something I missed pops up. This time, it's a concert from 2015.

I have to be honest. I planned on posting this only due to wanting to be complete in posting the main BBC concerts I'd but I was pleasantly surprised, because it wasn't what I was expecting. For some reason, Stewart decided to avoid performing all of his biggest hits from his career. There's no "Maggie May" here, no "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy," no "You're in My Heart," no "The First Cut Is the Deepest," no "Tonight's the Night," and so on. In fact, the website setlist.fm lists the number of times he's played over the entire duration of his solo career. NONE of the top twenty most performed songs in his career were performed in this concert!

Instead, he chose to play hits, but lesser hits that he generally hadn't performed in concert in many years, sometimes decades. So this is an ideal complement to some of the other BBC concerts I've posted from him, with very little overlap. I think that was a great idea. It's too bad more musical acts don't do it. But then again, not many have so many hits that they could play so many songs familiar to the audience while avoiding the best known ones.

There were some interesting choices here. For instance, "In a Broken Dream" was a song by the band Python Lee Jackson, with Stewart singing lead vocals on it. It was released in 1970, and was a Number Three hit in Britain. It still gets played on the radio. However, according to setlist.fm, Stewart only ever performed it in concert three times, and this concert was one of those times. 

Jim Cregan was a special guest on the last song. Cregan was a guitarist and songwriter in many bands. He was a member of Stewart's band for most of the 1980s and 1990s, and co-wrote about 30 songs with him, including some hits.

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long.

01 talk by James Corden (Rod Stewart)
02 Every Beat of My Heart (Rod Stewart)
03 talk (Rod Stewart)
04 The Motown Song (Rod Stewart)
05 talk (Rod Stewart)
06 What Am I Gonna Do [I'm So In Love with You] (Rod Stewart)
07 talk (Rod Stewart)
08 [I Know] I'm Losing You (Rod Stewart)
09 talk (Rod Stewart)
10 You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Rod Stewart)
11 talk (Rod Stewart)
12 Gasoline Alley (Rod Stewart)
13 talk (Rod Stewart)
14 The Killing of Georgie [Parts I & II] (Rod Stewart)
15 talk (Rod Stewart)
16 Ooh La La (Rod Stewart)
17 talk (Rod Stewart)
18 Tom Traubert's Blues [Waltzing Matilda] (Rod Stewart)
19 talk (Rod Stewart)
20 Please (Rod Stewart)
21 talk (Rod Stewart)
22 Angel (Rod Stewart)
23 talk (Rod Stewart)
24 I'm Every Woman (Rod Stewart)
25 talk (Rod Stewart)
26 Rollin' and Tumblin' (Rod Stewart)
27 In a Broken Dream (Rod Stewart)
28 talk (Rod Stewart)
29 Love Is (Rod Stewart)
30 You Can't Stop Me Now (Rod Stewart)
31 talk (Rod Stewart)
32 I Was Only Joking (Rod Stewart with Jim Cregan)

https://bestfile.io/GdcVFa5XyR0a9ZI/file

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PaoK5rpb

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 5: 1981-1989

Here's Volume 5 in my "Covered" series highlighting the songwriting of Stevie Wonder. As with the other volumes in this series, this consists of other musical acts covering his songs.

Wonder was still very commercially successful in the early 1980s, but there was a slow decline as the decade went on. However, that isn't so important for this album, because many of the covers here are of songs he wrote earlier in his career.

Some songs here were written by Wonder but never officially released by him. Those are tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, and 12. That's a lot of songs. It's too bad he didn't put more of those songs on his own albums. 

My usual rule is to only include one version of each song in this series. However, I couldn't resist with "Superstition," since it's one of the greatest songs of all time and I really like two covers of it. I included a version by Jeff Beck on an earlier volume, and a version by Stevie Ray Vaughan here.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Happy Birthday (Brotherhood of Man)
02 Betcha' Wouldn't Hurt Me (Quincy Jones)
03 Lately (Rudy Grant)
04 Buttercup (Carl Anderson)
05 Try Jah Love (Third World)
06 If You Really Love Me (Mary Wells)
07 You're Playing Us Too Close (Third World)
08 The Crown (Gary Byrd & G.B. Experience with Stevie Wonder)
09 Ribbon in the Sky (Nancy Wilson)
10 Superstition (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
11 Remembering the Sixties (George Duke)
12 Hold On to Your Love (Smokey Robinson)
13 Higher Ground (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SMBE8DsJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/tBVPCnxrzfmeh4J/file

The cover photo is from 1985. That's all I know about it.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: 1999-2005

Here's another volume of Van Morrison performing for the BBC. This time, it's a collection of BBC TV performances.

Everything here comes from different episodes of the BBC TV show "Later... with Jools Holland." That's just by chance, as these were all the BBC sessions from the time period that I could find. The first two songs are from a 1999 episode. The next five are from another 1999 episode, a special year end celebration one. The three after that are from a 2000 episode. The last song is from a 2005 episode.

On many of these songs, Morrison shared the stage with some special guests. For the 1999 year-end episode (tracks 3 through 7), Morrison sang duets with Lonnie Donegan on three songs. Donegan was the "King of Skiffle" in the 1950s. The skiffle was a form of folk music that was extremely popular in Britain for a few years. Note that on one of the songs, "Midnight Special," Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music also joined Morrison and Donegan in singing different verses. For the 2000 episode (tracks 8 through 10), Morrison was prominently backed on vocals by Linda Gail Lewis. A duet album starring Morrison and Lewis was released in 2000.

There's one song I chose not to include from the 2005 session: "They Sold Me Out." I was fine with it at first, until I clearly heard the lyrics. They sound suspiciously antisemitic to me, and I don't want to further spread them. Even if they're not, the whole conceit of the song, in which he likens himself to being persecuted just like Jesus, is both ridiculous and offensive. Here's an article if you want a hint of the controversy this song caused:

https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/05/27/van-morrisons-lyrical-antisemitism/

In fact, this is basically when I reach the limit of what I can take from Morrison's declining career. Musically, he was repeating himself, and lyrically he was turning into a grumpy old man. Things would reach an all time low with his 2021 album "Latest Record Project: Volume 1," which has to be one of the worst albums of all time by a famous musical act. (At the crowd-sourced rateyourmusic.com, it gets a 1.77 on a 1 to 5 scale as I write this in 2025, which is a shockingly low number for that site.)

The music on this album I still like. He's helped a lot by the support of Lonnie Donegan and Linda Gail Lewis. But after this, I only plan on posting one more BBC album from him (although there are others), which is a concert from 2003.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Back on Top (Van Morrison)
02 When the Leaves Come Falling Down (Van Morrison)
03 Precious Time (Van Morrison)
04 Lost John (Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan)
05 I Wanna Go Home [Sloop John B.] (Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan)
06 Philosopher's Stone (Van Morrison)
07 Midnight Special (Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Bryan Ferry)
08 Let's Talk about Us (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
09 Real Gone Lover (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
10 No Way Pedro (Van Morrison with Linda Gail Lewis)
11 Celtic New Year (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/N4o2Wu5U

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/V8c1NTHQU6Y38dE/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of one of these TV episodes.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 17: In Concert, BBC Radio Theatre, London, Britain, 5-14-2015

Here's yet another Paul Weller BBC album. This time, it's a full concert.

The previous full BBC concert I'd posted from him was from 2010, five years earlier. Since then, he's released the albums "Sonik Kicks" in 2012 and "Saturns Pattern" in 2015. Many of the songs performed here are from those, especially the more recent one.

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This appears to be the full concert. Interestingly, Weller seemed to have been given a precise amount of time to perform, down to the minute, because before he played the last song he said he would make it a short version to make sure all of it got broadcast.

This album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 talk by Jo Whiley (Paul Weller)
02 White Sky (Paul Weller)
03 Sunflower (Paul Weller)
04 talk (Paul Weller)
05 Come On-Let's Go (Paul Weller)
06 talk (Paul Weller)
07 I'm Where I Should Be (Paul Weller)
08 When Your Garden's Overgrown (Paul Weller)
09 talk (Paul Weller)
10 The Attic (Paul Weller)
11 talk (Paul Weller)
12 Saturns Pattern (Paul Weller)
13 Going My Way (Paul Weller)
14 talk (Paul Weller)
15 Long Time (Paul Weller)
16 Friday Street (Paul Weller)
17 Porcelain Gods (Paul Weller)
18 talk (Paul Weller)
19 Broken Stones (Paul Weller)
20 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller)
21 Peacock Suit (Paul Weller)
22 The Changingman (Paul Weller)
23 These City Streets (Paul Weller)
24 talk (Paul Weller)
25 From the Floorboards Up (Paul Weller)
26 talk by Jo Whiley (Paul Weller)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WyuQiEg1mYUyyYu/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Hyde Park, London, on June 26, 2015.

Aretha Franklin - PBS Soundstage, Park West, Chicago, IL, 5-13-1985

The flood of "PBS Soundstage" shows continues with a 1985 concert by Aretha Franklin.

In 1985, Franklin was at the peak of a commercial revival, after having some tough years in the late 1970s especially. Her 1985 album "Who's Zoomin' Who?" sold over a million in the U.S. and was the best selling album of her career. This concert took place about two months before the release of that album. So some hit songs from that album weren't played, like "Who's Zoomin' Who?" and "Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves." However, the biggest hit from it, "Freeway of Love," was released in advance from the album, and that was performed here. It would reach Number Three on the U.S. singles chart. "Sweet Bitter Love" also appeared on that album.

This concert is officially unreleased. The sound quality is very good.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Aretha Franklin)
02 Love Is the Key (Aretha Franklin)
03 Love All the Hurt Away (Aretha Franklin)
04 Day Dreaming (Aretha Franklin)
05 I Say a Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin)
06 See Saw (Aretha Franklin)
07 Rock Steady (Aretha Franklin)
08 Something He Can Feel (Aretha Franklin)
09 Think (Aretha Franklin)
10 Ain't No Way (Aretha Franklin)
11 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
12 Sweet Bitter Love (Aretha Franklin)
13 It's My Turn (Aretha Franklin)
14 Freeway of Love (Aretha Franklin)
15 Didn't It Rain (Aretha Franklin)
16 Jump to It (Aretha Franklin)
17 Respect [Reprise] (Aretha Franklin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P59kFyCT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5zn13pdx5RTwTla/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. The video I took it from was rather low-res, so I ran it through Krea AI twice to get it looking better. Also, using Photoshop, I erased some distracting things in the background.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: Celtic Connections Festival, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Britain, 1-24-2014

Here's the fourth, and so far last, BBC album I have of Mary Chapin Carpenter. It's a concert one, but it's rather unusual in that she is backed by a full orchestra (specifically, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra).

In January 2014, a couple of weeks before this album, Carpenter released the studio album "Songs from the Movie." Instead of being new material, it consisted of older songs, but redone with orchestral backing. In this way, it was similar to a couple of Joni Mitchell albums from around 2000 in which she redid some of her songs with an orchestra. This is basically the live version of that album. Nearly all the songs here come from that album. This definitely has a mellow feel, since rocking songs usually don't fit well with orchestral backings.

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 On and On It Goes (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 I Am a Town (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 Between Here and Gone (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 The Dreaming Road (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 Mrs. Hemingway (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 Only a Dream (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 Where Time Stands Still (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 Come On Come On (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Goodnight America (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iiCMnFCc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9rNK4fU0VSkNclN/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image some.