Ben Folds Five - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 10-9-2012

So far, I've posted about 27 concerts from the April 2026 leak of soundboards from the Capitol Theater in Port Chester. There's a lot more where that came from. I have at least 40 more I'm working on getting ready to post. Recently, a commenter named nytvf asked if that includes a Ben Folds Five concert. It does, and since I'm posting these in no special order and I got that request, I'm posting this one next.

Ben Folds Five, which actually consisted of three band members, not five, existed for seven years, from 1993 to 2000. During that time, they released three studio albums. Then band leader Ben Folds started putting out solo albums instead. But the band reunited in 2012 for another studio album, "The Sound of the Life of the Mind," an a supporting tour. Then the band broke up again. 

Not surprisingly, this concert mostly consists of songs from the band's four albums, especially their most recent ones. Ben Folds released three solo albums between 2000 and 2012, but only one song, "Landed," came from any of those. The album was definitely on Ben Folds Five songs. There also were no cover songs.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent, with no problems. 

This album is an hour and 44 minutes long.

01 Michael Praytor, Five Years Later (Ben Folds Five)
02 talk (Ben Folds Five)
03 Missing the War (Ben Folds Five)
04 Hold That Thought (Ben Folds Five)
05 Jackson Cannery (Ben Folds Five)
06 talk (Ben Folds Five)
07 Selfless, Cold and Composed (Ben Folds Five)
08 talk (Ben Folds Five)
09 Erase Me (Ben Folds Five)
10 talk (Ben Folds Five)
11 Alice Childress (Ben Folds Five)
12 talk (Ben Folds Five)
13 Sky High (Ben Folds Five)
14 talk (Ben Folds Five)
15 Landed (Ben Folds Five)
16 Thank You for Breaking My Heart (Ben Folds Five)
17 Battle of Who Could Care Less (Ben Folds Five)
18 talk (Ben Folds Five)
19 Do It Anyway (Ben Folds Five)
20 talk (Ben Folds Five)
21 Brick (Ben Folds Five)
22 Draw a Crowd (Ben Folds Five)
23 Narcolepsy (Ben Folds Five)
24 Kate (Ben Folds Five)
25 Song for the Dumped (Ben Folds Five)
26 Army (Ben Folds Five)
27 talk (Ben Folds Five)
28 Magic (Ben Folds Five)
29 Underground (Ben Folds Five)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aTvZuCob 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zlRusL45lOR4QuP/file

The cover image of Ben Folds is a photo from this exact concert.

St. Vincent - Cover Versions, Volume 1: 2006-2016

I started to be familiar with the music of St. Vincent when I posted her Glastonbury performance in August 2025. But I didn't know she did a lot of interesting cover versions until musical friend Lil Panda tipped me off. He sent me a bunch of covers. I took that and ran with it, finding a bunch more. In the end, we came up with enough for three albums worth.

One thing I like about her covers is she has a wide range of influences, and often some lesser known ones. Check out the below list to see what I mean.

This album is 50 minutes long.

These are the original artists for each song: 

01 These Days - Jackson Browne / Gregg Allman
02 Dig a Pony - Beatles
03 Sleep All Summer - Crooked Fingers
04 Every Drop of Rain - David Byrne & Fatboy Slim
05 Need You Tonight - INXS
06 Never Tear Us Apart - INXS
07 Tango Till They're Sore - Tom Waits
08 She Is Beyond Good and Evil - Pop Group
09 Some of Them Are Old - Brian Eno
10 Early Autumn - Woody Herman & His Orchestra
11 Make Believe - Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks
12 Lithium - Nirvana
13 Emotional Rescue - Rolling Stones

Here's the usual song list: 

01 These Days (St. Vincent)
02 Dig a Pony (St. Vincent)
03 Sleep All Summer (St. Vincent & the National)
04 Every Drop of Rain (David Byrne & Fatboy Slim with Candie Payne & St. Vincent)
05 Need You Tonight (Beck, St. Vincent & Liars)
06 Never Tear Us Apart (Beck, St. Vincent & Liars)
07 Tango Till They're Sore (St. Vincent)
08 She Is Beyond Good and Evil (St. Vincent)
09 Some of Them Are Old (St. Vincent)
10 Early Autumn (St. Vincent & the Living Sisters)
11 Make Believe (St. Vincent)
12 Lithium (Nirvana & St. Vincent)
13 Emotional Rescue (St. Vincent)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MoHyMmek

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WQGIrd3rhDTPdrO/file

The cover image comes from the PLUG Independent Music Awards ceremony in New York City on March 6, 2008.

Al Green - Capitol Theater, Port Chester, NY, 10-25-2012

Here's an Al Green concert from 2012. It's part of the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester mono soundboard leak that happened in April 2026. So the sound quality is excellent here, and the performance is very good as well. 

In my opinion, Al Green is out of the greats of soul music. He had a really great run for most of the 1970s. But after that, he disappeared from popular music for a long time, due to him becoming a preacher and putting out a bunch of gospel albums. He slowly got back to secular music, and released three well received secular albums between 2003 and 2008 (and no new material since then). Still, he's kept a relatively low profile since the 1970s.

I've been hesitant to post any post-1970s Al Green concerts because even though he's mostly gone back to performing his 1970s soul hits, he still does some religious material. That's not to appealing to a hopeless heathen like myself. But luckily, on this concert, he kept that to two songs, "Amazing Grace" and "Nearer My God to Thee," and both of those are perfectly fine songs, in my book.

The song list below is a bit misleading. It shows him doing a whole run of classic soul songs, from "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" to "You Are Everything." But don't get too excited, because actually, all of those are just snippets, usually only about 15 to 20 seconds long. However, all the other songs here are full length, including an unexpected cover of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" earlier in the concert.  

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long.

01 It Ain't No Fun to Me (Al Green)
02 talk (Al Green)
03 Take Me to the River (Al Green)
04 talk (Al Green)
05 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Al Green)
06 talk (Al Green)
07 Oh, Pretty Woman (Al Green)
08 Amazing Grace (Al Green)
09 Nearer My God to Thee (Al Green)
10 talk (Al Green)
11 Love and Happiness (Al Green)
12 talk (Al Green)
13 For the Good Times (Al Green)
14 talk (Al Green)
15 Here I Am [Come and Take Me] (Al Green)
16 talk (Al Green)
17 I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie Honey Bunch] (Al Green)
18 My Girl (Al Green)
19 Bring It on Home to Me (Al Green)
20 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Al Green)
21 Wonderful World (Al Green)
22 You Are Everything (Al Green)
23 Tired of Being Alone (Al Green)
24 talk (Al Green)
25 I'm Still in Love with You (Al Green)
26 Let's Stay Together (Al Green)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/X4njcrop

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/O8vKJMhrDy26WW9/file

The cover image is from the Greek Theatre Los Angeles, California, on July 19, 2012.

The Rascals - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 12-15-2012

Here is another concert that became available thanks to the leak of dozens of mono soundboard concerts from the c

Capitol Theatre in Port Chester New York. This one features the Rascals.

The Rascals had their heyday in the 1960s. Around 1970 they started losing key members and had declining sales. The band broke up in 1972. After that, there were only very occasional reunions. The four original members – Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brighton, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli - only got together for one off reunions in 1988, 1997, and 2010. The 1997 reunion was their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

However, the band finally had a much more significant reunion in 2012. Rock musician Steven Van Zant, a.k.a. Little Steven, is a huge Rascals fan. He and his wife wrote and produced a special kind of concert for the band's reunion tour in 2012, titled "Once upon a Dream." It was a unusual combination of a rock concert and a Broadway type theater event. The vast majority of a consisted of the Rascals playing best known songs. But the songs were tied together into a narrative of the bands history, With lots of narration between songs, archival footage, and other video aspects.

It's just so happens that the very first performances of their 2012 reunion tour were in Port Chester, New York. They performed their six nights in a row in order to hold their performance. The soundboard leak of concerts from this venue actually included two Rascals shows. But since they are nearly identical in terms of their song lists, I chose to only work on and post this one, which was the second of the two in terms of chronological order.

After their Port Chester concerts, the band performed on Broadway in New York City for 15 nights in early 2013. That was very successfully received. So the band followed that with a nine month tour all across the United States. When that tour ended in late 2013, the full reunion ended as well. There were some other reunions after that, but none of them had all four original members.

Musical associate Lil Panda helped with the conversion and splitting of the tracks. I did further splitting to have all the talking bits in their own tracks, as I usually do.

If you like the music of the Rascals, you should definitely give this a listen. The sound quality is excellent. And even though it came decades after their musical heyday. They still were in top form. Plus, the way the music was interweave with the history of the band was entertaining as well.

This concert is two hours and one minute long. 

01 talk (Rascals)

02 It's Wonderful (Rascals)
03 I've Been Lonely Too Long (Rascals)
04 What's the Reason (Rascals)
05 talk (Rascals)
06 You Better Run (Rascals)
07 talk (Rascals)
08 Carry Me Back (Rascals)
09 talk (Rascals)
10 Slow Down (Rascals)
11 talk (Rascals)
12 Mickey's Monkey (Rascals)
13 talk (Rascals)
14 Turn On Your Lovelight (Rascals)
15 talk (Rascals)
16 Come On Up (Rascals)
17 talk (Rascals)
18 Baby Let's Wait (Rascals)
19 talk (Rascals)
20 Too Many Fish in the Sea (Rascals)
21 talk (Rascals)
22 If You Knew (Rascals)
23 talk (Rascals)
24 Hold On (Rascals)
25 I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore (Rascals)
26 talk (Rascals)
27 Good Lovin' (Rascals)
28 talk (Rascals)
29 Love Is a Beautiful Thing (Rascals)
30 Groovin' (Rascals)
31 Do You Feel It (Rascals)
32 talk (Rascals)
33 Away Away (Rascals)
34 It's a Beautiful Morning (Rascals)
35 Sueno (Rascals)
36 Find Somebody (Rascals)
37 A Girl like You (Rascals)
38 talk (Rascals)
39 It's Love (Rascals)
40 How Can I Be Sure (Rascals)
41 talk (Rascals)
42 People Got to Be Free (Rascals)
43 talk (Rascals)
44 Heaven (Rascals)
45 talk (Rascals)
46 A Ray of Hope (Rascals)
47 talk (Rascals)
48 People Got to Be Free [Reprise] (Rascals)
49 talk (Rascals)
50 See (Rascals)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6CEvJPgt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ixINNbH6fm9gOSs/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. 

Covered: Brian Wilson, Volume 4: 2010-2016 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here is more of the "Covered" series for Brian Wilson. This is the fourth out of five volumes.

This volume covers the first half of the 2010s, with yet another generation joining the ever-growing ranks of Brian Wilson admirers. By this point, his status as one of the most important songwriters of the second half of the twentieth century had long been firmly established.

You may notice several songs here performed by a relatively unknown artist named Kayla Williams. Fabio and I discovered her while searching for covers of some of Brian Wilson’s more obscure compositions. When we were unable to find suitable versions through the usual sources (tribute albums, cover-song databases, and fan recommendations) we turned to YouTube, which contains dozens, sometimes hundreds, of performances that are not documented elsewhere. This approach had already yielded excellent discoveries for previous "Covered" projects, such as those devoted to Neil Young and Tom Waits.

As it turned out, Kayla Williams is a remarkably talented singer who has recorded more than two dozen Brian Wilson songs. We were impressed enough that we are even considering assembling a future collection dedicated entirely to her interpretations of his songs. For the time being, however, we have limited ourselves to three of her finest performances.

Another highlight of this volume is Lana Del Rey’s version of "The Last Song". The recording emerged as part of the "Big Leak", a recent wave of unreleased Beach Boys and Brian Wilson material that surfaced online, and one that will likely inspire future posts here at this blog. Although the track is officially credited to both Lana Del Rey and Brian Wilson, it is essentially a Lana solo performance, with Brian’s contribution remaining quite subtle.

Note that while Wilson had most of his commercial success with the Beach Boys, especially in the 1960s and 70s, he continued to write songs nearly to the end of his life. While he had more of a mixed record with those songs, sometimes he would show his old magic. So Fabio and I made a particular effort to include songs from the later part of his career when they were worthy of inclusion. But on this volume, The vast majority of songs were originally recorded much earlier in his music career.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Girls on the Beach (Tribute Co.)
02 Little Deuce Coupe (Mc6)
03 Marcella (Michael Carpenter)
04 The Night Was So Young (Kayla Williams)
05 Do It Again (Wilson Phillips)
06 Good Vibrations (Cornshed Sisters)
07 I Get Around (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
08 Lonely Sea (Karina Denike, Lily Taylor & Melody Jeune Ferris)
09 Still I Dream of It (Carice van Houten)
10 That's Why God Made the Radio (B. Dubson)
11 Wind Chimes (Kayla Williams)
12 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Saint Etienne)
13 You Still Believe in Me (Magnetic North)
14 Anna Lee the Healer (Kayla Williams)
15 God Only Knows (Monalisa Twins)
16 When I Grow Up [To Be a Man] (Pen Friend Club)
17 The Last Song (Lana Del Rey with Brian Wilson)
18 Please Let Me Wonder (Pen Friend Blub)
19 Good Timin' (Brady Harris)
20 Our Prayer (Wild Honey Vocal Group with the Wild Honey Orchestra)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/z62DNerS

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/8WOJ4KVm7f4Eyfh/file

The cover image is from 2005. 

Various Artists - Musical Salad, Volume 1 (1939-2025) (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

As part of this music blog's ongoing Brian Wilson Week, here's another tribute to one of the most original musical minds of the Twentieth Century. If we've got our dates right, this should be appearing on June 17th, which happens to be National Eat Your Vegetables Day in the United States.

The idea for this collection emerged during a late-night Discord conversation with Fabio from Rio, when preparing the "Covered: Brian Wilson" discs. While discussing Brian Wilson's wonderfully eccentric song "Vegetables", we started wondering whether anyone else had ever written songs about vegetables. What began as a joke I made quickly turned into a challenge taken up by Fabio. A few days later, he returned with a surprisingly long list of candidates, and before long we realized there might actually be enough material for an entire compilation – or two.

The result is "Musical Salad." It's a collection of songs inspired by vegetables, salads, and assorted garden-related culinary adventures. Some tracks are genuinely great, some are bizarre, some are funny (either deliberate or not), and a few somehow manage to be all three at once. Taken together, they form one of the strangest and most entertaining themed collections we've assembled so far.

Note that there are many many songs that have a vegetable or something vegetable related in the title. We decided that wasn't good enough. The song has to actually be discussing something vegetable-related in the lyrics.  Furthermore, it had to hold up musically as well. I know this concept may seem strange. But just as your parents probably told you when faced with eating an unfamiliar vegetable for the first time, "try it, you'll like it." I was skeptical at first, but I think these ended up being fun albums.

There is a second volume coming, hopefully tomorrow.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Vegetables (Beach Boys)
02 Sam the Vegetable Man (Stuff Smith)
03 Cauliflower (Rattles)
04 The Onion Song (Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell)
05 Don't Touch Me Tomato (Phyllis Dillon)
06 Hot Potatoes (Kinks)
07 Eat Your Green Beans (Happy Campers)
08 Call Any Vegetable (Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention)
09 Potatoes, Tomatoes, Gravy and Peas (Terry Scott Taylor)
10 Carrot Juice Is Murder (Arrogant Worms)
11 Eggplant (Train)
12 Leaf and Lime (High Llamas)
13 [Don't Give Me That] Broccoli (Phenomenauts)
14 Vegetable Town (Barenaked Ladies)
15 The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn (Johan Heldenbergh & Veerle Baetens)
16 Lettuce and Croutons with Fresh Daily (ScienZe)
17 Red Peppers (Peppes)
18 Hang On Little Tomato (Pink Martini)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wnZK6i25

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/zj3KlY4Ns9gV2Jq/file

The cover image was made by Fabio, using AI. Furthermore, he went above and beyond and used an AI art generator to create a visual picture of each of the songs. I was skeptical of that at first as well, especially since I'm not a big fan of AI art, or really AI much of anything. But I have to admit these pictures that Fabio made for the songs turned out really well. In fact, they turned out so well that I told Fabio they make me fear for the future, because if AI can make one of these in a matter of seconds, I don't see how people will be able to stay employed as artists. But that's a discussion for another time and place perhaps. Here is a sample of one such picture. This one illustrates the song "Carrot Juice Is Murder." You can find an entire booklet that he made with these AI created pictures as well as descriptions of each song in the download zip file.

Covered: George Harrison, Volume 5: 2010-2014

Here's the fifth "Covered" album out of six for ex-Beatle George Harrison.

As I mentioned in my write-up to the previous album, since Harrison tragically died in 2001, the volumes that come after that are playing catch up, with covers from all points in his music career. In fact, most of the songs here are from his Beatles years or from his great "All Things Must Pass" album, making this a particularly strong volume of familiar songs.

However, there's one song here that very few people will recognize, probably not even die-hard fans: "Silence Is Its Own Reply." Admittedly, including it here is a bit of a stretch, but I decided to do so anyway because it's a good song, and it's unlikely you'll find it elsewhere.

There's an interesting story behind this song. Around 1967 or 1968, Harrison wrote about ten lines of song lyrics on a piece of paper, and gave it the title "Silence Is Its Own Reply." At the time, author Hunter Davies was writing an authorized biography about the Beatles. While writing that, he asked for writing samples from each of the Beatles. These lyrics were given to him to show Harrison's writing. Davies published his book, simply called "The Beatles," in 1968, but the lyrics weren't included or mentioned. Then, decades later, around 2009, Davies rediscovered the lyrics while combing through his archives of papers as he prepared to write an updated version of his Beatles book. He mentioned the lyrics in a BBC interview. The BBC DJ was intrigued, and got a copy of the lyrics. That DJ then passed the lyrics on to a singer-songwriter named Dean Johnson, and gave him the opportunity to finish the song. 

Johnson did, and I think the result is very good. Keep in mind that only the title and the first verse were written by Harrison. Johnson came up with the melody and the lyrics for a second verse and bridge. But I think that still counts as a legitimate co-write. Unfortunately though, it seems that the song was never officially released, probably due to legal complications arising from Harrison's contribution. But I found a version Johnson performed for the BBC, cleaned up the sound some, and I'm including it here.

Adding to the interest, at first glance, the lyrics appear to be about romance. But when Johnson was asked about the meaning of the song, he had this to say: "The lyrics are of a personal nature and were first thought to be a song of unrequited love but, in hindsight, they seem to allude to George's uneasy relationship with John Lennon. This is substantiated by first-hand observations by Hunter Davies and by people close to Harrison." He said he did his best to follow through with the original meaning Harrison gave to the song.

In case you're curious, here's the portion of the lyrics written by Harrison:

I'm happy to say that it's only a dream
When I come across people like you
It's only a dream and you make it obscene
With the things that you think and you do
You're so unaware of the pain that I bear
And jealous for what you can't do
There's times when I feel that you haven't a hope
But I also know that isn't true

And every time I ask you why
Silence is its own reply 

Here's a newspaper article about the song: 

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/4687467.wirrals-dean-finishes-lost-george-harrison-song/

The only other comment I have to make about this album is that two other songs here are also officially unreleased, "Any Road" by Phil Lesh and Friends, and "Heading for the Light" by Susan Cowsill. Both had sound quality issues. I think I was able to fix those problems for "Any Road." But "Heading for the Light" still sounds pretty rough. However, it's one of my favorite Harrison songs from later in his career, so I had to at least include a version. If anyone finds a better version that it's a virtual carbon copy of the original, please let me know and I'll use that instead. (And it definitely is mostly written by Harrison, despite being credited to all of the Traveling Wilburys.) 

This album is one hour long. 

01 All Those Years Ago (Emmy the Great)
02 Apple Scruffs (Billie Amit)
03 Think for Yourself (Christine Collester)
04 Your Love Is Forever (Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou)
05 I Need You (Webb Sisters)
06 Silence Is Its Own Reply (Dean Johnson)
07 Awaiting on You All (Michael Carpenter)
08 Ding Dong, Ding Dong (Popdudes)
09 Art of Dying (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
10 Any Road (Phil Lesh & Friends)
11 Beware of Darkness (Ann Wilson)
12 Heading for the Light (Susan Cowsill)
13 Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp [Let It Roll] (Jonathan Bates & Dhani Harrison)
14 Behind That Locked Door (Norah Jones)
15 It's All Too Much (Flaming Lips)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YkPbKTAT 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AT5KAwbiaqxUmKA/file

The cover image is from "circa 2000."

Various Artists - Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 3: 1999-2025

Here's the third and final volume of the "Covered" series for Randy Newman.

Newman's usual solo albums have been released less frequently as he gets older, which is usually the case for songwriters. By now, 2026, he averages about one album a decade. But unlike a lot of aging songwriters, he's kept his standards high. Pretty much every album he's made has been critically praised. 

But he's been much busier and prolific with his other career, composing soundtracks for Hollywood movies. I mentioned in the write-up for "Volume 2" that his career got a big boost starting in 1995, when he composed the soundtrack for the first "Toy Story" movie. That led him to a new line of work making soundtracks for blockbuster movies for kids, such as the other "Toy Story" movies (including "Toy Story 6," released in 2026), "Cars," "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," and more. Most of those are a mix of songs with lyrics and background music. I didn't find a lot of songs from these movies sung by others that fit this collection, but there are a few in this volume. 

Some others are from earlier in his career. For instance, "Burn On," a 1972 song based on a true incident of the Cuyahoga River, which runs through Cleveland, Ohio, catching fire in 1969 due to excessive pollution. 

All the songs in all three volumes were officially released, except for the last two on this volume. "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)" is from Randy Newman's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2013. It's sung by Newman and Don Henley. The album ends with "I Love L.A.," one of Newman's better known songs. I had trouble finding a worthy version, until I found this one. It comes from the 2025 Grammy Awards ceremony, and features a bunch of stars singing together.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 When She Loved Me (Sarah McLachlan)
02 If I Didn't Have You (Billy Crystal & John Goodman)
03 Every Time It Rains (Joe Cocker)
04 Rider in the Rain (Reckless Kelly & Joe Ely)
05 Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father (Kim Richey)
06 Marie (Allison Moorer)
07 Our Town (James Taylor)
08 Burn On (Mason Williams)
09 I Will Go Sailing No More (Los Lobos)
10 Almost There (Anika Noni Rose)
11 Down in New Orleans (Dr. John)
12 Losing You (Mavis Staples)
13 It's Lonely at the Top (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy)
14 I'm Dead [But I Don't Know It] (Don Henley & Randy Newman)
15 I Love L.A. (Dawes, John Legend, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard, Brad Paisley & Sheryl Crow)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vH9ypqsb

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Gi9hqAgXVCPPnVG/file

The cover image is from 1995.

Clint Black, Bill Anderson & Bob DiPiero - Songwriters' Circle, Bush Hall, London, Britain, 3-25-2012

I thought I was done with the "Songwriters' Circle" TV show. There were three episodes I couldn't find, but I'd looked everywhere and came up empty. But the other day, one more of them showed up via SoulseekQT. So here it is. This is a country-themed episode. It stars Clint Black, Bill Anderson, and Bob DiPiero.

I would guess that most people reading this have heard of Clint Black, but haven't heard of Bill Anderson and Bob DiPiero. That's because Black has been a big country star in recent decades, while Anderson and DiPiero have more worked behind the scenes as professional songwriters. 

Here's some information on each of them.

This is the Wikipedia intro for Clint Black: "[He] is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black's debut album 'Killin' Time' produced four straight number one singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Although his momentum gradually slowed throughout the 1990s, Black consistently charted hit songs into the 2000s. He has had more than thirty singles on the U.S. Billboard country charts, thirteen of which have reached number one, in addition to having released twelve studio albums and several compilation albums."

Here's the link to the whole entry:

Clint Black - Wikipedia

Here's the entry for Bob DiPiero: "[He] is an American country music songwriter. He has written 15 U.S. number one hits and several Top 20 singles for Tim McGraw, The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Shenandoah, Neal McCoy, Highway 101, Restless Heart, Ricochet, John Anderson, Montgomery Gentry, Brooks & Dunn, George Strait, Pam Tillis, Martina McBride, Trace Adkins, Travis Tritt, Bryan White, Billy Currington, Etta James, Delbert McClinton, Van Zant, Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless, and many others."

And here's the rest of the entry:

Bob DiPiero - Wikipedia

Finally, here's the entry for Bill Anderson. The intro for this one is much longer, so I selected some sentences from it: "[He] is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television host. His soft-spoken singing voice earned him the nickname 'Whispering Bill' from music critics and writers.[1] As a songwriter, his compositions have been covered by various music artists since the late 1950s. ... While in college, he wrote the song "City Lights", which became a major hit for Ray Price in 1958. His songwriting led to his first recording contract with Decca Records that year; shortly afterward, Anderson began to have major hits. In 1963, he released his most successful single, "Still". The song became a major country/pop crossover hit and was followed by a series of top-10 hits. ... His songs were being notably recorded by other artists. ... In the 1970s, Anderson continued having major hits as a recording artist, as well. ... He was dropped from his record label in the early 1980s and began a brief career in television, which included hosting the game shows 'The Better Sex' and 'Fandango.' Anderson began writing songs again in the early 1990s for the next generation of country performers. Collaborating with other writers, he wrote material that went on to become hits for Vince Gill, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and Steve Wariner in the next two decades. ... In his career as both a writer and performer, he has received awards from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame."

He is considerably older than the other two stars of this episode. As I write this in 2026, he is 88 years old. Here's the rest of his Wikipedia entry:

Bill Anderson - Wikipedia 

Now, there are just two episodes that I'm still looking for. Both are from 1999. One stars Joan Baez, Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters. The other one stars Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and John Martyn.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Blue Clear Sky (Bob DiPiero)
02 talk (Bob DiPiero)
03 talk (Clint Black)
04 Killin' Time (Clint Black)
05 talk (Clint Black)
06 The Songwriters (Bill Anderson)
07 talk (Bob DiPiero)
08 The Church on Cumberland Road (Bob DiPiero)
09 talk (Clint Black)
10 Spend My Time (Clint Black)
11 talk (Bill Anderson)
12 Happiness (Bill Anderson)
13 talk (Bob DiPiero)
14 They're Playin' Our Song (Bob DiPiero)
15 talk (Clint Black)
16 Better and Worse (Clint Black)
17 talk (Bill Anderson)
18 Give It Away (Bill Anderson)
19 talk (Bill Anderson & Clint Black)
20 talk (Bob DiPiero)
21 Gone (Bob DiPiero)
22 talk (Clint Black)
23 Code of the West (Clint Black)
24 talk (Bill Anderson)
25 The Tips of My Fingers (Bill Anderson)
26 talk (Bob DiPiero)
27 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Bill Anderson, Clint Black & Bob DiPiero)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/g6t9i6G9 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/9dWf0CCmyFmKDXA/file

Here's an extra special bonus. Normally, I'm not interested in sharing videos. I like listening to music much more than watching it. I also don't want "mission creep" for this blog. But I think this is a great show that has been extremely hard to find. So here is a text file that contains links to the videos of all of the full episodes I could find. I found one from the 1999 season and all of the ones from the 2010 to 2012 seasons. So that leaves two 1999 episodes I don't have the videos for, and two more 1999 episodes I don't have anything for, at least not yet. These are just PixelDrain links. The files range in size from 500 MB to 1.2 GB.

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zqFGowKa

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Bob DiPiero, Clint Black, and Bill Anderson. 

Fiona Apple - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 10-10-2012

A few days ago, I made an announcement about a recent leak of dozens of soundboard concerts from a venue in Port Chester, New York. I'm going to wait a little bit to post much more of that music. For one thing, I see some people are breaking the single sound files into songs and/or converting the mono into some stereo separation. That will save me some drudge work. Also, I'm waiting to get more feedback on the poll request I made. But here's one that I felt inspired to fix and post sooner rather than later. It's a Fiona Apple concert from 2012.

The reason I was keen on posting this is because there is a surprising lack of live recordings from her with impressive sound quality. There are a few soundboard-level recordings from the first few years of her music career, in the 1990s. But after that, I believe it's been nothing but audience boots. So this is really welcome, because it's a true soundboard. 

I took the single sound file and chopped it into mp3s. I didn't attempt to fix the mono problem. The audience applause is pretty low in the mix. For some of the songs, I boosted the applause volume.

One reason there aren't a lot of great concert recordings from her is because she hasn't toured that much, so there haven't been many recording opportunities. For instance, I don't believe she's performed in public since 2020 (I'm writing this in 2026.) Her last big tour, so far, was in 2012, supporting the album "The Idler Wheel..." So naturally there a lot of songs here from that album. She ended the concert with a cover of "It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty.

This album is an hour and 25 minutes long. 

01 talk (Fiona Apple)
02 Fast as You Can (Fiona Apple)
03 talk (Fiona Apple)
04 On the Bound (Fiona Apple)
05 Shadowboxer (Fiona Apple)
06 Paper Bag (Fiona Apple)
07 Anything We Want (Fiona Apple)
08 Get Gone (Fiona Apple)
09 Periphery (Fiona Apple)
10 Sleep to Dream (Fiona Apple)
11 Extraordinary Machine (Fiona Apple)
12 talk (Fiona Apple)
13 Werewolf (Fiona Apple)
14 Left Alone (Fiona Apple)
15 I Know (Fiona Apple)
16 Tymps [The Sick in the Head Song] (Fiona Apple)
17 Every Single Night (Fiona Apple)
18 Daredevil (Fiona Apple)
19 Not about Love (Fiona Apple)
20 It's Only Make Believe (Fiona Apple) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nShKA7N5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DsfwVvrRfZC8K9g/file

The cover photo is from 2012, but I don't know the date or venue.

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 7: 1987-2012 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I'm back from my two week vacation from Peru. It got off to a rough start due to the plane flight there, which I posted about. But everything else since then went great, with no more problems. :) I even had good weather the whole time, despite it being the rainy season there.

Here's the last album in a series that contains all the songs written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach and sung by Dionne Warwick. Though note that there's a bonus album of sorts still to come that will be explained later.

As I mentioned in Volume 6, the Bacharach-David songwriting partnership broke up around 1973, and they didn't collaborate for a long time after that. The second half of Volume 6 consisted entirely of songs written by Bacharach and another successful songwriter, Carole Bayer Sager. (In fact, Bacharach and Sager were married for a few years around this time). 

The Bacharach and Sager collaboration continued for a little while. The first songs are from a 1987, and are all co-written by those two. One song, "Love Power," was a hit. After that, there are a bunch of songs from 1989 to 2011, one song per year with many years skipped. "Sunny Weather Lover" from 1993 is a key song here, because it's the first song Bacharach and David wrote together since about 1972. However, that was a rare collaboration. Their songwriting partnership didn't reignite after that. (They also co-wrote two songs for the 2000 movie "Isn't She Great," but Warwick didn't sing them.) Furthermore, both of them were simply getting older and didn't write songs nearly as often as they used to. 

So the rest of the songs were written by Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" was a Number One hit in the U.S. for Christopher Cross in 1981, and was written by Bacharach with Sager and two others. Track 101 is an unreleased live version by Warwick recorded in 2005.

The last four songs are from a 2012 album called "Now." It was billed as a celebration of Bacharach and David songs. However, it mostly consisted of rerecordings of old hits. The four new songs, presented here, were written by either Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "99 Miles from L.A." was written by David with Albert Hammond, and was a hit for Hammond in 1975. 

Hal David died in 2012, so that ended the chance for any more songs written by both of them. Bacharach died in 2023.

While I was on vacation, a commenter noted that a song, "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" was included on Volume 4 of this series, despite neither Bacharach nor David being involved in writing it. Now that I'm back home, I was able to repost that album with that song removed. That also means that the numbering of all the songs after that has been fixed as well. So you might want to redownload Volumes 4, 5, and 6 if you're a stickler about such things. Also, since I had complaints about the cover art for Volume 1, I've posted an alternate version of the cover at the bottom of my write-up for that album that uses the original black and white photo, in case anyone wants that.

Thanks again to Mike Solof for putting this together.   

This album is one hour long. 

092 Take Good Care of You and Me (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
093 Love Power (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
094 In a World Such as This (Dionne Warwick)
095 Heartbreak of Love (Dionne Warwick & June Pointer)
096 On My Own (Dionne Warwick)
097 Sunny Weather Lover (Dionne Warwick)
098 Captives of the Heart (Dionne Warwick)
099 If I Want To (Dionne Warwick)
100 On My Way (Dionne Warwick)
101 Arthur's Theme [Best That You Can Do] (Dionne Warwick)
102 Keep Me in Mind (Dionne Warwick)
103 99 Miles from L.A. (Dionne Warwick)
104 Is There Anybody Out There (Dionne Warwick)
105 It Was Almost like a Song (Dionne Warwick)
106 Love Is Still the Answer (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ieF2gBUW

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/DKTsSUgj9dgKC43/file

The cover photo shows her in concert in an unknown location, in February 1989.

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 7: 2012-2016

Here we go with another Neil Young “Covered” album. Since I’m still on vacation, I’ll keep this short. Once again, thanks to Fabio from Rio for putting this together. And here’s his comments:

By the early 2010s, Neil Young's influence had spread even further across musical generations. Indie folk, alt-country, and singer-songwriter circles were openly embracing the emotional directness and melodic simplicity that had always defined Young's songwriting. At the same time, the digital era had changed how tribute recordings appeared: covers increasingly emerged from online projects, independent releases, and small tribute compilations rather than traditional label-driven albums. Young himself remained highly visible during this period, releasing politically engaged records and increasingly speaking out on environmental issues, while continuing to inspire younger artists discovering his catalog for the first time. The recordings in this volume reflect that diverse ecosystem: indie reinterpretations, roots-oriented performances, and the occasional stylistic surprise.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 Goin' Back (Beth Orton)
02 Southern Pacific (Jeff Monkman)
03 Thrasher (Andy Hill & Renee Safier)
04 Prime of Life (Gov't Mule)
05 On the Beach [CFCF Remix] (Joakim)
06 Stringman (Stevie Pling)
07 On the Way Home (Ocean Colour Scene)
08 Out on the Weekend (Lee Ann Womack)
09 Revolution Blues (Gov't Mule)
10 Sea of Madness (Ida Sand)
11 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Bluebeaters)
12 Motion Pictures (Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift)
13 Silver and Gold (Frank Fischer & Lavina Williams)
14 Bandit (Melanie Age)
15 Who's Gonna Stand Up (Anne Rynne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UrGS6KRt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/c4iwuykMMALNvdc/file

The cover photo is from 1993. Peter Buck of R.E.M. was leaning up against his shoulder, but I removed him using Photoshop. 

Bettye LaVette - Season of Change - Non-Album Tracks (2012-2017)

I recently came across a recent Bettye LaVette concert I was impressed by and plan on posting here soon. That reminded me that I've never finished posting a couple more collections of non-album tracks from her. So here's the next one.

As I've mentioned previously, LaVette has had an unusual career. She had some success in the 1960s as a soul singer. But then she struggled for a long, long time, only to have a big and prolonged career revival since the early 2000s. That revival gave her a lot of opportunities to appear in tribute concerts, on other artists' albums, and the like. This album is a mix of those sorts of things.

Tracks 6, 7, 8, and 11 are unreleased. All of them come from appearances at tribute concerts. Track 9 is a live performance too, but it comes from a deluxe edition version of one of her albums. For all these live songs, I used MVSEP to get rid of the crowd noise.

The other songs are all released, and from studio albums. The first two tracks here are actually from an EP she released, called "More Thankful, More Thoughtful." It consisted of extra songs from her 2012 album "Thankful N' Thoughtful." The rest (tracks 3, 4, 5, 10, and 12) are mostly from appearances on albums by other artists, and generally are duets.

By the way, in addition to getting this album ready for posting, at the same time, I went over her past non-album track albums and improved them. I added a song to the "Heart of Gold" collection, a duet with Joe Tex that only recently emerged on YouTube. Here's the link to that one:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/04/bettye-lavette-heart-of-gold-various.html

And for the album in this series previous to this one, "Change Is Gonna Come," most of the songs were unreleased live versions. I used the MVSEP program to get rid of the cheering, so they'd fit in with the other songs. I also improved the sound quality of two bonus tracks enough to add them to the main album. Here's the link to that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/05/bettye-lavette-change-is-gonna-come.html  

This album is 52 minutes long. 

01 Long Time (Bettye LaVette)
02 Save Some Time to Dream (Bettye LaVette)
03 Most of the Time (Bettye LaVette)
04 Yours and Mine (Dynamites featuring Charles Walker & Bettye Lavette)
05 Hustlin' [In the Motor City] (Bettye LaVette)
06 I'm Only Sleeping (Bettye LaVette)
07 Watching the Wheels (Bettye LaVette)
08 I [Who Have Nothing] (Bettye LaVette)
09 Like a Rock (Bettye LaVette)
10 Make You Feel My Love (Will Porter & Bettye LaVette)
11 In My Secret Life (Bettye LaVette)
12 Season of Change (Stone Foundation with Bettye LaVette) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H6yJnwZY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mikQeQOUG5CzXXL/file

The cover is from the "Robert Johnson at 100 Centennial" concert at the Apollo Theater in New York City on March 6, 2012.

Bob Weir - Solo Acoustic Live, Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, PA, 9-10-2012

Bob Weir, one of the two main singer-songwriters in the Grateful Dead, died about a month ago as I write this. (He died on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78.) I wanted to post some music in tribute to his musical legacy. So I posted a series of concerts for the closing of the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco that included a Grateful Dead concert. But I also wanted to post something that focused more on him. So I'm posting this, which is a solo acoustic concert he did in 2012.

In the Grateful Dead, Weir was always considered kind of second fiddle to Jerry Garcia. In fact, there's a documentary about his life showing on Netflix right now called "The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir" that expresses that second fiddle role right in the title. But had Weir led a band on his own, I think he would have been quite successful, because he was a very talented singer and songwriter. His solo career began as far back as 1972 when he released his first solo album, "Ace." (It's a great album, by the way, as good as the Grateful Dead albums at the time, and so is "Garcia," the 1972 Jerry Garcia solo album.) 

But his solo career didn't become his full time career until 1995, the year Garcia died and the Grateful Dead came to an end. He performed in a variety of bands, including Kingfish, the Other Ones, Furthur, RatDog, Bobby and the Midnites, and the Wolf Bros. It was pretty unusual for him to perform in solo acoustic mode, but that's what he did here. This was part of a short solo tour, while he also did an acoustic trio tour that year.

After the Dead broke up, Weir's songwriting slowed down quite a lot. (That's not so unusual for someone who has been in the music business three or more decades already.) As a result, I think only two of the songs here are songs he wrote after 1995: "Ashes and Glass" and "Big Bad Blues." Most of the rest are original songs once performed with the Grateful Dead or covers.

As for the sound quality, I read that, during this tour, each concert was recorded and then one could buy a CD of it immediately after this concert was over. If so, that would explain the soundboard sound quality. However, I don't know if that's true, because this one gets around in bootleg trading circles some, but I haven't seen the other ones from the tour shared in the same way.

This album is two hours and nine minutes long. 

01 talk (Bob Weir)
02 The Music Never Stopped (Bob Weir)
03 Shakey Ground (Bob Weir)
04 The Music Never Stopped [Reprise] (Bob Weir)
05 New, New Minglewood Blues (Bob Weir)
06 talk (Bob Weir)
07 My Brother Esau (Bob Weir)
08 Loose Lucy (Bob Weir)
09 When I Paint My Masterpiece (Bob Weir)
10 talk (Bob Weir)
11 Artificial Flowers (Bob Weir)
12 Weather Report Suite (Bob Weir)
13 talk (Bob Weir)
14 Ashes and Glass (Bob Weir)
15 Big Bad Blues (Bob Weir)
16 Easy to Slip (Bob Weir)
17 Peggy-O (Bob Weir)
18 talk (Bob Weir)
19 Hell in a Bucket (Bob Weir)
20 Dear Prudence (Bob Weir)
21 Sugar Magnolia (Bob Weir)
22 talk (Bob Weir)
23 Brokedown Palace (Bob Weir)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UiNPi3Qq

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/U3CBuMTDkWOf2W3/file

The cover is taken from a poster for this exact concert. The poster was rectangular, as posters usually are, so I had to make some edits to make it fit a square space. The main thing I did was I chopped out a section in the middle that included a lot of flowers under the skull. 

Various Artists - Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 3: 2004-2012 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

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/wvcKwhGU

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/7tUs0XZxiJ6YplA/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).

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.

Steve Earle, Diana Jones, & Tom Morello - Bush Hall, London, Britain, 3-11-2012

Here's another episode of the excellent BBC TV show "Songwriters' Circle." Like other episodes, it features three singer-songwriters who take turns performing their songs on guitar or piano. This one consists of Steve Earle, Diana Jones, and Tom Morello.

Before I say anything more, I want to thank a musical friend named Peter. I had hit a wall finding many episodes of this series, but he sent me a bunch. As I write this, I think only three are still missing.

For this show, in my opinion, Steve Earle and Tom Morello are quite famous, while Diana Jones is relatively unknown. Earle has had a long and successful career in rock, folk, and country since the mid-1980s. While he hasn't had many hits, he's gained lots of respect as a songwriter, with many big names covering his songs. He's also won three Grammy Awards. Here's his Wikipedia link if you want to know more:

Steve Earle - Wikipedia 

Diana Jones released her first album in 1997. But, as he Wikipedia bio points out, "Jones's career gained wider critical acclaim in 2006 with the release of her album, 'My Remembrance of You.' The album made a number of critics end-of-the-year 'best of' lists." Her music has mixed country and folk. Here's the rest of her Wikipedia entry:

Diana Jones (singer-songwriter) - Wikipedia 

Finally, there's Tom Morello. He first came to fame as the lead guitarist for the band Rage Against the Machine. He's also been a member of the rock bands Audioslave and Prophets of Rage. However, he's done very different music in a parallel solo career, often under the name the Nightwatchman, consisting of acoustic folk music. That also is more of an outlet for his socialist, political views. The music he performed in this concert is in his solo style, and miles away from his rocking Rage Against the Machine style. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Tom Morello - Wikipedia 

The Songwriter's Circle show didn't last long. There were a few episodes in 1999. Then it seemed the show was cancelled, but it came back for more episodes in 2010 and 2011. There were just three final episodes in 2012, and this was one of them. 

I got this from Peter as one big, high-quality video file. I converted it to audio, then broke it into mp3s. The music is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 talk (Steve Earle)
02 Guitar Town (Steve Earle)
03 If I Had a Gun (Diana Jones)
04 talk (Tom Morello)
05 Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine (Tom Morello)
06 talk (Steve Earle)
07 The Rain Came Down (Steve Earle)
08 talk (Diana Jones)
09 Pony (Diana Jones)
10 talk (Tom Morello)
11 No One Left (Tom Morello)
12 talk (Steve Earle)
13 Mountain (Steve Earle)
14 talk (Steve Earle & Diana Jones)
15 Henry Russell's Last Words (Diana Jones)
16 talk (Tom Morello)
17 The Garden of Gethsemane (Tom Morello)
18 talk (Steve Earle)
19 The Devil's Right Hand (Steve Earle)
20 talk (Diana Jones)
21 Poverty (Diana Jones)
22 talk (Tom Morello)
23 One Man Revolution (Tom Morello)
24 talk (Tom Morello, Steve Earle & Diana Jones)
25 This Land Is Your Land (Tom Morello, Steve Earle & Diana Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VXxT9Nzu

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/zL4vJV8JznMzioe/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Steve Earle, Diana Jones, and Tom Morello.

Various Artists - Covered: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Volume 3: 2012-2024 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here is the third and final "Covered" album celebrating the songwriting of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

I didn't get around to writing about the basics of Jobim's life with the first two volumes in this series, so let me do that now. Jobim was born in 1927 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the 1940s, he made a living playing piano in bars and nightclubs in Rio. His first song to be recorded by someone happened in 1953. But he didn't have significant success until 1958, when Joao Gilberto recorded what would become one of his most famous songs, "Desafinado (Out of Tune)." Then, in 1964, he really hit it big with "The Girl from Ipanema." A version of that song by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto reached the Top Five in the U.S. singles chart. But its success went way beyond that. In fact, it has become the second most recorded song of all time, behind only "Yesterday" by the Beatles.

This song led many people to discover not only other songs written by Jobim, but songs from Brazil in general, especially bossa nova music. For a couple of years, there was a sort of bossa nova craze in Western countries, especially in the jazz world. Jazz musicians in particular fell in love with Jobim's songs, because they were both musically complicated and interesting while being tuneful and catchy. Many of his songs became standards. Looking at the website secondhandsongs.com in 2025, which tallies cover versions, I count 34 songs written or co-written by Jobim that have been covered over 100 times. It may not sound like a lot, but that's a crazy amount. By comparison, only 18 songs by Bob Dylan have been covered over 100 times. Or consider Carole King, one of the most successful songwriters of all time. Only eight of her songs have been covered over 100 times.

Jobim released several dozen albums, with about half of them being collaborations with other famous musicians. He often collaborated with singers, since he wasn't much of a singer himself. His own albums didn't sell that well, but his collaboration albums often did. Overall, he had much more success with other musicians covering his songs. 

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

Antônio Carlos Jobim - Wikipedia 

He died in 1994 at the age of 67. As a result, all of the songs here are from well after his death. Most of them were written in the 1950s to 1970s, and it just so happens these are the versions that Fabio from Rio and I liked the best (since all three of these albums were put together by Fabio and myself). As with the two previous volumes in the series, the focus was on songs sung in English, when in fact there are even more covers of his songs in other languages, especially Portuguese, which is spoken in his home country of Brazil.

Thanks again to Fabio of Rio for his helping putting this Jobim albums together. I already had plans to make Covered albums from Jobim on my own. But they wouldn't have been nearly as good without Fabio's input, since he's much more familiar with this type of music than I am. 

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 I Love You [Eu Te Amo] (Alessandra Maestrini)
02 Somewhere in the Hills [O Morro Nao Tem Vez] (Lisa Sanchez & Jon Eriksen Quartet)
03 Forever Green [Sempre Verde] (Trudy Kerr)
04 Photograph [Fotografia] (Stephanie Patton)
05 Little Bird [Passarim] (Daniel Vincke)
06 Once I Loved [O Amor em Paz] (Baila Nova)
07 This Happy Madness [Estrada Branca] (Delicatessen)
08 Useless Landscape [Inutil Paisagem] (Emma Pask)
09 Meditation [Meditacao] (Nicole Magolie)
10 One Note Samba [Samba de Uma Nota So] (Arpi Alto)
11 Wave (Natalie Jacob, Tamir Hendelman, Anthony Wilson & Kevin Winard)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/j7mfHvpG

alternate:

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

The cover photo is cropped from a photo of Jobim with Sting. I don't know when it was taken, but I'd guess it's from the 1990s, because the two of them collaborated on a song around then which was released in 1996. The original version was black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Suzanne Vega - Close-Up on Suzanne Vega Album (2012) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

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

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

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

This album is 42 minutes long. 

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oJ5agEih 

alternate:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This album is 54 minutes long.

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

This album is 54 minutes long. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KaZyTRqs

alternate:

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

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