Various Artists - A Country Music Celebration, Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, TN, 1-13-1993

There are so many interesting tribute concerts that have taken place over the years but then were largely forgotten because they didn't get an official release. Here's another one I happened to find recently. 

There have been many country music themed TV specials over the years. I'm not familiar with most of them. But in terms of sheer star power, I couldn't overlook this one. The vast majority of the biggest names in country music at the time performed, back before country music went downhill with "bro country," rap, Autotune, and so forth. I don't know how often the Country Music Association has put on shows like this. I did find their 25th anniversary concert on YouTube, but it's less than an hour long and not as impressive a line-up.

This concert crammed in a surprising number of songs in the amount of time it had. That's because it often only allowed for truncated versions of songs, meaning two minutes or less. In the worst case, Glen Campbell's version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was under a minute long. But the plus side is the show kept moving, so if there's a song you don't like, it wasn't long until the next one started.

I pretty much kept the show intact, until near the end. Very late in the show, around track 45, there was an extended tribute to Dolly Parton. I cut the vast majority of it out, because it was a video presentation, with short snippets of the recorded versions of her most famous songs. I cut all that because it was meant to be seen more than heard, with no live musical performances in it. However, immediately following that was a speech by Parton, and I kept all that.

The sound quality is excellent, even though this all remains unreleased. The only problem I had was with the last song, "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton (with Kenny Rogers assisting). Clearly, the time allotted for the TV show came to an end, because the song was cut short, at only about a minute long, and then faded out. But at least it seems the performers knew the version was going to be a short one, because they only sang the chorus over and over. However, even that short version was marred by an announcer speaking over part of it to hype up the next shows coming up on that TV channel. I managed to cut that out by largely repeating one of the choruses. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title. 

Oh, by the way, this website has a couple dozen nice photos from the event:

Nashville Then: A Country Music Celebration to honor CMA in 1993 

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 This Nightlife (Clint Black with Ricky Skaggs, Glen Campbell & Mark O'Connor)
03 talk (Clint Black)
04 Road Scholar (Lee Roy Parnell & Delbert McClinton)
05 talk (Clint Black)
06 Here I Am (Lyle Lovett)
07 talk (Clint Black)
08 Heartland (Bob Dylan & Willie Nelson)
09 One More Last Chance (Vince Gill)
10 talk (Vince Gill & Travis Tritt)
11 What Would Elvis Do (Pam Tillis)
12 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (Rodney Crowell)
13 T-R-O-U-B-L-E (Travis Tritt)
14 Devil in Disguise (Trisha Yearwood)
15 That's All Right, Mama (Vince Gill)
16 talk (Reba McEntire)
17 A Little Bit of Love (Wynonna Judd)
18 talk (Reba McEntire)
19 Goodbye Again (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
20 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
21 Take It Back (Reba McEntire)
22 talk (Randy Owen)
23 Old Time Rock and Roll (Little Texas)
24 talk (Randy Owen)
25 It's a Heartache (Lorrie Morgan)
26 talk (Randy Owen)
27 Hard Working Man (Brooks & Dunn)
28 Drive South (Suzy Bogguss)
29 I'm in a Hurry (Alabama)
30 talk (Vince Gill)
31 The Heart Won't Lie (Reba McEntire & Vince Gill)
32 The Whiskey Ain't Working Anymore (Travis Tritt & Marty Stuart)
33 Love Certified (Ronnie Milsap & Patti LaBelle)
34 Silver Bells [Instrumental] (Charlie Daniels, Mark O'Connor & Sam Bush)
35 talk (Charlie Daniels & Emmylou Harris)
36 Too Far Gone (Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill & Ricky Skaggs)
37 Two More Bottles of Wine (Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill & Ricky Skaggs)
38 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Glen Campbell)
39 talk (Glen Campbell)
40 The Ride (John Anderson)
41 Talking to Hank (Mark Chesnutt & Joe Diffie)
42 talk (Glen Campbell)
43 Midnight in Montgomery (Alan Jackson)
44 You Decorated My Life (Kenny Rogers)
45 talk (Kenny Rogers)
46 talk (Dolly Parton)
47 Full Circle (Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers & Glen Campbell)
48 talk (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton)
49 I Will Always Love You [Edit] (Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Eosyj9Qd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2l2znKTYkfdFKDm/file 

The cover photo is from the finale of this exact concert. From left to right: Emmylou Harris, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson.

Kenny Rogers - BBC In Concert, London, Britain, 1-10-1979

I can't say I'm much of a Kenny Rogers fan. But it can't be denied that he's had massive success, selling over 100 million records worldwide, and he has some classic country hits. So when I came across a bootleg of this concert the other day, I figured it was worthy of inclusion in my big BBC project.

I looked up Rogers' discography, and I was surprised to find that although he's released dozens and dozens of studio albums, he only ever released three live albums. And all three seem to be surprisingly bad, coming late in his career with complaints from reviewers of poor sound quality. One specifically is a Christmas album. So that probably makes this his best live album, if only due to a lack of competition. This also appears to be the only BBC recording from him that I could find, although who knows, sometimes others pop up later.

At the time of this concert, in early 1979, Rogers was near the peak of his popularity. He'd just had a massive hit in late 1978 with "The Gambler," which became his signature song. He'd had some other big hits too, like "Lucille" and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town." However, some other big ones were still to come, like "Coward of the County," "Islands in the Stream," "Lady," and "We've Got Tonight."

In the middle of the show, Rogers left the stage to allow a country pop act called "Dave and Sugar" to perform. I wasn't too impressed with this duo, which never had much commercial success, and it kind of ruined the flow of the concert, in my opinion. So I cut out those two songs. Sorry to all the hordes of Dave and Sugar fans out there. ;) 

Weirdly, back in 1968, Rogers had a minor hit with an unabashedly psychedelic song describing an L.S.D. trip, called "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." It was his very first hit, while he was lead singer to the band the First Edition. Weirder still, Rogers performed this song at a prime spot towards the end of this concert.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Desperado (Kenny Rogers)
02 talk (Kenny Rogers)
03 Love or Something like It (Kenny Rogers)
04 Lucille (Kenny Rogers)
05 Daytime Friends (Kenny Rogers)
06 talk (Kenny Rogers)
07 Sweet Music Man (Kenny Rogers)
08 In and Out of Your Heart (Kenny Rogers)
09 Every Time Two Fools Collide (Kenny Rogers)
10 Heart to Heart (Kenny Rogers)
11 Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town (Kenny Rogers)
12 talk (Kenny Rogers)
13 There's an Old Man in Our Town (Kenny Rogers)
14 talk (Kenny Rogers)
15 Just Dropped In [To See What Condition My Condition Was In] (Kenny Rogers)
16 The Gambler (Kenny Rogers) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ap7SmMNA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pv4I2Lu9BhcF97I/file

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