Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-2-1971, Part 3: The Grateful Dead

Here's the third (and final) set from the third day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the Grateful Dead.

I had created all these albums in this series a year or two, but never got around to posting them on my blog. The recent death of Bob Weir (I'm writing this in January 2026) gave me the motivation to post them sooner rather than later, mostly so I could get to posting this set. Finally, here it is. But there's a lot more to come, with two more days of the series of concerts still to be posted.

This is a fitting tribute to the passing of Weir, I think because it's a good show of the band in their prime. In my opinion, they had many great years, but their absolute peak was probably 1970 or 1971.

This is a typical Grateful Dead concert for the era. It's long, at nearly three hours. (As is usual for Dead concerts, there was a lot of dead air between songs, but I generally cut that out.) And it consisted of two sets. The first one consisted mostly of shorter songs, often acoustic, while the second set is where the band got spacey and jammed a lot more. 

Some of this has been officially released. Two songs were released on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album: "Casey Jones" and "Johnny B. Goode." Then, in 2021, many more were released when the "Skull and Roses" live album from 1971 was rereleased in an expanded edition. There were ten songs from this concert on the extra disc (tracks 15, 17 through 22, 25, and 26). However, all those together make up about an hour and fifteen minutes. So that still is less than half of what's here.  

This album is two hours and 41 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bill Graham (Grateful Dead)
02 Bertha (Grateful Dead)
03 Me and Bobby McGee (Grateful Dead)
04 Next Time You See Me (Grateful Dead)
05 China Cat Sunflower (Grateful Dead)
06 I Know You Rider (Grateful Dead)
07 Playing in the Band (Grateful Dead)
08 Loser (Grateful Dead)
09 Ain't It Crazy [The Rub] (Grateful Dead)
10 Me and My Uncle (Grateful Dead)
11 Big Railroad Blues (Grateful Dead)
12 Hard to Handle (Grateful Dead)
13 Deal (Grateful Dead)
14 Promised Land (Grateful Dead)
15 Good Lovin' (Grateful Dead)
16 Sugar Magnolia (Grateful Dead)
17 Sing Me Back Home (Grateful Dead)
18 Mama Tried (Grateful Dead)
19 That's It for the Other One (Grateful Dead)
20 Drums [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
21 That's It for the Other One [Reprise] (Grateful Dead)
22 Big Boss Man (Grateful Dead)
23 Casey Jones (Grateful Dead)
24 Not Fade Away (Grateful Dead)
25 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Grateful Dead)
26 Not Fade Away [Reprise] (Grateful Dead)
27 talk (Grateful Dead)
28 Johnny B. Goode (Grateful Dead)

https://bestfile.io/en/uJ3AYFRLyXngCGF/file

The cover photo of Jerry Garcia is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. It's from the "Fillmore" movie. Given Bob Weir's recent death, I wanted to use a photo that had Weir in it. But the only one like that I could find would have been very tricky to colorize. Plus, I'm not completely sure if it's from this exact concert or not. But here it is anyway. If nothing else, it's good way to help imagine the ambience of the concert, since it shows the audience too.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-2-1971, Part 2: The New Riders of the Purple Sage with Jerry Garcia

Here's the second set from the third day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the New Riders of the Purple Sage with Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead.

This is like deja vu all over again, because the previous set I just posted, of the Rowan Brothers, also featured Garcia playing on all the songs. And, just like that set, in this set, he played pedal steel guitar instead of his usual electric guitar. It's played quite differently, as you can see from the cover photo, and one has control over foot and knee pedals to help adjust the pitch of the notes. Around this time Garcia was enjoying learning how to play it well. For instance, that's Garcia playing pedal steel on the classic song "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

The Wikipedia introduction to this band is pretty short, and not that helpful, but here's what it says anyway:

"New Riders of the Purple Sage was an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969 and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. The band is sometimes referred to as the New Riders or as NRPS." 

The rest of the article is quite long and informative, so here's the link for that:

New Riders of the Purple Sage - Wikipedia

I want to add a bit more to explain more about Garcia playing with this band in this concert. The New Riders of the Purple Sage were mainly led by musicians John Dawson and David Nelson. Both of them had musical ties to Garcia even before the band was formed in 1969. When it was formed, Garcia was essentially a full member. It was an outlet for Garcia to express his enjoyment of bluegrass and country music, and practice pedal steel guitar. In 1970 and 1971 especially, this band frequently was the opening act for Grateful Dead concerts, with Garcia and other Grateful Dead members sitting in on their set, and Dawson and Nelson would often perform on songs in the acoustic portion of the Dead's set.

By the time of this concert, the band members had written a bunch of original songs. However, they still hadn't released any music. Their first album would be released in August 1971, just a month later. Garcia's pedal steel playing was all over the album. However, by the end of 1971, Garcia essentially cut ties with the group, so they could stand on their own instead of being seen as a Grateful Dead side group. 

Note that three songs from this concert, "Down in the Boondocks," "Superman," and "The Weight," were eventually released as bonus tracks on the band's 1971 debut album. The song "Henry" was also included on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. The rest of the songs here remain unreleased. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 Workin' Man Blues (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
02 Superman (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
03 I Don't Know You (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
04 Down in the Boondocks (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
05 Dirty Business (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
06 Glendale Train (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
07 Portland Women (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
08 talk (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
09 Henry (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
10 Sailin' (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
11 Last Lonely Eagle (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
12 Louisiana Lady (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
13 talk (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
14 Honky Tonk Women (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
15 talk (New Riders of the Purple Sage)
16 The Weight (New Riders of the Purple Sage)

https://bestfile.io/en/Ccby7L4aRfW28IG/file

I couldn't find any good photos of the New Riders of the Purple Sage from this exact concert, or even other concerts from around this time. But I did find a nice one of Jerry Garcia playing pedal steel guitar. And while it also isn't from this exact concert, it is from the Fillmore West, except the year before. (Specifically, a concert on June 5, 1970.) I thought it was a worthy picture to use, because it illustrates how playing pedal steel is very different from playing a typical guitar. 

Oh, also, the original picture was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-2-1971, Part 1: The Rowan Brothers with Jerry Garcia

Here's the first set from the third day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the Rowan Brothers with Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead.

First off, note that this third day of these closing concerts was basically "Jerry Garcia Day." That's because there were three musical acts, and Garcia performed with all three of them. For once in this series, I know the order of the performances, and the Rowan Brothers were first.

The main reason Garcia sat in for this show was because it was a chance for him to play pedal steel guitar in public, instead of his usual electric guitar, and he was really enjoying doing that around this time. David Grisman also played mandolin through this set. He would often collaborate with Garica, as well as Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, in later years. Furthermore, Bill Kreutzmann, one of the two drummers for the Grateful Dead, was the drummer for this set.

Here's some excerpts of what their Wikipedia entry has to say about them: 

"The Rowans, also known as The Rowan Brothers, are an American country-rock group, originally formed by the brothers Chris Rowan and Lorin Rowan. They were joined by another brother, Peter Rowan, for their second, third and fourth album. Chris and Lorin were raised close to Boston, but in the beginning of 1970, they moved to the West Coast to pursue their music. In 1971, they opened for Grateful Dead as their first gig in San Francisco. Their first album, The Rowan Brothers, was issued on Columbia Records. It was very well critically acclaimed, [but didn't sell well]. The album included such guests as Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann of Grateful Dead and was co-produced by David Grisman. The group had problems after the first record because their benefactor, Clive Davis, lost his job at Columbia. They were signed to Asylum Records as the Rowans and issued their next album in 1975, this time joined by their more famous brother, Peter Rowan, who brought in such hits as 'Midnight Moonlight' and 'Thunder on the Mountain.' After releasing three albums as a trio, Peter left the group to pursue bluegrass music."

Here's the link to the entry:

The Rowans - Wikipedia 

This album is 30 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bill Graham (Rowan Brothers)
02 Hickory Day (Rowan Brothers)
03 Heavens to Betsy (Rowan Brothers)
04 talk (Rowan Brothers)
05 Outside Clover (Rowan Brothers)
06 talk (Rowan Brothers)
07 Don't You Worry about a Thing (Rowan Brothers)
08 Better Off Dead (Rowan Brothers)
09 Peace and Happiness (Rowan Brothers)
10 Mama Don't You Cry (Rowan Brothers)
11 Livin' the Life on the Farm (Rowan Brothers)
12 talk (Rowan Brothers)
13 Move On Down (Rowan Brothers)

https://bestfile.io/en/zyQxlTa8C3t0fOd/file

I couldn't find any good photos of the Rowan Brothers from this concert, or any other concert of this era, for that matter. I did find a photo of the two of them posing with guitars out on a hilltop with a forest behind them, in black and white. I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. I also got rid of the forest background, and replaced it with darkness. 

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-1-1971, Part 4: It's a Beautiful Day

Here's the fourth (and last) set from the second day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band It's a Beautiful Day. 

I'm guessing this was the last set on the night, mostly based on the fact that it was the longest set. But that's just a guess. If anyone knows these things, please let me know.

Here selections from the Wikipedia entry on the band:

"It's a Beautiful Day is an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967, featuring violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, Linda LaFlamme, on keyboards, and vocalist Pattie Santos. ... Although they were one of the notable San Francisco bands to emerge from 1967's Summer of Love, the group never achieved the level of success that contemporaries such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana did, with whom they had connections. The band created a unique blend of rock, jazz, folk, country, classical, and world-beat styles."

Here's the link to the full entry:

It's a Beautiful Day - Wikipedia

I would add that if you're interested in classic rock, I suggest getting the band's debut album, the self-titled "It's a Beautiful Day," released in 1969. It's solid all the way through, and contains their hit "White Bird." Their follow up album, "Marrying Maiden," from 1970, is very good as well. Note also that Linda LaFlamme had left the band by this time.

Everything here is unreleased except for "White Bird." That came out on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album.

So far, I didn't have to make many edits to the albums I've posted in this series. But this album had some issues. A few of the songs were cut off, either at the beginnings or the ends. For those songs, I found other live versions from the time period with similar sound quality and patched in the missing parts. That's why three songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. And if I recall, the vocals were low across the board, so I had to boost them in the mix using the MVSEP audio editing program. Actually, now that I think about it, I did that for some of the sets I've posted already, but I forget which ones. 

This album is an hour and 50 minutes long. 

01 Creed of Love (It's a Beautiful Day)
02 talk (It's a Beautiful Day)
03 Hot Summer Day (It's a Beautiful Day)
04 Bye Bye Baby [Instrumental] [Edit] (It's a Beautiful Day)
05 Bitter Wine [Edit] (It's a Beautiful Day)
06 White Bird (It's a Beautiful Day)
07 Hoedown [Instrumental] (It's a Beautiful Day)
08 20-20 Vision (It's a Beautiful Day)
09 Good Lovin' (It's a Beautiful Day)
10 Let a Woman Flow (It's a Beautiful Day)
11 Don and Dewey [Instrumental] (It's a Beautiful Day)
12 talk (It's a Beautiful Day)
13 Any Time (It's a Beautiful Day)
14 talk (It's a Beautiful Day)
15 Place of Dreams (It's a Beautiful Day)
16 Bombay Calling [Instrumental] [Edit] (It's a Beautiful Day)
17 Wasted Union Blues (It's a Beautiful Day)
18 Time Is (It's a Beautiful Day)

https://bestfile.io/en/tqfaYZHT2oqLBbf/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from the "Fillmore" movie. It shows the band's main lead singer Pantie Santos in the foreground and the band's other lead singer and main songwriter David LaFlamme behind her.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-1-1971, Part 3: The Elvin Bishop Group

Here's the third set from the second day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the Elvin Bishop Group.

These days, Elvin Bishop is considered a one-hit wonder, because his song "Fooled Around and Feel in Love" went all the way to Number Three in the U.S. singles chart in 1976. But he had a much longer and more distinguished music career than the one-hit wonder label would suggest. He was the lead guitarist for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band from 1963 to 1968, though his lead guitar took a backseat to the playing of Mike Bloomfield for the two years Bloomfield was part of that band. 

After the Paul Butterfield Blues Band broke up, Bishop formed the Elvin Bishop Group. His first album in 1969 wasn't well received, because his lead vocals were considered weak. So he recruited soul singer Jo Baker to sing lead on most songs. She was the main lead singer from about 1970 to 1974, and can be heard singing most songs here. (By the time "Fooled Around and Feel in Love" was released in 1975, she was replaced by Mickey Thomas.) 

Here's the Wikipedia entry for Elvin Bishop:

Elvin Bishop - Wikipedia

And here's the entry for Jo Baker:

Jo Baker (singer) - Wikipedia  

Like most of the music in this series, most everything here is unreleased. However, two songs from this set were released on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album: "So Fine" and "Party 'Til the Cows Come Home." The sound quality is excellent, due to it being broadcast on local radio stations at the time. 

This album is an hour and 25 minutes long. 

01 talk (Elvin Bishop)
02 Stomp (Elvin Bishop)
03 talk (Elvin Bishop)
04 So Fine (Elvin Bishop)
05 talk (Elvin Bishop)
06 Get It (Elvin Bishop)
07 talk (Elvin Bishop)
08 Old Time Feeling (Elvin Bishop)
09 talk (Elvin Bishop)
10 Easy to Find (Elvin Bishop)
11 talk (Elvin Bishop)
12 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher (Elvin Bishop)
13 The Sky Is Crying (Elvin Bishop)
14 Crazy 'bout You Baby (Elvin Bishop)
15 talk (Elvin Bishop)
16 Party 'Til the Cows Come Home (Elvin Bishop)
17 talk (Elvin Bishop)
18 Party 'Til the Cows Come Home [Reprise] (Elvin Bishop)
19 talk (Elvin Bishop)
20 I'm Goin' Fishin' (Elvin Bishop)
21 talk (Elvin Bishop)
22 Let It Flow (Elvin Bishop)

https://bestfile.io/en/GFFZCQy4gVl0i6I/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from the "Fillmore" movie of this exact concert. It shows the band's usual lead singer, Jo Baker, instead of lead guitarist Elvin Bishop.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-1-1971, Part 2: Grootna

Here's the second set from the second day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Grootna.

The previous set I posted in this series was the obscure band Lamb. But this band is even more obscure, as shown by the fact that they don't even have a Wikipedia page (as I write this in January 2026). So I had to do some digging to come up with some information about them. They were only in existence for a short time, releasing a single album in 1971. It was produced by Marty Balin, a former member of Jefferson Airplane. He liked them so much that he poached two band members, including them in his next musical project, Bodacious DF. That seems to have ended Grootna.

The band was most noted for the lead vocals of Anna Rizzo. Here's a quick summary of the musical style I found in a rateyourmusic.com review: "Fairly tight, semi-commercial rock with some mild rural/ West Coast-y moves, and soul-ish female vocals, as well as good guitar and some honky tonk piano."

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 That's What You Get (Grootna)
02 Road Fever (Grootna)
03 talk (Grootna)
04 I'm Funky (Grootna)
05 talk (Grootna)
06 Crazy 'bout You Baby (Grootna)
07 talk (Grootna)
08 Full Time Woman (Grootna)
09 talk (Grootna)
10 You're Drivin' Me Crazy (Grootna)
11 I Can't Get No Nookie (Grootna)
12 Tend to Your Business (Grootna)
13 Live a Life of Joy (Grootna) 

https://bestfile.io/en/BJYwp8DjF52F8Zj/file

Somehow or another, I forget how, I found a low-res, black and white image of Grootna lead singer Anna Rizzo in concert. I colorized the image with the help of the Kolorize program, and I added detail with the help of the Krea AI program.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-1-1971, Part 1: Lamb

Here's the first set from the second day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Lamb. 

Also, by the way, note that I'm not sure at all about the order of the appearances on this day, and I'm just guessing based on the popularity of the different acts.

If you haven't heard of Lamb, don't feel bad, because they never got very well known. But one nice thing about posting these concerts from the closing of the Fillmore West is shedding light on lesser known bands that otherwise never got bootlegged. Keep in mind that all of these bands in this series were selected by famous promoter Bill Graham, so there's some quality control there.

 Here's some excerpts from their Wikipedia entry:

"Lamb was a San Francisco-based rock group. They tend to be remembered only for their appearance on the Fillmore: The Last Days concert album. They issued three albums: A Sign of Change (1970), Cross Between (1971) and Bring Out The Sun (1971). ... Their music blended jazz, folk music, singer-songwriter pop, gospel, and even some classical and avant-garde influences. Reminiscent in spots of such varied artists as Tim Buckley, Judy Collins (in her art-song phase), David Ackles, and Savage Rose (in that band's most gospel-soaked period), their records were ultimately idiosyncratic enough to defy ready comparison to anyone."

All the songs here are unreleased, and come from the same source, a live radio broadcast, except for the last one. That one, "Hello Friends," appeared on the official live album "Fillmore - The Last Days," which documents this series of concerts. I figure that got left out of the broadcast for some reason or another, but is still from the same show. I added it to the end. 

And here's the link to the whole entry:

Lamb (rock band) - Wikipedia 

This album is 36 minutes long.  

01 Joshua (Lamb)
02 Visions of Blackbirds (Lamb)
03 River Boulevard (Lamb)
04 talk (Lamb)
05 Together (Lamb)
06 talk (Lamb)
07 Paper Airplanes (Lamb)
08 I Need a Man to Be Good To (Lamb)
09 Real Believers (Lamb)
10 Old Fashioned Remedy (Lamb)
11 Hello Friends (Lamb)  

https://bestfile.io/2qHK3jl0e9csy0P/file

The cover photo of lead singer Barbara Mauritz is a screenshot I took from the "Fillmore" movie. 

Problem Again

This is just a quick note that I've been banned from using Pixeldrain again, due to another copyright issue. This time, it was the acoustic version of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" album. The BestFile link still works for that one though. Previously, when I've been banned from Pixeldrain, it's only lasted a week. Let's hope that's the case this time too. Assuming it is, I'll backfill the links once it's working again. But in the meantime, it'll just be BestFile links. 

Oh, also, Pixeldrain has announced that the amount of time they allow until a link goes dead due to inactivity will be cut in half, from 120 days to 60 days. So far, I've almost never had any Pixeldrain links go dead, but I guess that will be changing.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6-30-1971, Part 5: Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, and More

Here's the fifth set from the first day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set is different. Instead of featuring one musical act, it was a bonus jam session after all the acts scheduled to perform had finished their sets. 

I luckily found this set on YouTube, then converted it to audio format and broke it into mp3s. The text for that contained some informative text taken from Wolfgang's Vault, so I'll repeat that here: 

"As many may already know, on the final night (July 4th) of the closing week festivities at Fillmore West a lengthy jam session occurred, featuring many great musicians and singers. What few remember is that a similar event occurred earlier in the week (on the first night, June 30th). It was this jam session, in fact, that provided the two tracks that made it onto the 'Fillmore: The Last Days' live release. The core band includes Elvin Bishop on lead guitar, Stephen Miller (from Elvin's band) on organ, David Brown (from Boz Scaggs' band) on bass and Michael Shrieve (from Santana) on drums. This was one of the few sets not broadcast locally, and until these pre-production reels were recently discovered in the Bill Graham Archive, nobody was aware that most of this jam session existed on tape. This part of the session features Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers on lead vocals. On 'Have You Ever Been Mistreated,' Chambers sings in an unfamiliar falsetto and on 'You Better Believe,' sings in his distinctive voice, with the Pointer Sisters punching out their gospel-fueled vocals between each line of the verses. A truly captivating performance." 

I have some more information to add. This set also included some lead vocals by Linda Tillery, who was the lead singer for the band the Loading Zone. And Jo Baker was involved as well. She sang lead on some songs in the Elvin Bishop Group at the time. The Pointer Sisters sang lead vocals on one song. Their involvement here is especially interesting because they were just starting out. They signed a record contract at some point in 1971, and released a single later that year, as well as another one in 1972. But their debut album wouldn't come out until 1973.

The credits in the song list are only for the main lead vocalists. Many others were involved, but it's pretty much for me to tell who was playing on each song. But, for instance, the Pointer Sisters were an opening act for the Elvin Bishop Group in 1971, and doing a lot of backing vocals in studio sessions. So they sang some backing vocals here as well. 

This album is an hour and two minutes long. 

01 We Gonna Rock (Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop & Boz Scaggs)
02 Long and Tall (Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop & Boz Scaggs)
03 You Got Me Hummin' (Pointer Sisters)
04 I Found a Love (Linda Tillery)
05 Why I Sing the Blues (Linda Tillery)
06 Have You Ever Been Mistreated (Lester Chambers)
07 You Better Believe (Lester Chambers)
08 talk (Elvin Bishop)
09 Blues Jam (Elvin Bishop & Everyone)
10 talk (Elvin Bishop)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2x78nZby

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/kq2pNq5x6Li4Q5X/file

I thought it would be tough to find a good cover photo for this album, since there wasn't one main musical act this time. So I was tickled pink to discover a photo of Boz Scaggs, Taj Mahal, and Elvin Bishop from this exact concert. It must be from the first two songs. That's Scaggs, Mahal, and Bishop from right to left. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6-30-1971, Part 4: Stoneground

Here's the fourth set from the first day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Stoneground.

Here's what their Wikipedia entry has to say about them:

"Stoneground was an American rock band formed in 1970 in Concord, California. Originally a trio, Stoneground expanded to a 10-piece band by the time of their self-titled 1971 debut album. The group appeared in two films and released three albums before singer Sal Valentino quit in 1973. Three other band members — Cory Lerios, Steve Price and David Jenkins — left to form the pop group Pablo Cruise. Stoneground continued as an act through 1982, with only Tim Barnes and Annie Sampson remaining from the early incarnation of the band. Barnes and Price led a re-formed Stoneground in 2003 and released a studio album the following year."

Here's the link if you want to read the full Wikipedia entry:

Stoneground - Wikipedia

I just want to add that most of the songs here are originals, but they did some interesting covers. For instance, they started with two Bob Dylan songs, and also covered two Johnny Cash songs ("Get Rhythm" and "Big River"). But what really impressed me was a cover of "Total Destruction to Your Mind," a great but obscure song by the soul music singer Swamp Dogg. 

One song, "Passion Flower," appeared on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. Everything else here is unreleased.

This album is exactly one hour long. 

01 It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Stoneground)
02 If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Stoneground)
03 See Ya Later (Stoneground)
04 I'm Always Looking for You (Stoneground)
05 You Wanna See Me (Stoneground)
06 Me and the Devil (Stoneground)
07 talk (Stoneground)
08 Passion Flower (Stoneground)
09 talk (Stoneground)
10 Get Rhythm (Stoneground)
11 talk (Stoneground)
12 Richland Women (Stoneground)
13 Chicken Fried (Stoneground)
14 I Wish (Stoneground)
15 talk (Stoneground)
16 Total Destruction to Your Mind (Stoneground)
17 Big River (Stoneground)
18 talk by Bill Graham (Stoneground) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BaZyfvUw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NhBHzbizXa0OyXC/file

Stoneground is not that famous of a band, so I had a hard time finding any good color photos of them in concert. However, it turns out they appeared on the German TV show "Beat Club" in 1971. I took screenshots of each of the two lead singers, then Photoshopped them so both could fit on the cover.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6-30-1971, Part 3: Flamin' Groovies

Here's the third set from the first day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Flamin' Groovies.

In my write-up for the second set, I said I'm going to keep my write-ups short, and mostly rely on Wikipedia information. But this one is different, because it's the only set from these closing of the Fillmore West concerts I previously posted on this blog. So I'm deleting that post and making this new one, but largely keeping the old write-up. This version also has a new cover photo, taken from this exact venue (though on a different date).

In case you're not familiar, (the) Flamin' Groovies were an American rock band that always seemed to have a retro sound, even though they were formed in 1965. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they had a kind of proto-punk sound reminiscent of the Rolling Stones when they were in their mid-1960s bluesy mode. Then, in 1971, Roy Loney, one of the band's lead vocalists, left the band. He was replaced by Chris Wilson, who led the band in more of a Beatles / power pop direction. Their other lead singer, Cyril Jordan, stayed with both versions of the band. They never had much commercial success, but they're kind of a hidden treasure if you're into rootsy rock and roll.

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

Flamin' Groovies - Wikipedia

There have been a bunch of official live albums by the band, but they're generally either from way past the band's prime or the sound quality is middling at best. One key exception is this concert. It has been officially released at different times under different names: "Slow Death, Live!," "Bucket of Brains," and "The Flamin' Groovies in Person." I'm posting it here because I was able to significantly improve the sound quality by the simple trick of boosting the lead vocals relative to the instruments (using the UVR5 audio editing program).

This seems to be the only soundboard quality live recording of the original line-up of the band. Roy Loney left the band in 1971, but that happened shortly after this concert. It seems the band wasn't high profile and/or wealthy enough to professionally record their concerts. This is a lucky exception, because this comes from a series of concerts marking the closing of the Fillmore West concert venue in San Francisco, that included lots of famous acts like the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The performances were professionally recorded and broadcast on San Francisco radio stations, including this set by Flamin' Groovies. 

Flamin' Groovies played cover versions more often than not. But they could write very good originals as well. For instance, in my opinion, two of the songs here, "Slow Death" and "Teenage Head," are classic originals that should be much better known. "Road House" and "Doctor Boogie" are also originals, but the rest are covers.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 I Can't Explain (Flamin' Groovies)
02 Sweet Little Rock and Roller (Flamin' Groovies)
03 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
04 Have You Seen My Baby (Flamin' Groovies)
05 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
06 Road House (Flamin' Groovies)
07 Doctor Boogie (Flamin' Groovies)
08 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
09 Slow Death (Flamin' Groovies)
10 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
11 Shakin' All Over (Flamin' Groovies)
12 talk (Flamin' Groovies)
13 Teenage Head (Flamin' Groovies)
14 Louie, Louie (Flamin' Groovies)
15 Walking the Dog (Flamin' Groovies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RW7qv8tm

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MpOvtLq3gFsznTF/file

The cover photo comes from a concert at the Fillmore West, but from a different date. Specifically, it's from a concert on May 15, 1970. The version I found was in black and white. But I used the program Kolorize to colorize it.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6-30-1971, Part 2: Cold Blood

Here's the second set from the first day of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Cold Blood.

Generally speaking, I haven't posted as much music as I have ready for posting due to the hassles of making the cover art and/or writing the write-ups. For instance, I've had these Fillmore West albums ready to go for a year or two, but never got around to actually posting them until now. The cover art needs to happen regardless, but to help things along, I'm going to try to keep the write-ups to a minimum. Instead, I'll lean heavily on information from Wikipedia.

Here's how Wikipedia introduces this band: "Cold Blood is a long-standing R&B horn funk band founded by Larry Field in 1968, and was originally based in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The band has also performed and recorded under the name Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, due to the popularity of their lead singer, Lydia Pense." 

Here's the rest of their Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more: 

Cold Blood (band) - Wikipedia 

One song, "I Just Want to Make Love to You," appeared on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. Everything else here is unreleased. However, all the sets from the five final days of concert at the Fillmore West were broadcast on local radio stations. (Specifically, KSAN, KSFX, and KMET.) As a result, they all have been bootlegged, with excellent sound quality.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

01 You Got Me Hummin' (Cold Blood)
02 talk (Cold Blood)
03 Too Many People (Cold Blood)
04 talk (Cold Blood)
05 Lo and Behold (Cold Blood)
06 talk (Cold Blood)
07 Let Me Down Easy (Cold Blood)
08 talk (Cold Blood)
09 Monkey on My Back (Cold Blood)
10 talk (Cold Blood)
11 Real Good Thing (Cold Blood with the Stanton Brothers)
12 Watch Your Step (Cold Blood)
13 talk (Cold Blood)
14 Shop Talk [Instrumental] (Cold Blood)
15 I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Cold Blood)
16 Understanding (Cold Blood)
17 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Cold Blood)
18 I'm a Good Woman (Cold Blood)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ei9CNDgV 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ZOM9affn3Lizpgs/file

The cover image shows Lydia Pense, the lead singer of Cold Blood. I believe it comes from this exact concert, but I could be wrong. (It's been a long time since I made the cover art for all the albums in this series.)

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6-30-1971, Part 1: Boz Scaggs

A few days ago as I write this, Bob Weir died. Specifically, he died on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78. He was one of the two main singer-songwriters for the Grateful Dead. I want to post something in tribute to his musical legacy. I was thinking about what I might have ready to post that was all ready to go, and I remembered there's a good Grateful Dead concert that was part of the final run of concerts at the Fillmore West, in San Francisco, in 1971. I've had all the concerts from that run all ready to go for a long time now; I just never got around to posting them. (This is a common problem for me!) But I decided with Weir's passing, I'm not only going to post that Grateful Dead show, I'm going to post all of the shows that made up the closing of the Fillmore West, since I'd been meaning to do that anyway. And there are a lot of them: I have 20 albums to post in all. Here's the first one, a set by Boz Scaggs.

Before I talk about Scaggs and this specific concert, I want to talk about the closing of the Fillmore West (in San Francisco) in general, which also took just a week after the closing of the Fillmore East (in New York City). The closing of the Fillmore East was just a one-day event. I've already posted seven albums that made up the different sets from that long concert. But the closing of the Fillmore West was a series of concerts over five nights in a row, with multiple star performers each night.

For the first album I posted from the closing of the Fillmore East, I wrote some general comments about that that also apply to the closing of the Fillmore West. So I'm copying and paste the text from that to here, to save me some time and effort. I'm only making a few minor tweaks: 

The Fillmore West is closely tied to its owner, promoter Bill Graham, who was arguably the most important promoter in rock history. He was particularly instrumental in the development of the San Francisco psychedelic sound in the late 1960s. Bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane didn't have many good places to play at first. But Graham opened the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in late 1965, and that became a haven for many new and upcoming bands. At first, this venue was just known as "the Fillmore" (named after the street it was on), but its name changed to "the Fillmore West" in 1968 when Graham moved it to a larger building about a mile away, around the same time he opened a similar venue in New York City, which he called "the Fillmore East."

Both the Fillmore West and Fillmore East were among the most important and prestigious concert venues in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They each held between 2,500 and 3,000 people, which was big enough for most of the famous rock acts of the time, but not so big to become a stadium-type show, with inevitably poorer sound quality and less of a connection between the musicians and the fans. Many great live albums were recorded at both venues. Here's the Wikipedia entry for the Fillmore West, if you want to know more:

Fillmore West - Wikipedia

Unfortunately, these two venues didn't last that long. In 1971, Graham decided to close both of them. Part of it seems to be that Graham seemed to be personally burned out after hosting concerts on both the East and West coasts nearly every night for three years. But also, the economics were changing. As rock music got increasingly popular and mainstream, the acts that had found success playing at both Fillmores were increasing graduating to playing in arenas and stadiums that could hold 10,000 or more spectators. Graham couldn't pay the acts nearly the same amount when his venues were much smaller. He could have continued with lesser known acts, but he decided to (temporarily) quit the business instead.

As it so happens, Graham didn't stay retired for long. Within a year, he was back to promoting rock concerts, although he wasn't as closely tied to particular venues as he'd been with the Fillmores. He arguably remained the most important concert promoter in rock music until he died in a helicopter crash in 1991. The original Fillmore in San Francisco reopened in 1994, and remains a popular venue until today.

Anyway, the closing of the Fillmore West on July 4, 1971, is well documented. There were five nights of closing concerts. This resulted in a documentary film called "Fillmore" and a triple album called "Fillmore: The Last Days," released in 1972. Better still for my purposes, all five nights were broadcast live on a local radio station, which resulted in excellent sounding bootlegs for practically all the music performed on all the nights.

Luckily though, we have the bootleg recordings. I'm calling this album series "Our Final Week," because the marquee sign in front of the Fillmore West had that written on it during that week. You can see that included in the artwork at the top of the cover art for each album.

Now, let me address this specific concert. It seems each act was allowed to performed just as long as they wanted - for instance, the Grateful Dead set a couple of days later lasted three hours. So this is the length of a typical concert at the time, about an hour and a half. Scaggs started out a member of the Steve Miller Band, but he quit to start a solo career, releasing his first solo album in 1969. This concert took place a few months after the release of his third solo album, "Moments," so naturally a lot of songs that were played came from that album. 

I found an interesting article written about the concerts, especially the one on the last day, for Rolling Stone Magazine from just after when the concerts took place. Since this is the first album from this series of concerts, I've included the text of that article in the download zip. It especially has a lot of insight into promoter Bill Graham, and why he decided to close both the Fillmore East and Fillmore West. The short version is that he was burned out from working non-stop, and needed a prolonged break. 

One song, "Baby's Calling Me Home," appeared on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. Everything else here is unreleased. 

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 I Feel So Good (Boz Scaggs)
02 talk (Boz Scaggs)
03 We Were Always Sweethearts (Boz Scaggs)
04 talk (Boz Scaggs)
05 Painted Bells (Boz Scaggs)
06 talk (Boz Scaggs)
07 I Will Forever Sing the Blues (Boz Scaggs)
08 talk (Boz Scaggs)
09 We Been Away (Boz Scaggs)
10 Hollywood Blues (Boz Scaggs)
11 Baby's Calling Me Home (Boz Scaggs)
12 Stepping Stone (Boz Scaggs)
13 talk (Boz Scaggs)
14 Country Girl (Boz Scaggs)
15 Loan Me a Dime (Boz Scaggs)
16 I'll Be Long Gone (Boz Scaggs)
17 talk (Boz Scaggs)
18 I'm Easy (Boz Scaggs)
19 Near You (Boz Scaggs)
20 Sweet Release (Boz Scaggs)
21 talk (Boz Scaggs)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PwoTb45a

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/gxoQw2PLAZVsWZb/file

The cover image comes from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from the "Fillmore" movie. For the top part, I found a photo of the marquee from the front of the venue. Then I manipulated it some in Photoshop, cleaning it up and stretching it to fit the space.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 3: 2004-2012

Here's "Volume 3" out of four volumes made for the "Covered" series, showcasing the songs of Tom Waits.

Like the other volumes in this series, this was mostly put together by Fabio from Rio. He did all the heavy lifting in finding the source material, and I only helped to winnow down the songs to a reasonable number. Fabio also wrote the notes for each volume, so here's his notes for this one:

In the nineties and early 2000s, Waits fused experimental sounds with stark American roots music—blues, gospel, field hollers, and folk. Themes of death, sin, redemption, and rural myth dominate. This allows for covers that, while highlighting their folk or country origins (sometimes deeply buried at the original recordings, but more perceptible when reinterpreted by performers from diverse backgrounds), still keep their darker spirits through melancholic or nihilistic lyrics.

In this volume, the country side of Waits' music is quite perceptible via covers by Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, and Claudia Bettinaglio. One may also feel the sexiness and smoky-room cabaret ambiance at Diana Krall's "Temptation", Monique Maion's "Walking Spanish," and Clara Bellino's "Swordfishtrombone." 

Traces of rockabilly and R&B can be found with Mark Lemhouse's "No One Can Forgive Me" and English seventies folk with Plant and Krauss' "Trampled Rose", along with blues and rock tracks like Hart and Bonamassa's "Chocolate Jesus" and Goldheart Assembly's "Clap Hands." Overall, this makes for an eclectic selection, much like the average Tom Waits album. An acoustic, home-demo-like version of "In the Neighborhood" by Peter Gabriel, recorded in 2012 for a benefit album for war-torn regions, closes the volume on a poignant note.

--- 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 Innocent When You Dream (Elvis Costello)
02 Temptation (Diana Krall)
03 Long Way Home (Norah Jones)
04 Big in Japan (Shane Nicholson)
05 Swordfishtrombone (Clara Bellino)
06 Eyeball Kid (Michael Stanley)
07 Cold Cold Ground (Claudia Bettinaglio)
08 Trampled Rose (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
09 All the Time in the World (Southside Johnny)
10 No One Can Forgive Me (Mark Lemhouse)
11 Walking Spanish (Monique Maion)
12 Chocolate Jesus (Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa)
13 Clap Hands (Goldheart Assembly)
14 In the Neighborhood (Peter Gabriel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yUHGi7qy 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/i96wIB252GpXMcV/file

The cover photo shows Waits at a movie premiere in Leicester Square, in London, on October 6, 2009. (As usual with this series of course, I replaced the background with blank light blue).

Kevin Gilbert - Covers (1986-1996) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the third and last album that make up guest poster Mike Solof's collections of his favorite songs from the music career of Kevin Gilbert. The first two albums focused on original songs, but this one consists entirely of cover versions.

As I mentioned in my write-up for the first album in this series, Gilbert often mixed a catchy pop sensibility in his songs with the musical complexity of prog rock. As a result, he especially liked prog rock type bands that also had some pop appeal. Probably his favorite band of all was Genesis. In fact, he was such a Genesis fan that he once performed the entirety of the Genesis double album "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" in concert! This album contains three Genesis covers, as well as some other prog rock songs that are almost never covered by anyone, such as "Siberian Khatru" by Yes and "Karn Evil 9" by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. And yet we can see Gilbert's pop side as well, with covers of songs like "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band and "If I Fell" by the Beatles. Definitely interesting stuff here.

As usual, Mike has included a PDF in the download zip that has more information and photos and such. But note that it's the same PDF as in the other two Kevin Gilbert albums he put together. 

This album is 60 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original musical acts for each of the songs here: 

01 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills and Nash
02 Firth of Fifth - Genesis
03 The Joker - Steve Miller Band
04 Rendezvous 602 - U.K.
05 Back in NYC - Genesis
06 Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
07 Rocket Man - Elton John (with Pink Floyd intro)
08 Siberian Khatru - Yes
09 If I Fell - Beatles
10 Karn Evil 9 - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
11 The Musical Box - Genesis 

And here's the usual song list: 

01 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (Toy Matinee)
02 Firth of Fifth (Kevin Gilbert & Mickey Sorey)
03 The Joker (Kevin Gilbert)
04 UK Suite [Rendezvous 6-02 - Danger Money - Caesar's Palace Blues] (Kevin Gilbert & Mickey Sorey)
05 Back in N.Y.C. (Kevin Gilbert)
06 Kashmir (Kevin Gilbert)
07 Rocket Man (Toy Matinee)
08 Siberian Khatru (Kevin Gilbert)
09 If I Fell (Toy Matinee)
10 Karn Evil 9 (Kevin Gilbert)
11 The Musical Box (Giraffe)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mvhs6yEL

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/o1G0R8xtPXiJqQL/file

I believe I found the cover image in an Instagram post. It had some distracting things on it, like some text added on top. But I wiped that out using Photoshop. I don't know exactly when or where it's from. 

Joan Baez with Mimi Farina and Steve Goodman - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 7-20-1973

Here we go again, with another episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. This one stars folk singer Joan Baez. It also has two guests, Mimi Farina and Steve Goodman.

Baez had been one of the most famous folk singers since the mid-1960s. But she didn't have a big hit until 1971. That year, her version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" went all the way to Number Three in the U.S. singles chart. So that's probably what gave her enough commercial appeal to be given the host slot for this show.

Baez had two sisters, and one of them was Mimi Farina. So it's not too surprising that their music careers have often intersected. That including Baez asking her to be part of this episode, and then singing a duet with her on the song "Best of Friends." Farina is probably best known as part of the mid-1960s duo of Richard and Mimi Farina, which sadly ended when Richard Farina died in 1966. Here's a Wikipedia entry if you want to know more about her:

Mimi Fariña - Wikipedia

Steve Goodman was an excellent singer-songwriter. He was near the start of his musical career at the time of this concert, as his first album was released in 1971. The best known song he wrote, by far, was "The City of New Orleans." Arlo Guthrie had a big hit with it in 1972, and it has gone on to become a classic, covered by many. So I'm a bit surprised Goodman didn't perform his own version in this episode.

Baez and Goodman didn't perform a duet here, like Baez and Farina did. But Baez mentioned in her banter between songs that she was the one that got Goodman on the show because she was such a big fan of his songs. So I included him here, especially because his musical style fits in well with the songs by Baez and/or Farina. Also, it turns out this was the only appearance Goodman ever made on the show, so I didn't have nearly enough songs to give him his own album. (This also was Farina's only appearance, but Baez would be a host again in 1975, and she would make other appearances too.)

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Steve Goodman - Wikipedia  

In case you're curious, the other musical acts on the show were Wilson Pickett, Black Oak Arkansas, Bloodstone, and the Pointer Sisters. I've already put the Pickett and Pointer Sisters songs on other albums I've made.

Two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. For the first track, I got rid of the show's theme song playing in the background, and replaced that with audience applause. For the third track, I stitched together two chunks of banter that were separated by one or more songs.

This album is 33 minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez)
03 talk [Edit] (Joan Baez)
04 Someone Else's Troubles (Steve Goodman)
05 talk (Wolfman Jack)
06 talk (Joan Baez)
07 Joe Hill (Joan Baez)
08 talk (Joan Baez)
09 In the Quiet Morning (Mimi Farina)
10 talk (Joan Baez & Mimi Farina)
11 Best of Friends (Joan Baez & Mimi Farina)
12 Love Song to a Stranger (Joan Baez)
13 Prison Trilogy (Joan Baez)
14 Would You Like to Learn to Dance (Steve Goodman)
15 talk (Joan Baez)
16 Rider Pass By (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/n1N9WdEs

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/kz1AXtVnbvi6IHH/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. Mimi Farina is the one closer and higher up in the image.

Marshall Crenshaw - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 5-2-1983

Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This time, it stars Marshall Crenshaw.

Crenshaw was really hot stuff in the music business for about two years, 1982 and 1983. That's when he released his first two albums, "Marshall Crenshaw" and "Field Day." Both of them got a lot of critical acclaim, and contained hit songs. Unfortunately, he couldn't maintain that level of success after that. But, given that history, it's not surprising that his Soundstage episode came in 1983, probably the peak of his popularity.

I've already posted two BBC concerts Crenshaw did, in 1982 and 1983. The 1983 one took place less than two months after this one, so it's not surprising the set lists are pretty similar. However, I do want to post all the worthy Soundstage episodes I can find, so I'm posting this despite the similarity to the other 1983 concert I've posted from him.

While there are similarities, there also are differences. Most notably, Crenshaw performed some cover versions in this concert he didn't perform in the 1983 BBC concert: "Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)," "Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do," "Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," and "White Lightning."

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Mary Anne (Marshall Crenshaw)
02 Rockin' Around in N.Y.C. (Marshall Crenshaw)
03 Girls (Marshall Crenshaw)
04 Soldier of Love [Lay Down Your Arms] (Marshall Crenshaw)
05 Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do (Marshall Crenshaw)
06 She Can't Dance (Marshall Crenshaw)
07 Move It (Marshall Crenshaw)
08 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
09 Something's Gonna Happen (Marshall Crenshaw)
10 Someday, Someway (Marshall Crenshaw)
11 There She Goes Again (Marshall Crenshaw)
12 Brand New Lover (Marshall Crenshaw)
13 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
14 Stop Her on Sight [S.O.S.] (Marshall Crenshaw)
15 Look at What I Almost Missed (Marshall Crenshaw)
16 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
17 Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Marshall Crenshaw)
18 The Usual Thing (Marshall Crenshaw)
19 Cynical Girl (Marshall Crenshaw)
20 talk (Marshall Crenshaw)
21 White Lightning (Marshall Crenshaw)
22 [I Wanna] Love My Life Away (Marshall Crenshaw)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ksBSRo1y

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KjQqG8aCOPMGUwh/file

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

Kevin Gilbert - Rarities (1985-1996) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the second out of three "best of" albums guest posted Mike Solof has made for singer-songwriter Kevin Gilbert. The first album, "Originals," focuses on Mike's favorite songs that were on Gilbert's studio albums (including albums for bands he led, such as Toy Matinee). This one digs deeper. 

Considering that Gilbert's music career only lasted about ten years, he created a remarkable amount of music. He only put out a few albums in his lifetime. But since his death in 1996, a couple dozen more albums have come out! Gilbert was one of those musicians, like Prince, who played practically every instrument he could get his hands on, and was always writing and creating. So there was a ton of rare material for Mike to draw on when making this album. (As usual, look to the mp3 tags for all the details on the sources of the songs.)

One interesting highlight of this album is "Leaving Las Vegas." That was a big hit for Sheryl Crow. But Gilbert co-wrote it, as well as co-writing most of the songs on Crow's debut album, "Tuesday Night Music Club." The two of them were romantically linked for a while, and Crow was a member of Gilbert's band for a time.  

Like Mike always does with his guest posts, he's created a PDF file with additional comments and photos and so forth. In this case, the PDF is the same for all three Gilbert "best of" albums he made.  

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 National Public Radio (Kevin Gilbert)
02 Things She Said [Jazz Version] (Kevin Gilbert)
03 Circling Winds (Kevin Gilbert)
04 Goodbye L.A. (Kevin Gilbert)
05 Suit Fugue [Dance of the A & R Men] [Early Mix] (Kevin Gilbert)
06 God's Been Tapping My Phone (Kevin Gilbert)
07 Queen of Misery (Toy Matinee)
08 KMTT Jingle (Kevin Gilbert)
09 Leaving Las Vegas (Kevin Gilbert)
10 Tea for One [Sax Mix] (Kevin Gilbert)
11 Something Nice for My Dog (Kevin Gilbert)
12 Late for Dinner [Dark Mix] (Kevin Gilbert)
13 Souvenir (Kevin Gilbert)
14 Finally Over You (Kevin Gilbert)
15 All Fall Down [Toto Version] (Kevin Gilbert)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/N98cVBGz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/pzxlRnsVOmw60ea/file

I don't know the details of where or when the cover image is from. It was selected by Mike. 

Kevin Gilbert - Originals (1984-1996) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's a really interesting album put together by guest poster Mike Solof. Have you ever heard of Kevin Gilbert? If you have, congrats, because he's not as well known as he sound be. Mike is a huge fan of Gilbert's music, so much so that he put together three albums to showcase Gilbert's musical talent. The first album, this one, consists of the original songs Mike considers the best. Then he's made another one of the best rarities, and a third one of the best cover versions. If you want to get started, this is the obvious first album to listen to. Then, if you're interested, check out the other two. (Then, hopefully, more than that.)

For a quick overview, I'll quote the intro paragraph to his Wikipedia entry, which states me "was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee, and his contributions to 'Tuesday Night Music Club' (1993), the debut studio album of Sheryl Crow. Kevin Gilbert died from autoerotic asphyxiation. He was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home on May 18, 1996, at the age of 29."

Here's the link to the rest of the Wikipedia page:

Kevin Gilbert (musician) - Wikipedia

I have to admit I wasn't familiar with Gilbert's music before Mike made these albums, although I'd previously heard good things about his career here and there. After hearing the albums Mike made, I have to agree that Gilbert was a very talented musician who deserves to be much better known than he is. He often combined a catchy pop sensibility with the complexity of prog rock. That is a very difficult combination to pull off. It's a real shame he died so young, and the strange manner of his death probably didn't help his musical legacy.

Note that this albums combines songs from Gilbert's solo albums, as well as songs he did with bands he was in: Giraffe, Toy Matinee, and Kaviar. All the lead vocals are by Gilbert. 

Anyway, Mike has written extensive notes about Gilbert, his life, and why he likes his music so much. You can find that in the PDF included with the download zip, as usual for Mike's guest posts. 

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long. 

01 When Strangers Part (Kevin Gilbert)
02 This Warm Night (Giraffe)
03 Air Dance (Giraffe)
04 Tired Old Man Suite (Kevin Gilbert)
05 Last Plane Out (Toy Matinee)
06 Things She Said (Toy Matinee)
07 The Ballad of Jenny Ledge (Toy Matinee)
08 Goodness Gracious (Kevin Gilbert)
09 Shadow Self [Alternate Version] (Kevin Gilbert)
10 Miss Broadway (Kevin Gilbert)
11 Single (Kaviar)
12 The Sultan of Brunei (Kaviar)
13 The Best Laid Plans (Kevin Gilbert)
14 Certifiable No. 1 Smash (Kevin Gilbert)
15 All Fall Down [Alternate Horn Mix] (Kevin Gilbert)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GvEgk98D

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BNCnBxCFRjJRq5o/file

I don't know the details of the cover image. It was found by Mike.

Chris Rea - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: In Concert, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, Britain, 1-30-1998

The mini-flood of Chris Rea BBC albums continues. Like all the previous ones so far, this is a BBC concert.

Rea's career momentum was starting to slow down. He didn't release any studio albums between 1993 and 1998. However, he was involved in a 1996 movie soundtrack called "La Passione," which mostly consisted of instrumentals or songs sung by others. Finally, in January 1998, the same month as this concert, he released the album "The Blue Cafe." It still made the Top Ten in the British albums chart, but its sales were less than previous albums, because none of the songs from it were hits.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.  

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Nothing to Fear (Chris Rea)
02 Stainsby Girls (Chris Rea)
03 On the Beach (Chris Rea)
04 Shadows of the Big Man (Chris Rea)
05 Thinking of You (Chris Rea)
06 Anyone Quite like You (Chris Rea)
07 Miss Your Kiss (Chris Rea)
08 Square Peg, Round Hole (Chris Rea)
09 The Road to Hell I and II (Chris Rea)
10 The Blue Cafe (Chris Rea)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zxwx7VVT

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/9HI2XBeJ2wepfYr/file

The cover photo is possibly from this exact concert. I know it was taken at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, in January 1998. But he played there three nights in a row. So there's a one in three chance it's from this concert.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 2: 1994-2004

Here's the second Covered volume for Tom Waits. Like the Covered albums made for other musical acts, the talent of a songwriter is shown through cover versions, rather than that person performing their own songs.

And like the rest of this series for Waits, most of the heavy lifting in making this album is thanks to Fabio from Rio. He basically found a zillion Waits covers, then whittled them down to his favorites. That was still a very large number, so I then listened to them and whittled them down a lot more.

Fabio also answered my request to do the write-ups for each album in this series. So here's what he had to say about this one. And thanks, Fabio, for all your work on these albums. Take it away:

--- 

Around the mid-1980s, Waits began to break away from conventional arrangements. The music became more percussive and raw, foreshadowing a major stylistic shift. This period marks the end of his "classic singer-songwriter" phase and the start of a more radical artistic reinvention. Waits embraced experimental instrumentation, junkyard percussion, polyrhythms, and global folk influences. His work became deeply theatrical, influenced by Brecht, Weill, and his collaborations with his wife Kathleen Brennan. Songs feel like surreal street operas populated by grotesques and dreamers. This second volume includes mostly songs from that period.

The best known cover here is probably "Way Down in the Hole," due to its use in the HBO series "The Wire." (The Blind Boys from Alabama's version was used as the first season opening music, and other versions were selected for the remaining four seasons, including Waits' own original version.) Norah Jones' delicate outtake "Picture in a Frame" also got some recognition, especially after its inclusion in special editions of her breakthrough album "Come Away With Me."

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" sounds so natural in the Ramones' catalog that many listeners assume it is an original. It was used as the opening track and first single of their last studio album. Waits' version (from the excellent 1992 album "Bone Machine") is way darker. 

"Little Boy Blue" was only performed by Waits in the movie "One from the Heart." Here we have a bluesy version by jazz singer and pianist Holly Cole. Other highlights of the volume include Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Whistling Past the Graveyard" and John Hammond's "Big Black Mariah" (which is taken from an album he did fully dedicated to Waits songs). 

On the mellower side, there are soft-sounding melodic folk versions by Shawn Colvin and Valerie Carter that prove Waits can write poignant ballads. Overall, another very nice flowing album with well performed covers that honor Waits' music.

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This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 The Heart of Saturday Night (Shawn Colvin)
02 Whistling Past the Graveyard (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
03 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six (Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band)
04 I Don't Want to Grow Up (Ramones)
05 Better Off without a Wife (Pete Shelley)
06 Little Boy Blue (Holly Cole)
07 Whistle Down the Wind (Valerie Carter)
08 The Briar and the Rose (Niamh Parsons)
09 Dirt in the Ground (Christine Collister)
10 Heartattack and Vine (Popa Chubby)
11 Invitation to the Blues (Jennifer Warnes)
12 Big Black Mariah (John Hammond)
13 Picture in a Frame (Norah Jones)
14 Way Down in the Hole (Blind Boys from Alabama)
15 Jockey Full of Bourbon (Los Lobos)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zUDkHa5i

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2nAIGV2f2Rq1n6p/file

The cover photo was taken in San Francisco in 2002.

Martin Simpson, Michael Chapman & Steve Tilston - Songwriters' Circle, Bush Hall, London, Britain, 3-18-2012

Here's another episode of the "Songwriters' Circle" BBC TV show. Just like other episodes, this one features three singer-songwriters taking turns performing their songs. In this case, the songwriters are Martin Simpson, Michael Chapman, and Steve Tilston. The episode has a theme, because all three of them are famous figures in British folk music.

Martin Simpson's career started in the 1970s. He didn't have any hits or famous albums. But he's steadily built up a following by releasing dozens of albums and touring frequently. He's mostly performed cover songs, especially of traditional music. He's still alive, and 76 years old, as I write this in 2026.

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Martin Simpson - Wikipedia 

Michael Chapman's music is hard to describe, so I'll just quote the lead paragraph of his Wikipedia entry, which says he was a "British singer-songwriter and guitarist who released 58 albums, displaying a 'fusion of jazz, rock, Indian and ragtime styles [that] made him a cult hero.' He began playing with jazz bands, mainly in his home town of Leeds, and became well known in the folk clubs of the late 1960s, as well as on the progressive music scene." Note the use of the past tense, because he died in 2021 at the age of 80. He's probably best known for his 1970 album "Fully Qualified Survivor," which contains his most famous song, "Postcards of Scarborough."

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Michael Chapman (singer) - Wikipedia 

That just leaves Steve Tilston. Like the other two, his music career began roughly around 1970. Also like the other two, he's had a long career with British folk music, releasing dozens of albums. 

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Steve Tilston - Wikipedia 

To be honest, I wasn't familiar with the music of any of these three musicians. But this was a nice listen, with the three of them all playing good songs and making interesting comments. It's a bit curious and disappointing that it didn't end with all three of them performing a classic song together, like all the other episodes I can remember of this TV series. But all three of them were/are talented guitarists, and often helped out with songs when it wasn't their turn to sing.

By the way, sadly, this appears to be the last episode of the TV series, in terms of broadcast order. I still have two more that I plan on posting. And there are another three or so that I haven't found, at least not yet. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 An Englishman Abroad (Martin Simpson)
02 talk (Martin Simpson)
03 Postcards of Scarborough (Michael Chapman)
04 talk (Michael Chapman & Steve Tilston)
05 Weeping Willow Replanted (Steve Tilston)
06 talk (Martin Simpson)
07 Never Any Good (Martin Simpson)
08 talk (Michael Chapman)
09 In the Valley (Michael Chapman)
10 talk (Steve Tilston)
11 The Road When I Was Young (Steve Tilston)
12 talk (Martin Simpson)
13 Will Atkinson (Martin Simpson)
14 talk (Michael Chapman)
15 Just Another Story (Michael Chapman)
16 talk (Steve Tilston)
17 The Reckoning (Steve Tilston)
18 talk (Martin Simpson)
19 Home Again (Martin Simpson)
20 talk (Michael Chapman)
21 A Cowboy Phase (Michael Chapman)
22 talk (Steve Tilston)
23 The Slip Jigs and Reels (Steve Tilston)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FszeUKwt

alternate:

The cover photo is from this exact concert, kind of. I couldn't find any good images of the three of them together, since they didn't play a song together at the end, like most episodes. But at the start of the video of this concert there was some footage of the three of them practicing together before the concert, so I took a screenshot of that. From right to left: Steve Tilston, Michael Chapman, and Martin Simpson.

Various Artists - KHJ Third Annual Appreciation Concert, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, 8-16-1968

First, some bad news. I've been having some problems with my computer, which is why I haven't posted anything here in the past couple of days. I had to take it into a repair shop. I was excited to get it back home today, only to find there are still some problems, so I have to take it back tomorrow for further fixes. But while I have it today, I can post some albums.

Now, the good news: I'm very psyched to post this concert. It's not often we get concerts like this from this 1960s, and this one was very hard to find. Hopefully it will get wider exposure now. It was put on by a Los Angeles radio station, KHJ, and it was broadcast on that station at the time. It featured four musical acts: the Yellow Payges, Tommy James and the Shondells, the (Young) Rascals, and Eric Burdon and the Animals.

As you can see from the title, this was the third such annual concert for KHJ. The first one, in 1966, featured Sonny and Cher (as the main headliners), Donovan, Bob Lind, the Knickerbockers, the Mamas & the Papas, the Modern Folk Quartet, Otis Redding, and the Turtles. It would be incredible to hear that, but I've never heard of a recording existing for it. Luckily, a recording for the second annual concert in 1967 does exist, and I posted it at this blog in 2024. The one featured Buffalo Springfield, the Fifth Dimension, Brenda Holloway, the Seeds, Johnny Rivers, and the Supremes. If you missed it, here's the page for the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/05/various-artists-khj-second-annual.html

Just like that 1967 concert, this one featured musical acts that rarely or never were bootlegged. Let's start with the first act, the Yellow Payges. If you've never heard of them, don't feel bad. They never had much commercial success, and have pretty much been forgotten. However, they released ten singles in the 1960s, as well as an album in 1969, before breaking up in 1970. Looking at their reviews at the crowd-sourced rateyourmusic.com, it seems they were pretty good, but struggled for a distinctive style. They ranged from poppy to acid rock. 

Their set here consisted almost entirely of covers, even though it seems they had some good original material. The only song they did in this set that wasn't a classic or hit for another musical act is "Crowd Pleaser."  

Here's their Wiki page, if you want to know more:

The Yellow Payges - Wikipedia

Tommy James and the Shondells were very popular in the mid to late 1960s. But they were seen as a light-weight singles band. They had many big hits that you probably know, even if you don't know they did the original hit versions. They had two songs that reached Number One in the U.S.:  "Hanky Panky" in 1966,  and "Crimson and Clover" in 1969. Some of their other big hits were "I Think We're Alone Now," "Mirage," "Mony Mony," "Sweet Cherry Wine," and "Crystal Blue Persuasion." Some of those, like "Crimson and Clover," hadn't been recorded yet at the time of this concert. But still, their set consisted of several original hits, plus some covers: a medley of "People Get Ready" and "Get Ready," "Baby I Need Your Loving," and "What the World Needs Now Is Love."

I have never seen any bootleg or even official live album from this musical act in their 1960s prime, so it's really nice to find this one. True, they were known for their singles, not their live performances, but still, they acquitted themselves well here. And it appears they never recorded the three covers I mentioned above, so those are all unique to this concert recording, I believe.

Here's their Wikipedia entry:

Tommy James and the Shondells - Wikipedia 

The Rascals were similar to Tommy James and the Shondells in that they were mainly known for their singles, and they had many hit singles in the 1960s. For the first couple years of their success, they were known as the Young Rascals. But even though they were still called that on the poster for this concert (as seen in the cover art), they actually changed their name to just the Rascals in early 1968, many months prior to this concert. At the time of this concert, they were probably at the peak of their popularity. Just one month earlier, they released the single "People Got to Be Free." It was their last huge hit, reaching Number One in the U.S. singles chart. Prior to that, their hits "Good Lovin'," "Groovin'," "How Can I Be Sure," and "A Beautiful Morning" all reached the Top Five in the U.S., with the first two making it to Number One. 

Unfortunately, starting in 1969, the band switched styles, lessening their popularity. They broke up in 1972, and had very few reunions after that. I posted one of their rare full reunions, meaning all the original members participated, as part of an Atlantic Records tribute concert in 1988. You can find that at this blog as well.

Just like Tommy James and the Shondells, there is very little live recordings from the Rascals in their 1960s prime. I've found some songs here and there they performed on various TV shows, and I made an album of that. I noticed just now I've never gotten around to posting that on this blog, so I should probably do that. But, other than that, the only 1960s bootlegs I've seen are short and problematic, and there are no official live albums either. So this has to be the best live recording from them in the 1960s.

Here's their Wikipedia entry: 

The Rascals - Wikipedia 

The final act of the concert, and the headliner, was Eric Burdon and the Animals. Funnily enough, just like Tommy James and the Shondells and the Rascals, there are surprisingly few good live recordings from this band from the 1960s. There are some, but most of those suffer from sound quality issues and/or are quite short. I've posted the best one I could find at this blog, a concert in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 1968. Their appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was excellent (though short), and I've posted that here as well. Plus, there's a lot of BBC material from them as well. But still, considering how famous they were, one would have expected more live recordings to survive. At least this recording can be added in.

At the time of this concert, the Animals were on the decline. Singles were essential to success in the 1960s, and they only had one Top Forty hit in 1968, "Sky Pilot." They broke up at the end of the year. This concert avoided their earlier big hits and concentrated on material the band had done in the last year or so.

However, I strongly suspect there was more to their performance that isn't included here. They were the headliners for this concert. If you look at the 1967 KHJ concert, the headliners (the Supremes) for that one performed for about 50 minutes, 15 minutes longer than what we have for the Animals here. But that's just a guess, I don't know. However, clearly, this concert recording isn't 100 percent complete. For instance, we have DJ intros for the first three acts but not the Animals. Also, I got the Animals portion of this concert from a separate source than the rest, increasing the odds that something might be missing.

Now, let me address sound quality. This was broadcast on a radio station at the time, so this is really good for the 1960s. But still, broadcasting live music was rare in the 1960s, and the sound quality still left something to be desired. So I tried to fix the music as best I could. I ran every song through the MVSEP program twice, fixing different things each time. So it definitely sounds better now. However, the 1967 KHJ concert recording still sounds better, in my opinion.

This album is an hour and 58 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Yellow Payges)
02 Uptight [Everything's Alright] (Yellow Payges)
03 Turn On Your Lovelight (Yellow Payges)
04 Sunshine of Your Love (Yellow Payges)
05 talk (Yellow Payges)
06 Crowd Pleaser (Yellow Payges)
07 Lady Jane (Yellow Payges)
08 I'm a Man (Yellow Payges)
09 talk by emcee (Tommy James & the Shondells)
10 People Get Ready - Get Ready (Tommy James & the Shondells)
11 Mirage (Tommy James & the Shondells)
12 Baby I Need Your Loving (Tommy James & the Shondells)
13 talk (Tommy James & the Shondells)
14 Gettin' Together (Tommy James & the Shondells)
15 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Tommy James & the Shondells)
16 Hanky Panky (Tommy James & the Shondells)
17 Mony Mony (Tommy James & the Shondells)
18 I Think We're Alone Now (Tommy James & the Shondells)
19 talk (Tommy James & the Shondells)
20 Gettin' Together [Reprise] (Tommy James & the Shondells)
21 talk by emcee (Rascals)
22 talk (Rascals)
23 Do You Feel It (Rascals)
24 Love Is a Beautiful Thing (Rascals)
25 talk (Rascals)
26 I'm So Happy Now (Rascals)
27 talk (Rascals)
28 Groovin' (Rascals)
29 A Girl like You (Rascals)
30 A Place in the Sun (Rascals)
31 A Beautiful Morning (Rascals)
32 People Got to Be Free (Rascals)
33 New York 1963 - America 1968 (Animals)
34 San Franciscan Nights (Animals)
35 talk (Animals)
36 Monterey - New York 1963, America 1968 - Monterey (Animals)
37 Sky Pilot (Animals)
38 talk by emcee (Animals)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rna1kUgu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wLgVu304138pdrc/file

I couldn't find any photos from this exact concert. However, I found some promotional material, so I used that. I had to make some changes to make it fit into a square shape.