https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/04/various-artists-joni-mitchell-gershwin.html
The reason I mention that off the bat is because it turns out that was a "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" tribute concert, and I've found a few more of them. Here's one from 2015, honoring Willie Nelson. (By the way, I just redid the cover art of the Joni Mitchell one, so all of the ones I post will have the same font and so forth.)
This award is actually bestowed by a branch of the U.S. government, the Library of Congress. It was first awarded in 2007. It's been an annual thing since then, although four years were skipped. (One skip was due to the Covid pandemic, in 2021. I don't know why there weren't awards ceremonies in 2007, 2012, and 2017.)
Here's the Wikipedia page about the prize:
Just in the past few days, I've managed to find several more of these concerts, and I plan to post all of them here soon.
These are the ones I've found so far:
2007 Paul Simon
2010 Paul McCartney
2012 Burt Bacharach & Hal David
2014 Billy Joel
2015 Willie Nelson (here)
2023 Joni Mitchell (posted already)
2024 Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Meanwhile, here are the ones I can't find:
2009 Stevie Wonder
2013 Carole King
2016 Smokey Robinson
2017 Tony Bennett
2019 Gloria & Emilio Estefan
2020 Garth Brooks
2022 Lionel Richie
I'm calling on one of you out there to please help me find the rest. It seems videos of these other ones are available, via the PBS website. For instance, here's the Lionel Richie one:
Gershwin Prize | Lionel Richie: Gershwin Prize | Season 2022 | Episode 1 | PBS
However, to be able to watch them, one needs to pay for the KPBS Passport. So if anyone has that, and can record the audio and/or video of it and share that with me, then I'll be able to post the other ones as well. It would be a share if those remain out of reach, especially the Stevie Wonder, Carole King, and Smokey Robinson ones.
Speaking of remaining out of reach, this Willie Nelson was very hard to find. For instance, it's not on YouTube, and everything like this is on YouTube. But I was able to find a single mp3 file of the entire concert. Then I broke it up into mp3s for each song.
One interesting thing about this concert, compared to the other Gershwin Prize concerts I've found so far, is that there weren't that many guest stars, but many of the guest stars got to perform two songs instead of one. For instance, that was the case with Neil Young, Paul Simon, and Alison Kraus. And in the cases of Neil Young and Paul Simon, I thought I'd seen just about every unique songs they've performed, but I've never seen any recordings or mentions of these.
However, the big star of the show, naturally, was Willie Nelson himself. He performed four songs at the end, including a duet with Cyndi Lauper.
By the way, if you look at the song list, you may wonder who "David Mao" is. He was the Librarian of Congress at the time. I've noticed that in all these concerts, the person in that position gets to give the introductory speech to the inductee. That must be an interesting perk for that government job.
Everything here is officially unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent.
This album is an hour and ten minutes long.
alternate:
01 talk (emcee)
02 Stay All Night (Neil Young & Promise of the Real)
03 talk (Don Johnson)
04 Funny How Time Slips Away (Leon Bridges)
05 talk (Don Johnson)
06 Crazy (Raul Malo)
07 talk (emcee)
08 talk (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
09 Remember Me (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
10 talk (Don Johnson)
11 Pancho and Lefty (Rosanne Cash)
12 talk (Don Johnson)
13 Georgia on My Mind (Jamie Johnson)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Michael Feinstein)
16 talk (emcee)
17 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (Alison Krauss)
18 talk (Jamie Johnson)
19 Seven Spanish Angels (Alison Krauss & Jamie Johnson)
20 talk (Don Johnson)
21 I Never Cared for You (Anna Gabriel)
22 Whiskey River (Neil Young & Promise of the Real)
23 Man with the Blues (Paul Simon with Buckwheat Zydeco)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (David Mao)
26 talk (Willie Nelson)
27 Night Life (Willie Nelson)
28 talk (Willie Nelson)
29 Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (Willie Nelson & Cyndi Lauper)
30 talk (Willie Nelson)
31 Living in the Promised Land (Willie Nelson)
32 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/L2TUsCTY
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/fHU7DyaiBYIQjdb/file
The cover photo is from the point in the concert when Willie Nelson and Cyndi Lauper sang the song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" together.
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