George Harrison - All Things Must Pass - Acoustic (1970)

In 1970, George Harrison released "All Things Must Pass," a masterpiece solo album, and some argue, the best Beatles solo album of all. A few days ago (as I write this), a "super deluxe" edition of that album was officially released. I noticed that edition contained a bunch of acoustic demos, almost enough to make an entire acoustic version of the album. Unfortunately, a handful of songs were rocking, full-band versions. Happily, I figured out a way to turn those into acoustic versions (as I will explain in more detail below). 

The one gripe some people have about "All Things Must Pass" is that the producer, Phil Spector, drenched the album in his typical "Wall of Sound" production that sometimes veered into overproduction. Well, this takes things in the opposite direction, re-imagining the album strictly as a solo acoustic one! Whatever you think about Spector's production, this allows you to enjoy the album in a different way.

"All Things Must Pass" is a triple album. The first two albums are full of great songs. The third album is a bonus album of jams that I'm going to completely disregard, because those jams have nothing to do with the acoustic format, and they're largely forgettable anyway. The first two albums have a total of 18 songs. Out of those, I was able to find acoustic demos for 11 of them, mostly drawing on the super deluxe edition, but also a few other sources, including the album "Early Takes, Volume 1," the Beatles album "Anthology 3," an unreleased take, and an iTunes only bonus track. 

That left seven songs. There were interesting demo versions for all of them from the super deluxe edition, both those either included a drummer and bass, or a full rocking band. I searched the Internet for other acoustic versions. I didn't find any, but during the search I came across an amazing (and free) program I'd never known of before, called Spleeter. This program splits any sound file into five tracks, one containing the vocals, another containing the bass, another the drums, another the piano, and finally one that's everything else. I tried this for the first time on some "All Things Must Pass" songs, and I was amazed at the results! I plan on using this program a LOT more in the future. I thought separating out the different instruments in a recording was next to impossible. But this program has come along in the last year, and while it's not perfect - sometimes there's some loss of audio quality - it's way better than anything I've ever seen before.

The one issue I have with the program is that it doesn't specifically separate out the guitar parts into its own track. The guitar is lumped in with everything else that isn't vocals, bass, drums, or piano. But in the case of the "All Things Must Pass" demos, the "other" is usually just guitar. For instance, some of the songs were just vocals, drums, bass, and guitar (with the guitar sometimes electric, sometimes acoustic). So for the purpose of this album, at least, the program worked great. Even really rocking, full band songs like "What Is Life" now sound like solo guitar demos, though with electric guitar instead of acoustic. 

Note I also included the bass on some songs, as I felt having some bass helped cover for some of the sonic imperfections of the Spleeter program. But I generally kept the bass at a relatively low volume, for more of a subtle bass presence.

Anyway, the final result, I believe, sounds exactly as if all the songs were demos done just by Harrison and his electric or acoustic guitar. I'd be curious what you think of my use of this program, and if you can tell the difference between the ones I used it one (which are marked with "[Edit]" in the name) and the ones I didn't.

By posting this, I don't want to take away from sales on the newly released super deluxe edition of the album. On the contrary, I hope this will whet the appetite of George Harrison fans and remind them to buy that. It contains tons of other great things, including three discs of rarities. It really is an excellent release. Plus, the remixed version of the original album included in it is a revelation.

As an aside, I've always thought it weird that the album contains two versions of "Isn't It a Pity," especially since we now know Harrison recorded a bunch of original songs for the album that remained unreleased. But he did include two versions of it, so I tried to do my best with that. The first version here is a different take than the album version, an unaltered solo acoustic demo. For the second version, I used the exact album version, but ran it through the Spleeter program to turn it into another acoustic version.

The first two albums of "All Things Must Pass" are an hour and 18 minutes long. This album is an hour and one minute long. The number of songs is the same, but it's 17 minutes shorter because the acoustic versions are sometimes shorter, especially because they often didn't include the space for solos.

01 I'd Have You Anytime (George Harrison)
02 My Sweet Lord [Edit] (George Harrison)
03 Wah-Wah [Edit] (George Harrison)
04 Isn't It a Pity (George Harrison)
05 What Is Life [Edit] (George Harrison)
06 If Not for You (George Harrison)
07 Behind that Locked Door (George Harrison)
08 Let It Down (George Harrison)
09 Run of the Mill (George Harrison)
10 Beware of Darkness (George Harrison)
11 Apple Scruffs (George Harrison)
12 Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp [Let It Roll] [Edit] (George Harrison)
13 Awaiting on You All [Edit] (George Harrison)
14 All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
15 I Dig Love [Edit] (George Harrison)
16 Art of Dying (George Harrison)
17 Isn't It a Pity [Version 2] [Edit] (George Harrison)
18 Hear Me Lord (George Harrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/j9LrnKnH

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/SAk2wbPixBFNwJV/file

For the cover art, I tried to do something similar to the original cover, but different. The original used a black and white photo. I found a color outtake from that same photo session to use. I also found the same font used for the original. But I put the text higher up, so it wouldn't get hidden by the darkness of the trees.

Neil Young - Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, MI, 10-16-1969 (Compilation)

In the last few weeks (as I write this in August 2021), Neil Young has released an incredible acoustic concert he performed in 1969, but only through his website, neilyoungarchives.com. In my opinion, the recording of this show is one of the best recordings he ever made in his long career, so it's frustrating that it's not being officially released (at least not yet). I want to share it, because it really needs to be heard by lots of people, but I also don't want to take exclusive content from the Archives website. So I decided on a compromise. Young played three sets that night. I'm posting about half of that material here: the second set (which is the longest), plus the three other songs that were only played for the first or third sets. So one gets one version of each unique song played that night.

This show is very unique and special indeed. Young played some acoustic shows up through about February 1969, then switched to playing with Crazy House or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young for the rest of 1969 and 1970. It was only at the last couple of months of 1970 when he did another solo acoustic tour. So this concert at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was the only full acoustic show he did for well over a year and a half during a very crucial part of his career. It took place right in the middle of a CSNY tour. It was professionally recorded, with the possible intention of being released as a live album. However, that never happened, and the show was never even available as a bootleg. 

The version that has now finally appeared sounds fantastic. Young was in top form, both with his musical performance and his entertaining banter between songs. Plus, since this was the only acoustic concert he did for a large portion of 1969 and 1970, many of the songs were very rarely done by him at other times, at least not in acoustic format. For instance, this concert is the ONLY time in his long career that he's ever played his Buffalo Springfield song "Down to the Wire." It's one of just two times he played the cover "Oh Lonesome Me" prior to 2005. It's the first time he played "Country Girl" in public, one of only a small number of times he played it, and this is the only excellent live acoustic recording of it. It's the only time he played "I've Been Waiting for You" prior to 2001, and the only live acoustic version. It's the first time he played "Here We Are in the Years," and the only live acoustic version he's ever done. It's the first time he played "Everybody's Alone" in concert, and one of just of four times he's played it in public. It also was the first public performances of "Helpless" and "Dance, Dance, Dance." I could go on with other rarities, like "I've Loved Her So Long" and "Wonderin'." 

Suffice to say this is a very unique "holy grail" concert for Neil Young fans! It boggles my mind that it hasn't been officially released yet. It may well be that he will put in out as an album soon, in which case I'll take this post down. But until then, you can tide yourself over with this. And if you want to hear the rest, I strongly suggest you sign up for his Archives website. There's lots more exclusive material getting posted there, including many full concerts.

To make this a coherent listen, I put the songs from the third set ("Down to the Wire") and the first set ("I've Loved Her So Long" and "Oh Lonesome Me") at the beginning. Then the entire second set follows without interruption. I boosted the volume of his banter between songs in many cases, since that was rather low in the mix.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On October 7, 2021, I updated the mp3 download file. I didn't add or remove any songs. But it dawned on me after listening to this album some more that there was something wrong with the sound, specifically that the bass was way too prominent in the mix. Luckily, this was just with one version, and I was able to find a better version. So I redid the album using a different source. It's a really big sound improvement, so please make sure you have the updated version.

01 talk (Neil Young)
02 Down to the Wire (Neil Young)
03 talk (Neil Young)
04 I've Loved Her So Long (Neil Young)
05 talk (Neil Young)
06 Oh Lonesome Me (Neil Young)
07 On the Way Home (Neil Young)
08 talk (Neil Young)
09 Helpless (Neil Young)
10 talk (Neil Young)
11 Cinnamon Girl - The Loner (Neil Young)
12 talk (Neil Young)
13 Birds (Neil Young)
14 talk (Neil Young)
15 I Am a Child (Neil Young)
16 talk (Neil Young)
17 Everybody's Alone (Neil Young)
18 talk (Neil Young)
19 Dance, Dance, Dance (Neil Young)
20 The 1956 Bubblegum Incident - It's My Time (Neil Young)
21 talk (Neil Young)
22 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
23 talk (Neil Young)
24 The Old Laughing Lady (Neil Young)
25 talk (Neil Young)
26 I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young)
27 talk (Neil Young)
28 Here We Are in the Years (Neil Young)
29 talk (Neil Young)
30 Wonderin' (Neil Young)
31 Down by the River (Neil Young)
32 talk (Neil Young)
33 Country Girl (Neil Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iDsKw7ir

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xe0t0inP30fCZW1/file

I made the cover art using a photo of Neil Young from 1969. I didn't see any good color ones of him from that year, so I colorized a black and white one. I used the Krea AI to sharpen it up.

Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren - Sunday Morning Live, Minneapolis, MN, 8-8-2021

I've posted a lot of music from Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren in recent months. But all of that has been their acoustic covers of (mostly) famous songs. However, Elle Cordova in particular is a talented songwriter, and she's put out some albums that are all or mostly all originals.

Most every Sunday, the duo posts a new cover song they've done. But this last Sunday, two days ago as I write this, they did a surprise short home concert instead. So here it is for you. Most of the songs are originals, with these exceptions: "Ain't Goin' Down till the Sun Comes Up," "Boogie Shoes," "Angel from Montgomery," and "Don't Dream It's Over."

If you've been enjoying their covers but haven't heard any of their originals yet, this is a good way to get into that aspect of their music. As with their Sunday cover songs, everything here is performed with just the two of them, usually on acoustic guitars, though the multi-talented Toni Lindgren occasionally switches to or doubles up on other instruments, such as harmonica.

This album is 41 minutes long. The concert actually was about 49 minutes long, but I cut out a lot of the talking between songs. Most of the stuff I cut out had to do with technical problems, including several minutes at the beginning when they were having trouble with their recording equipment. I also cut out most of their credits to donors, since that doesn't mean anything except for the specific people mentioned. I tried to keep everything else though. I also boosted the volume of the banter, since it was rather low compared to the music.

01 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
02 This One's Gonna Hurt (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
03 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
04 Runner in the Sun (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
05 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
06 Ain't Goin' Down till the Sun Comes Up (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
07 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
08 Boogie Shoes (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
09 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
10 Cassiopeia (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
11 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
12 Angel from Montgomery (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
13 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
14 Bernadette (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
15 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
16 Shot 'Em Dead (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
17 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
18 Whiskey Down (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
19 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
20 Don't Dream It's Over (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
21 talk (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363714/ELLECRDVATNILINDRN2021b_SndyMrnngLveMnneplisMN__8-8-2021_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7NALaSG2

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from the exact concert in question.

The Faces - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1970

In recent months, I post a handful of stray tracks albums for the Faces. I've finished those, and that now frees me up to post BBC material from the band. It turns out the Faces performed a lot for the BBC. Even though the band only existed for six years, I have seven BBC albums I want to post here, starting with this one.

The vast majority of the band's BBC material remains officially unreleased, and this album is a case in point. Only three of the ten songs here have been released. The first song is from a bonus track, and the fifth and ninth songs are from the band's box set, "Five Guys Walk into a Bar..."

Most of the Faces BBC albums I plan on posting here are entire concerts that were recorded by the BBC. But this is of the more stereotypical kind of BBC material, in which the band played live in a studio without any audience. As a result, there could be a danger of BBC DJs talking over the music. Happily, by 1970 that bad habit seems to have become less common, and there are no cases of that here.

The sound quality is solid throughout, except for the last song, "Away in a Manger." Consider that kind of a bonus track. 

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Shake, Shudder, Shiver (Faces)
02 Love in Vain (Faces)
03 The Wicked Messenger (Faces)
04 Maybe I'm Amazed (Faces)
05 Flying (Faces)
06 Evil (Faces)
07 Had Me a Real Good Time (Faces)
08 Country Comfort (Faces)
09 Around the Plynth - Gasoline Alley (Faces)
10 Away in a Manger (Rod Stewart with Ian McLagan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15292635/TFacs_1970b_BBSessionsVolum1_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I used part of a 1970 concert poster for the band. The only changes I made were that I increased the contrast, and added some words in black.

Paul Weller - Acoustic Radio Sessions, 1993-1994

A few days ago, it was pointed out to me that a bunch of download links for Paul Weller albums died out. So I've just redone ALL the links to ALL Paul Weller solo albums here. That took some time to do, because while I was at it, I readjusted the albums to improve the volume balance from song to song. (I plan on doing that to everything I've posted here, but it's a long, slow process.) So, even if you have those albums again, I suggest you download them again. They sound better now, trust me.

Anyway, while I was at it, I decided to post something new from Mr. Weller. He does have an album that's a couple of months old, "Fat Pop, Volume 1," that's pretty good. But I don't have any newish material to post for him at the moment, so I've gone back to near the start of his solo career, 1993 and 1994. Personally, I think that was a particularly creative time for him. 

This is a compilation of three in-person radio station appearances where he played some songs by himself on acoustic guitar. There's nothing earth-shattering here - all the rare songs he did I've already put on various stray tracks albums - but it's a nice, mellow listen. Plus, he talked a bit between songs and sometimes explained what the songs were about. Also, the sound quality is excellent throughout, since this is basically like a studio recording, with no audience noise.

The album is 57 minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Weller)
02 Amongst Butterflies (Paul Weller)
03 talk (Paul Weller)
04 The Loved (Paul Weller)
05 talk (Paul Weller)
06 All the Pictures on the Wall (Paul Weller)
07 talk (Paul Weller)
08 Into Tomorrow (Paul Weller)
09 talk (Paul Weller)
10 Foot of the Mountain (Paul Weller)
11 That's Entertainment (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Red Balloon (Paul Weller)
14 talk (Paul Weller)
15 The Cost of Loving (Paul Weller)
16 talk (Paul Weller)
17 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller)
18 talk (Paul Weller)
19 A Year Late (Paul Weller)
20 talk (Paul Weller)
21 Birds (Paul Weller)
22 talk (Paul Weller)
23 Country (Paul Weller)
24 talk (Paul Weller)
25 Fly on the Wall (Paul Weller)
26 talk (Paul Weller)
27 Wild Wood (Paul Weller)
28 talk (Paul Weller)
29 Hung Up (Paul Weller)
30 Moon on Your Pyjamas (Paul Weller)
31 Out of the Sinking (Paul Weller)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15265274/PaulW_1993-1994_AcoustcRdioSessions_atse.zip.html

The album cover features a photo of Weller in concert in 1994. I chose this one since it shows him playing an acoustic guitar.

Larkin Poe - Yet Additional Even Still More Further Tip O' the Hat - Various Cover Versions (2021)

It's that time of year again, when I get to present the next album in the long running Larkin Poe "Tip O' the Hat" series. I'm always extra psyched to post these albums, because they post a new YouTube video of a cover song every now and then, and I slowly collect them until there's enough for an album. It's satisfying to get enough songs for another album. At the rate they're going, I'm hopeful there will be enough songs for another album before 2021 is done.

As usual for this series, all the songs are done in an acoustic format. And, as usual, they do a really great job. I love their range of material. Who else would attempt an acoustic version of  "Stayin' Alive," and then follow it with a song by blues legend Robert Johnson?

By the way, Larkin Poe no longer refers to these covers as "Tip O' the Hat." Instead, they just categorize them under their blandly named "Larkin Poe Cover Channel." That's such a boring name that I plan on sticking with "Tip O' the Hat," unless they come up with something better.

Speaking of that name, with each album in this series, I've come up with an even longer album title than the last. It's been fun, but it's getting a bit preposterous and unwieldy. Do you think I should keep going, and if so, what should I call the next one? Or, if I stop, again, what should I call the next one?

Here's a list of the artists who had the original versions of each song. (In the case of "Angel Band" and "The Star Spangled Banner," one person wrote the music and then, later, another person added a new set of words to it.)

01 If I Fell - Beatles
02 Break My Stride - Matthew Wilder
03 You Can Close Your Eyes - James Taylor
04 Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
05 Sweet Home Chicago - Robert Johnson
06 Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
07 All I Have to Do Is Dream - Everly Brothers
08 Angel Band - William Bradbury & Jefferson Hascall
09 Star Spangled Banner - John Stafford Smith & Francis Scott Key
10 Layla - Derek & the Dominos
11 Graceland - Paul Simon
12 Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne
13 Wicked Game - Chris Isaak

Here's the usual song list:

01 If I Fell (Larkin Poe)
02 Break My Stride (Larkin Poe)
03 You Can Close Your Eyes (Larkin Poe)
04 Stayin' Alive (Larkin Poe)
05 Sweet Home Chicago (Larkin Poe)
06 Wish You Were Here (Larkin Poe)
07 All I Have to Do Is Dream (Larkin Poe)
08 Angel Band (Larkin Poe)
09 Star Spangled Banner (Larkin Poe)
10 Layla (Larkin Poe)
11 Graceland (Larkin Poe)
12 Mama, I'm Coming Home (Larkin Poe)
13 Wicked Game (Larkin Poe)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693469/LARKNPO2021c_YetAdditinlEvnStillMreFurthrTpOtheHt_atse.zip.html

The photo for the album cover comes from a promo shot Larkin Poe did recently, I'm guessing earlier in 2021.

Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren - Sunday Mornings with Elle and Toni, Volume 9: 2020

This is another album of Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren doing their usual good stuff, coming up with a new cover version most every Sunday morning, year after year. With this album we're well in the year 2020, but I still have two and a half more albums of songs to get to before I'm caught up to the present day (as I write this in July 2021).

There's not much else to say, I think. Hopefully you've listened to some of the previous albums of theirs I've posted here already, so you already know about their low-key charm. As usual, there's a nice mix of famous songs like "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Landslide" mixed with lesser known ones, such as "How Mountain Girls Can Love" and "Goldmine."

This album is 44 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 You've Got a Friend in Me - Randy Newman
02 The Gambler - Kenny Rogers
03 It's My Lazy Day - Smiley Burnette
04 Old Home Place - Dillards
05 How Mountain Girls Can Love - Stanley Brothers
06 Tennessee Whiskey - Chris Stapleton
07 Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
08 Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
09 Crazy Love - Van Morrison
10 Deal - Grateful Dead
11 Goldmine - I Draw Slow
12 Mama Tried - Merle Haggard
13 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan
14 The Weakness in Me - Joan Armatrading

Here's the usual song list:

01 You've Got a Friend in Me (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
02 The Gambler (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
03 It's My Lazy Day (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
04 Old Home Place (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
05 How Mountain Girls Can Love (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
06 Tennessee Whiskey (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
07 Don't Dream It's Over (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
08 Landslide (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
09 Crazy Love (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
10 Deal (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
11 Goldmine (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
12 Mama Tried (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
13 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
14 The Weakness in Me (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363684/ELLECRDVATNILINDRN2020SndyMrnngswthEllTniVlum9_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nkSxSvMP

For the cover photo, I took a screenshot of one of the YouTube videos of the songs featured here. In this case, they performed "The Gambler" at a busy street corner in Las Vegas, since that kind of fit the theme of the song. (By the way, as a result of the location, the sound quality on this one song is a bit rougher than the others on the album.)

Bonnie Raitt - Coming Home - Non-Album Tracks (1999-2004)

Here's another in a series of stray tracks albums for Bonnie Raitt. I plan to keep posting these until I get caught up to the present day.

Raitt has always been fond of doing songs outside her studio albums, often in collaboration with other musicians, and since she hit it big with her "Nick of Time" album in 1989, she's been in high demand.  About half of the songs here are collaborations with others. She's done many more, but I'm only including the ones where she prominently sings, and not just adds guitar. Additionally, some of the songs are from tribute albums or movie soundtracks. Everything is officially released except for "Never Make Your Move Too Soon." And that one was recorded for BBC radio, so it sounds as good as all the rest.

The two bonus tracks are unreleased. They're only bonus tracks because the sound quality isn't as good as the rest.

The album is 44 minutes long, not including the two bons songs.

01 A Stor Mo Chroi (Chieftans with Bonnie Raitt)
02 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bonnie Raitt)
03 I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues [Edit] (Tony Bennett & Bonnie Raitt)
04 Can Love Stand the Test (Bonnie Raitt & Don Henley)
05 It's a Blessing (Maria Muldaur & Bonnie Raitt)
06 Never Make Your Move Too Soon (Bonnie Raitt)
07 Devil Got My Woman (Bonnie Raitt)
08 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (Ray Charles & Bonnie Raitt)
09 La Brisa Azul (Bonnie Raitt with Pablo Menendez & Rey Guerra)
10 Coming Home (Bonnie Raitt)
11 Will the Sun Ever Shine Again (Bonnie Raitt)

I Believe I’m in Love with You (Bonnie Raitt & Padlock)
I Can't Stop Wanting You (Paul Brady & Bonnie Raitt)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687597/BONNIRTT1999-2004_CmingHme_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a 2002 concert.

Robert Plant - Acoustic in Europe - Non-Album Acoustic Tracks (1993)

Robert Plant has often dabbled with acoustic music. The general vibe of the 1970 Led Zeppelin album "Led Zeppelin III" is a good early example. However, he never really put out an all-acoustic album. (The 1994 Robert Plant and Jimmy Page album "No Quarter: Unledded" has an acoustic-ish feel at times, but it's more of an attempt to redo Led Zeppelin songs with either orchestra backings and/or non-Western music styles.) 

That said, in the early 1990s, acoustic music trended strongly, due mostly to the "MTV Unplugged" TV show. When Plant released his 1993 album "Fate of Nations," he wasn't entirely unaffected by this trend. He never did an entire all-acoustic concert then (or at any other time, as far as I can tell). However, he did perform songs in acoustic style from time to time, especially during short radio station appearances while on a tour of Europe that summer. This album collects a bunch of his acoustic performances from that tour, while trying hard to not include any song more than once. Additionally, he did some acoustic songs around that time on singles or later as bonus tracks, and I've added those as well. The result, in my opinion, is the best collection of Plant in acoustic mode in 1993 that you're likely to find on the Internet.

In the early 1990s, Plant rediscovered his love for folk rock music from the West Coast of the US in the late 1960s. He also was increasingly reconciling himself with his Led Zeppelin legacy, which would result in reuniting with his fellow Led Zeppelin leader Jimmy Page for the "Unledded" album and tour the next year. So the songs here are a mix of covers of some 1960s West Coast songs he loved, Led Zeppelin songs, and new songs Plant did. (The classic blues song "Hoochie Coochie Man" doesn't obviously fit into those categories at first, but it is a song Led Zeppelin occasionally did in concert.)

The first four songs here, plus the second to last one, are the only officially released ones, from singles or bonus tracks. I generally tried to avoid including any song more than once, as mentioned above, but I made two exceptions: for the Moby Grape cover "8:05" and for the Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love." In the first case, Plant did an acoustic version for a non-album single released only in Britain, as well as an acoustic version done in concert. I thought they were different enough for both to merit inclusion. Similarly with "Whole Lotta Love," he did an acoustic version for a B-side as well as a concert version. In that song's case, the two versions are even more different from each other, because the B-side version was done in collaboration with guitarist Rainer Ptacek (who unfortunately died young), and Ptacek added a very interesting dimension to that version, in my opinion.

One other song worth mentioning is the version of "Stairway to Heaven" that ends this album. It's the only song here from 1994, and it's a collaboration with Jimmy Page. From what I understand, Plant and Page were very tired of this song by the 1990s, because it's a great song but it also is arguably one of the most overplayed songs of all time. As a result, they never played the song during the 1990s collaboration, with this one exception. This recording was done for a Japanese TV show, apparently due to a special request from their Japanese hosts. I like this performance a lot since it's done in a unique acoustic style, with just Plant singing and Page on a solo acoustic guitar. The downside is that the studio version of the song is about seven minutes long, and this one is only three minutes long. They did most of the acoustic first part of the song, but skipped the hard rock build up and soloing, going straight to the last line. Still, half of this classic song done in this style is better than none at all.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Great Spirit [Acoustic Version] (Robert Plant)
02 Dark Moon [Acoustic Version] (Robert Plant)
03 8-05 [Studio Version] (Robert Plant)
04 21 Years (Robert Plant)
05 talk (Robert Plant)
06 Whole Lotta Love (Robert Plant)
07 29 Palms (Robert Plant)
08 I Believe (Robert Plant)
09 Hoochie Coochie Man (Robert Plant)
10 Thank You (Robert Plant)
11 8-05 (Robert Plant)
12 If I Were a Carpenter (Robert Plant)
13 Going to California (Robert Plant)
14 talk (Robert Plant)
15 Bluebird (Robert Plant)
16 Whole Lotta Love [Acoustic Version] (Robert Plant & Rainer Ptacek)
17 Stairway to Heaven (Robert Plant & Jimmy Page)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16697033/ROBRTPLNT1993_AcustcinErope_atse.zip.html

It's been a few years since I put this album together for myself, and it was that long since I found the cover art photo. I don't remember where it's from exactly, but I'm pretty sure it dates to 1993.

Keb Mo - Memphis Bar and Grill, Richmond, VA, 6-21-1995

Having just returned from a long vacation, when I got back I searched the Internet for good music that has popped up while I was gone. One thing I came across was this bootleg concert. It's been around for years, apparently, but it was new to me. 

I think Keb Mo is very talented, but I'm frustrated with most of his albums. I feel what makes his music special is when he plays the blues, especially acoustic blues, yet on his albums he often tends to go for a generic "adult contemporary" poppy sound. That wasn't the case for his debut album, 1994's "Keb Mo," which is one of his best. This is a solo acoustic concert from when he was promoting that album and was heavily into his blues mode. 

Not surprisingly, he played nearly every song from that album. But the concert is twice as long as the album (an hour and twenty minutes), so he played many other songs too. Generally, that means some bluesy covers, as well as originals that would appear on later albums he did. There's one song I'm unsure of, but for some reason it has the title "First Class Ticket." If anyone knows if that's the real name of that song, or what the real name is, please let me know. 

By the way, 14 years before the release of his first album using the name "Keb Mo," he put out an album under his birth name, Kevin Moore. This was before he really got into the blues, and the style was different, I understand. Interestingly, two of the songs here come from that album, "Rainmaker" and "Anybody Seen My Girl." He put a different version of the latter song on his 1994 album, and redid the first one on another album as well.

The sound quality of this show is excellent, and has to be a soundboard. If you like the sound of his 1994 album, you could almost thing of this as a super-sized all-acoustic version. As I usually do, I put the banter between songs on their own tracks. In a few cases, I removed some boring bits between songs, pretty much all guitar tuning or a DJ talking during encore breaks. Other than that, I didn't change anything.

01 talk (Keb Mo)
02 Grandma's Hands (Keb Mo)
03 Kind Hearted Woman Blues (Keb Mo)
04 Angelina (Keb Mo)
05 talk (Keb Mo)
06 Death Letter (Keb Mo)
07 talk (Keb Mo)
08 Love Blues (Keb Mo)
09 Tell Everybody I Know (Keb Mo)
10 Dirty, Low Down and Bad (Keb Mo)
11 talk (Keb Mo)
12 Am I Wrong (Keb Mo)
13 talk (Keb Mo)
14 Rainmaker (Keb Mo)
15 City Boy (Keb Mo)
16 She Just Wants to Dance (Keb Mo)
17 talk (Keb Mo)
18 Anybody Seen My Girl (Keb Mo)
19 talk (Keb Mo)
20 Perpetual Blues Machine (Keb Mo)
21 talk (Keb Mo)
22 Every Morning (Keb Mo)
23 talk (Keb Mo)
24 Victims of Comfort (Keb Mo)
25 talk (Keb Mo)
26 Take It Away (Keb Mo)
27 talk (Keb Mo)
28 First Class Ticket (Keb Mo)
29 talk (Keb Mo)
30 America, the Beautiful (Keb Mo)
31 talk (Keb Mo)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15260582/KebM_1995_MemphisBrandGrillRichmndVA__6-21-1995_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find a cover art photo for the exact concert in question. But at least this one comes from a concert in Chicago held the same month, June 1995.

Morgan James - Quarantunes, Volume 5 (2020)

I'm still on vacation, but I should be back home in less than a week. I haven't had as much time to post things to this blog as I'd expected. Right now, I'm going to post a Morgan James album, even though I did one a few posts back, because it's a rare case of something where I already have an album cover made. 

Also, I've posted a bunch of her albums, so I don't think I need to explain things. This is just like virtually all of her other albums I've posted, with her doing all cover songs in a strictly acoustic format. 

As usual with her, she does songs from a wide range of time periods and styles. (All the songs are here in the order she originally recorded them. Note on this album, there's e a Kay Perry song followed by one from Irving Berlin!) 

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 I Won't Back Down - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
02 Missing You - John Waite
03 When You're Gone - Cranberries
04 I'll Stand by You - Pretenders
05 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight - James Taylor
06 Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year - Frank Loesser
07 Eleanor Rigby - Beatles
08 Every Time You Go Away - Paul Young
09 Your Song - Elton John
10 Wide Awake - Katy Perry
11 What'll I Do - Irving Berlin
12 I Remember You - Johnny Mercer
13 Nowhere to Run - Martha & the Vandellas
14 Don't Get Around Much Anymore - Duke Ellington
15 Out of Touch - Hall and Oates

And here's the usual song list:

01 I Won't Back Down (Morgan James)
02 Missing You (Morgan James)
03 When You're Gone (Morgan James)
04 I'll Stand by You (Morgan James)
05 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (Morgan James)
06 Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year (Morgan James)
07 Eleanor Rigby (Morgan James)
08 Every Time You Go Away (Morgan James)
09 Your Song (Morgan James)
10 Wide Awake (Morgan James)
11 What'll I Do (Morgan James)
12 I Remember You (Morgan James)
13 Nowhere to Run (Morgan James)
14 Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Morgan James)
15 Out of Touch (Morgan James)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15267132/MorganJ_2020_QuarantnesVolume5_atse.zip.html

As with the other albums in this series, the cover art is a screenshot taken from one of the YouTube videos of the songs included. I forget which one, though..

Steve Winwood - Acoustic - Non-Album Tracks (1994-2020)

Here's a personal update: I'm still on my long vacation, and still having very full days acting like a tourist. Yesterday, I switched from having very full days acting like a typical tourist in the big cities along the upper East Coast to chilling out in rural Vermont with a much more relaxed vacation pace. Nearly all the remainder of my vacation will be in the countryside. That means I should be able to post more often, knock on wood. 

One downside though is that I'm working from a tablet/light laptop that has my music collection on it but doesn't have Photoshop, so I can't make any album covers at the moment. Thus, I'll be posting albums here without album covers until I get home (about two weeks from now), unless it happens to be a case where I'd made an album cover already. Then I'll make the missing album covers when I get back home. However, if anyone wants to make an album cover, I could use that instead and update the post fairly quickly with that. In this particular case, some of the songs come from YouTube videos of Steve Winwood playing a guitar in front of a home fireplace, so that would make for a great cover.

Anyway, on to the music. It's likely you know Steve Winwood from his long career, first with the Spencer Davis Group, then Traffic, then Blind Faith, then a solo career. There are times he's done some acoustic-based music, such as with the Traffic album "John Barleycorn Must Die," but he's never put out an all-acoustic album, and his solo acoustic performances have been very rare. I've gathered up all the ones I could find, stretching from 1994 to 2020. That's a wide range of time, but it all fits together well in my opinion, since his voice and his style hasn't changed much over those years. 

All of the songs are officially unreleased on record, though the third through fifth songs come from an official DVD. Also, two songs, the sixth and seventh ones, were put out by Winwood on his website, www.stevewinwood.com. The rest generally come from in-person radio station appearances, so the sound quality is very high throughout. 

Two of the songs are covers: "What's Going On" and "Now the Green Blade Riseth." The rest generally are his best known songs from all phases of his career, including songs he originally did with the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith. A couple of the songs feature him on keyboards, but most are him on acoustic guitar. One song, "Higher Love," is a duet between him and his daughter Lilly Winwood, who has a fine voice.

This album is only 36 minutes long, but it's a gem all the way through, in my opinion. If anyone knows of other acoustic versions he's done that I've missed, please let me know and I'll add them in.

01 We're Gonna Make It (Steve Winwood)
02 While You See a Chance (Steve Winwood)
03 [Roamin' thro' the Gloamin' With] 40,000 Headmen (Steve Winwood)
04 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Steve Winwood)
05 Gimme Some Lovin' (Steve Winwood)
06 Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood)
07 John Barleycorn (Steve Winwood)
08 Higher Love (Steve Winwood & Lilly Winwood)
09 Back in the High Life Again (Steve Winwood)
10 What's Going On (Steve Winwood)
11 Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood)
12 Now the Green Blade Riseth (Steve Winwood)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15193967/SteveWnwd_1994-2020_Acoustc_atse.zip.html

The cover here was made by PJ of the Albums I Wish Existed blog. The pic is a screenshot taken from a YouTube video Winwood did a few years ago.

Morgan James - Quarantunes, Volume 4 (2020)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I was going on a vacation lasting longer than a month. I'm about two weeks into that vacation, and I'm happy to say that I'm having a very good time. In fact, it's been such a busy time that I've barely had any time to get on the Internet, much less work on this blog. But finally I managed to find an hour to post another album. This particular album was chosen because I knew I had already made the album cover art and I could do it quickly. Although I'll still be traveling for the next three weeks or so, I think things will slow down some as I move into more of a relaxing mode instead of sightseeing mode, so I hope I'll have time to make some other posts. 

Since I have limited spare time during this vacation, I'll try to keep my comments brief. Luckily, this is an album where I don't think I have to say much. If you know the previous albums I've posted by Morgan James, you should know the drill by now. These are more acoustic cover versions by a great female singer.

Here are the original artists that made the songs famous:

01 Lights - Journey
02 All by Myself - Eric Carmen
03 Message in a Bottle - Police
04 The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby
05 Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
06 Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac
07 When Can I See You - Babyface
08 Missing - Everything but the Girl
09 Ain't Misbehavin' - Fats Waller
10 Across the Universe - Beatles
11 Goodbye for Now - Stephen Sondheim
12 Miss You Much - Janet Jackson
13 I Can't Get Next to You - Temptations
14 Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel

And here's the usual song list:

01 Lights (Morgan James)
02 All by Myself (Morgan James)
03 Message in a Bottle (Morgan James)
04 The Way It Is (Morgan James)
05 Owner of a Lonely Heart (Morgan James)
06 Don't Stop (Morgan James)
07 When Can I See You (Morgan James)
08 Missing (Morgan James)
09 Ain't Misbehavin' (Morgan James)
10 Across the Universe (Morgan James)
11 Goodbye for Now (Morgan James)
12 Miss You Much (Morgan James)
13 I Can't Get Next to You (Morgan James)
14 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Morgan James) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/15267092/MorganJ_2020_QuarantnesVolume4_atse.zip.html

As with the other albums in this Quarantunes series, the album cover uses a screenshot I took from one of the videos of one of the songs here (but I forget which song exactly).

Molly Tuttle - Home Concerts, Volume 2, Nashville, TN, 9-3-2020 to 12-20-2020

I just posted an album of Molly Tuttle's solo acoustic home concert performances in early 2020. This continues where that left off, with the same from the rest of 2020. If you don't know who she is (and I'd never heard of her until about two weeks ago), please check out that post for more information about her. Suffice to say that she's a remarkable guitar player, an excellent vocalist, and a talented songwriter. In my opinion, if popularity were based on actual musical talent, she should be a big star already.

As with Volume 1, everything here is officially unreleased, and generally comes from YouTube videos of home performances done when most musicians were socially distancing during the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic. Also like that volume, nearly all the songs here consist just of Tuttle on acoustic guitar and/or vocals. And also like that volume, I'd guess about half of the songs here are originals and half are cover versions.

If you're interested in a talented relatively young musician, I suggest you give this album a try. I think it's even stronger than Volume 1. (By the way, this one contains the cover of the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow" that I praised in my comments from that volume.)

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 talk (Molly Tuttle)
02 Good Enough (Molly Tuttle)
03 talk (Molly Tuttle)
04 The High Road (Molly Tuttle)
05 Light Came In [Power Went Out] (Molly Tuttle)
06 talk (Molly Tuttle)
07 A Little Lost (Molly Tuttle)
08 talk (Molly Tuttle)
09 She's a Rainbow (Molly Tuttle)
10 talk (Molly Tuttle)
11 Mirrored Heart (Molly Tuttle)
12 Clue (Molly Tuttle)
13 talk (Molly Tuttle with Sierra Hull)
14 Fourth of July (Molly Tuttle with Sierra Hull)
15 talk (Molly Tuttle with Sierra Hull)
16 Salt Creek [Instrumental] (Molly Tuttle with Sierra Hull)
17 Coat of Many Colors (Molly Tuttle)
18 talk (Molly Tuttle)
19 Zero (Molly Tuttle)
20 talk (Molly Tuttle)
21 Standing on the Moon (Molly Tuttle)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15266690/MollyT_2020_HmeConcrtsVol2NshvilleTN__9-3-2020_to_12-20-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo appears to be a promotional photo from either 2019 or 2020.

Molly Tuttle - Home Concerts, Volume 1, Nashville, TN, 1-6-2020 to 9-3-2020

Here's an artist I only recently discovered and am jazzed about. I was wanting to learn the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow" on guitar, and I happened to stumble across a YouTube video of her playing the song in a solo acoustic format. I was so impressed that I went looking for other songs she did, and found myself even more impressed. She's a guitar playing virtuoso, to the point that she won the IMBA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Guitar Player of the Year award two years in a row, in 2017 and 2018. But that's not all. She's an excellent vocalist, and a talented songwriter too. What's not to like?

Here's the "She's a Rainbow" video that I mentioned above. It's a good place to start if you want to get into her music. It starts out relatively normally, but wait until she starts soloing on her guitar. Damn, I wish I could play like that!

Molly Tuttle performs "She's A Rainbow" by The Rolling Stones from home - YouTube

By the way, if you don't like bluegrass, don't be turned off by my mention of the word "bluegrass" in that first paragraph. As I write this in 2021, Tuttle is 28 years old. She started out mostly doing bluegrass, but her musical style has evolved and diversified. Her latest album, "...but I'd rather be with you," released in 2020, is an all-covers album. On that, she does songs by the punk band Rancid, the alt rock bands the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Nationals, as well as the Grateful Dead, Cat Stevens, and more. There's very little overt bluegrass on it at all, but more of an indirect influence in her guitar playing style.

I plan on posting a few albums from her. But I'm a lover of acoustic music in general, and I'm most impressed by her solo acoustic playing, so I'm starting with a collection of her playing in that solo acoustic style. I missed her home concert material from the height of the 2020 pandemic, but I retroactively went back and found two albums worth of songs she did from that year. All of them were recorded at home from this or that Internet channel or benefit concert or the like. All of them are officially unreleased, but I only selected the ones that have very good to excellent sound quality.

You'll find a few songs here that are bluegrass-based instrumentals, but only a few. I like those, because she impresses with her guitar playing speed and melodicism. But most are songs she sings that cover a range of styles. I'd guesstimate about half are covers and half are originals. 

As an aside, if you checked out the "She's a Rainbow" video linked to above, you may have noticed she's completely bald in that. That puzzled me (since she wasn't bald in most other videos I saw of her) until I found she has a rare condition that has left her completely hairless. She wears a variety of wigs nearly all the time, causing her hair style to drastically change with each different wig, but I guess occasionally she doesn't bother. You can learn more about her here at her Wikipedia page:

Molly Tuttle - Wikipedia

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Lost Girl [Instrumental] (Molly Tuttle & Tristan Scroggins)
02 The Greatest (Molly Tuttle)
03 Love Never Fails (Molly Tuttle)
04 talk (Molly Tuttle)
05 Over the Line (Molly Tuttle)
06 talk (Molly Tuttle)
07 Little Annie (Molly Tuttle)
08 talk (Molly Tuttle)
09 Keeping the Cats Happy [Instrumental] (Molly Tuttle)
10 talk (Molly Tuttle)
11 When You're Ready (Molly Tuttle)
12 talk (Molly Tuttle)
13 White Freight Liner Blues (Molly Tuttle)
14 Beaumont Rag [Instrumental] (Molly Tuttle & Billy Strings)
15 talk (Molly Tuttle)
16 Angeline the Baker [Instrumental] (Molly Tuttle)
17 talk (Molly Tuttle)
18 Olympia, WA (Molly Tuttle)
19 talk (Molly Tuttle)
20 Take the Journey (Molly Tuttle)
21 talk (Molly Tuttle)
22 Mess with My Mind (Molly Tuttle)
23 talk (Molly Tuttle)
24 Fake Empire (Molly Tuttle)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15266691/MollyT_2020_HmeConcrtsVol1NshvilleTN__1-6-2020_to_9-3-2020_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure when or where the cover photo is from, but I've found it with some articles about her that date to the early part of 2020.

The English Beat - BBC Sessions, Volume 2 (1982-1983)

Recently, I posted an album of the English Beat at the BBC. (Or, for those in Britain, just the Beat.) Here's the second and final volume. 

The first volume was really easy to make. It consisted entirely of BBC performances taken from album bonus tracks. This album has a lot of that. Specifically, six of the eleven songs are BBC performances from more album bonus tracks. But I felt those weren't enough to give an adequate picture, because the band only did one BBC session in the 1982/1983 time frame. So I've added in some live songs that I feel are important songs for the band. Most of these also come from album bonus tracks. There were a few more I could have included, but I didn't do that to avoid duplication of some songs. 

The only song here that isn't sourced from a bonus track is the last one, "Ackee 1 2 3." Personally, that's my favorite deep cut of theirs. Between this BBC volume and the first one, you basically get an excellent double album greatest hits collection. I wanted to make sure that song was included too. But since I couldn't find a bonus track version, I ended up using a version from a rare but officially released album of the band playing at the US Festival in 1983. However, with this and the other live songs here, it's hard to tell they're live versions, except sometimes for some applause at the end.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 Doors of Your Heart (English Beat)
02 I Confess (English Beat)
03 Spar Wid Me (English Beat)
04 She's Going (English Beat)
05 Save It for Later (English Beat)
06 Sole Salvation (English Beat)
07 Pato and Roger a Go Talk (English Beat)
08 End of the Party (English Beat)
09 Best Friend (English Beat)
10 Get-a-Job - Stand Down Margaret (English Beat)
11 Ackee 1 2 3 (English Beat)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15112200/TEnglishB_1982b-1983_BBSessionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

The album cover photo is a promotional photo of the band, I think from 1983.

Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music - Second Version (2001-2007)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my version of Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular Music" concerts. If you liked that one, you should like this one too. It's the exact same thing, the same concept, except that every single song is different!

Here's a quick review. Starting around 2001, Thompson began playing his occasional "1000 Years of Popular Music" concerts, which consisted entirely of covers of songs from the last 1000 years. And "1000 years" wasn't an exaggeration, either: many of the songs go back hundreds of years. In 2004, he put out an album of the concert, and the first version I posted largely contains the same set of songs, though I made some changes, such as including more of his banter about the songs, and changing the song order to make more chronological sense. 

In 2006, he released a DVD of the show, with many different songs than the ones on the album. I took those different songs as the start of this version - there are nine of those. But then I added a bunch more, because there were many changes to his set lists as he kept playing "1000 Years" themed concerts from time to time in the 2000s. I found another 12 songs to add. All of these are officially unreleased in any form, and come from concert bootlegs. Luckily, most of them sound pretty good, but sometimes there's a drop in sound quality from the songs sourced from the DVD.

As with the first version I posted, I made a concerted effort to find comments he made about each song. I got lucky and found him saying at least a few words for every song, with two exceptions ("You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Ring of Fire").

Also like the first version I posted, I sorted the songs by the years they were first created, instead of by the order Thompson performed them in concert. Doing the latter pretty much would have been impossible, since the songs come from a bunch of concerts with very different set lists. With the first version, Thompson gave a great lesson on the history of Western music over the last 1000 years, and here he does it again, without repeating himself at all. Not only that, but I'm planning a third version where that feat is repeated.

This album is an hour and 25 minutes long, which was roughly the length of one of his typical concerts with this theme. As with the first version, I've included the years the songs were created in the song titles, to help make that clear. I did some research on that to help me with the ordering of the songs.

UPDATE: On January 24, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. When I first posted this, in 2021, the sound quality of much of the banter was often lower quality than the songs, since those often came from different sources that happened to be rougher. But when I updated it, I ran all those low quality talking tracks through the Adobe vocal enhancer program. I think they sound much better now.

01 Worlds Blis Ne Last [1200s] (Richard Thompson)
02 talk (Richard Thompson)
03 Bonnie St. Johnstone [unknown] (Richard Thompson)
04 talk (Richard Thompson)
05 O Sleep Fond Fancy [Thomas Morley, 1597] (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Richard Thompson)
07 Remember O Thou Man [Thomas Ravenscroft, 1609] (Richard Thompson)
08 talk (Richard Thompson)
09 Full Fathom Five [Robert Johnson, 1611] (Richard Thompson)
10 talk (Richard Thompson)
11 A-Begging I Will Go [1817 or earlier] (Richard Thompson)
12 talk (Richard Thompson)
13 Hobo Bill's Last Ride [Jimmie Rodgers, 1929] (Richard Thompson)
14 talk (Richard Thompson)
15 Night and Day [Cole Porter, 1932] (Richard Thompson)
16 talk (Richard Thompson)
17 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter [Fats Waller, 1935] (Richard Thompson)
18 talk (Richard Thompson)
19 Java Jive [Ink Spots, 1941] (Richard Thompson)
20 talk (Richard Thompson)
21 London Pride [Noel Coward, 1941] (Richard Thompson)
22 You'll Never Walk Alone [Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1945] (Richard Thompson)
23 talk (Richard Thompson)
24 Don't Stop the Music [George Jones, 1957] (Richard Thompson)
25 Ring of Fire [Johnny Cash, 1963] (Richard Thompson)
26 talk (Richard Thompson)
27 A-11 [Buck Owens, 1964] (Richard Thompson)
28 talk (Richard Thompson)
29 I Ain't Marching Anymore [Phil Ochs, 1965] (Richard Thompson)
30 talk (Richard Thompson)
31 See My Friends [Kinks, 1965] (Richard Thompson)
32 talk (Richard Thompson)
33 Walk Away Renee [Left Banke, 1966] (Richard Thompson)
34 talk (Richard Thompson)
35 Friday on My Mind [Easybeats, 1967] (Richard Thompson)
36 talk (Richard Thompson)
37 There's Always Someone Cooler than You [Ben Folds Five, 2003] (Richard Thompson)
38 talk (Richard Thompson)
39 1985 [Bowling for Soup, 2005] (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/w4kPffc2

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/thcksVZeTQQb8UU/file

The album cover uses a photo of Thompson in concert in 2007. I don't know any more details. I used the same artwork on each side as I did with the first version.

The English Beat - BBC Sessions, Volume 1 (1979-1980)

I recently posted a stray tracks album for the English Beat. I'm following that up with two albums of their BBC sessions. Here's the first one. (And, as I mentioned before, I understand they're just called the "Beat" in Britain, but I'm an American, where they're called the "English Beat," so that's what I call them.

This is a very straight-forward album. The band put out an album in 1980 ("I Just Can't Stop It") and another one in 1981 ("Wha'ppen.") Decades later, each of those albums were released with lots of bonus tracks, and those included the complete BBC sessions from those time periods. So this is just a collection of those particular bonus tracks.

One interesting thing though is that the first five songs come from a John Peel BBC session when the band was just starting out. They had a meteoric rise, from forming their band to having hit singles and a hit album in just nine months. I read an interview with lead singer Dave Wakeling where he said the John Peel session was touch and go, because the band had just written most of the songs and hadn't done them in the studio yet, and they had to rise to the occasion to remember the chord changes and so forth. But the results sound fine to me.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 Tears of a Clown (English Beat)
02 Ranking Full Stop (English Beat)
03 Click Click (English Beat)
04 Mirror in the Bathroom (English Beat)
05 Big Shot (English Beat)
06 Hands Off... She's Mine (English Beat)
07 Rough Rider (English Beat)
08 Twist and Crawl (English Beat)
09 Mirror in the Bathroom (English Beat)
10 Too Nice to Talk To (English Beat)
11 New Psychedelic Rockers (English Beat)
12 Monkey Murders (English Beat)
13 Walk Away (English Beat)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kwW93Zie

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/INIn6ydEq9LUwhb/file

I had a hard time finding good photos of the band from 1979 or 1980. So in the end I decided to use the cover to their single "Mirror in the Bathroom." I cropped out the outer edges where the name of the single was included, and added in some text of my own.

The Faces - I Can Feel the Fire - Non-Album Tracks (1974-1975)

Here's the last of the stray tracks albums for the Faces. 

The band broke up in 1975. Their last studio album was in 1973, and one of their key members, Ronnie Lane, left that year too. They had some studio sessions in 1974 and 1975 with a mind to putting out a new album, but in the end all they released was a single. The first two songs here are from that single. The next two songs were recorded live in concert, then released much later on a Faces box set. The rest of the songs are from the unfinished album studio albums, and also were released much later on that Faces box set.

By the way, the song "I Can Feel the Fire" was put on a Ron Wood solo album in 1974. He joined the Rolling Stones in 1976, and I put a different version of the song on a Rolling Stones stray tracks album too.

Most of the songs are originals. I think the only one that isn't is the medley of "Hi-Heel Sneakers - Everybody Needs Somebody to Love."

The two bonus tracks are fine songs. The only reason they're bonus tracks is they're from concert bootlegs, and the sound quality isn't that good.

The album is 37 minutes long, not counting the two bonus tracks.

01 You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Faces)
02 As Long as You Tell Him (Faces)
03 Take a Look at the Guy (Faces)
04 I Can Feel the Fire (Faces)
05 Hi-Heel Sneakers - Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Faces)
06 Gettin' Hungry (Faces)
07 Open to Ideas (Faces)
08 Rock Me (Faces)

Big Bayou (Faces)
Early One Morning [Highgate Shuffle] (Faces)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15116263/TFacs_1974-1975_I_CnFeeltheFire_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is from 1975. Note that Ronnie Lane is gone, and has been replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi (who is the only one in back, wearing a hat).

Phil Collins - Stick It - Demos from the Early Years (1980-1990) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's another post by my musical friend Mike Solof. If you've been following my blog, you may have seen that he's made two guest posts already, one about the Monkees and the other about Genesis. Generally speaking, there are some musical artists that I either don't like or at least don't like enough to create albums for them. Genesis/Phil Collins is a good case in point. I'm somewhat of a fan, but not enough of a fan to do a deep dive. So Mike can pick up the slack on that. Knock on wood, more guest posts from him should be coming soon.

I'm not going to say much about this album, because Mike likes to create PDF files with explanations and pictures. So I'll mostly leave the comments to him in the PDF. But the really short version is that this is a collection of the demos of many songs from Phil Collins' 1980s albums. The demos usually aren't acoustic, but they're often stripped down compared to the final released versions, and sometimes they have significant differences. Most of the songs come from bonus tracks, but there are some unreleased ones, including some songs that haven't been officially released in any form.

By the way, all the songs are studio versions, except the last two, which are kind of live bonus tracks, from "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" in 1981.

This album is an hour and 42 minutes long.

01 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
02 This Must Be Love (Phil Collins)
03 The Roof Is Leaking (Phil Collins)
04 Please Don’t Ask (Phil Collins)
05 Hand in Hand (Phil Collins)
06 Against All Odds (Phil Collins)
07 Please Don’t Break My Heart (Phil Collins)
08 Tomorrow Never Knows (Phil Collins)
09 Misunderstanding (Phil Collins)
10 Oddball [Do You Know, Do You Care] (Phil Collins)
11 Thru These Walls (Phil Collins)
12 Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away (Phil Collins)
13 The West Side (Phil Collins)
14 Why Can’t It Wait Til Morning (Phil Collins)
15 Sussudio (Phil Collins)
16 Only You Know and I Know (Phil Collins)
17 One More Night (Phil Collins)
18 Take Me Home (Phil Collins)
19 Something Happened on the Way to Heaven [Broadway Chorus] (Phil Collins)
20 Another Day in Paradise [Homeless] (Phil Collins)
21 Do You Remember (Phil Collins)
22 I Wish It Would Rain Down (Phil Collins)
23 The Roof Is Leaking (Phil Collins)
24 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Hy2CRqyd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/i4znArrBnjxe1Cm/file 

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/mknfw

Mike picked the cover art photo. Then I added the text. I don't know the source.

The Specials - Ghost Town - Non-Album Tracks (1981-1985)

Here's the second and final stray tracks album for the Specials. 

Note that the band basically split into two in 1981. Lead singer Terry Hall and a couple others left to form the band Fun Boy Three, while the main songwriter Jerry Dammers continued with the somewhat different name the Special AKA. For simplicity's sake, I call everything "the Specials." In actual fact, only the first four songs feature Hall and the rest of the original band.

The first song, "Ghost Town," was a number one hit in Britain, and all three major British music magazines of the time named it the song of the year. However, it didn't make much impact in the US, since it was specifically speaking about the economic troubles in Britain at the time.

Most of the rest of the songs are B-sides. "96 Tears" is an unreleased demo of the classic 1960s hit, from right before the band broke up. "Jungle Music" is an A-side, but it didn't chart at all. The last song, "Starvation," is a special case. 1985 was the year of the huge "Live Aid" benefit concert, and the massive hit charity single "We Are the World." A bunch of band in the British ska/reggae movement, led by the Dammers version of the Specials, decided to do their own charity single to benefit the same problem of famine in Africa. It's a cover of a song originally done by the Pioneers in 1971.

Personally, I think Dammers wrote some top notch songs for the Specials. But after 1984 or thereabouts, he more or less stopped putting out music and mostly switched to other pursuits, such as DJing, instead. That's a shame, in my opinion. Starting in 1993, various versions of the Specials reformed. Terry Hall rejoined the band in 2008, and has led it ever since. Dammers never rejoined though. But these later versions of the band are basically an oldies act, in my opinion, focusing on concerts filled with their 1970s and early 1980s songs, so this series ends here.

Now, I have to address the very unusual bonus track, "The Boiler." I have to warn you that this song, written by Dammers and several women from a short-lived band called the Bodysnatchers, is very hard to listen to. It starts off sounding like most any other catchy, toe-tapping Specials song, with lead vocals by female vocalist Rhoda Dakar. But as the song goes on, Dakar describes a date that goes horribly wrong. It ends with her getting raped, which is expressed in audio by her screaming in horror. It is one of the most disturbing songs I've ever heard.

Dammers has said it's a song that's only meant to be heard once, in order to get its message across. Thus, I've only included it as a bonus track, an optional kind of thing, because it would stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of the rest of the songs, well-intentioned though it is. Also, note that the B-side, "Theme from the Boiler," is basically the same song, but just an instrumental version. I have included that as one of the album tracks. 

So you might want to take Dammers' advice and listen to "The Boiler" once. But I doubt there are many who would want to hear it lots of times.

01 Ghost Town (Specials)
02 Why (Specials)
03 Friday Night, Saturday Morning (Specials)
04 96 Tears [Demo] (Specials)
05 Theme from the Boiler [Instrumental] (Specials)
06 Jungle Music (Specials with Rico)
07 Rasta Call You [Instrumental] (Specials with Rico)
08 Easter Island [Instrumental] (Specials with Rico)
09 Can't Get a Break (Specials)
10 Starvation (Specials, Pioneers, UB40, Madness, & General Public)

The Boiler (Specials featuring Rhoda)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376815/TSPECLS1981-1985GhstTwn_atse.zip.html

The album cover is the cover of the "Ghost Town" single. The only change I made is that the original cover included the names of the two B-sides as well. I removed those names, and increased the size of A-side name to cover the empty space.

Joe Cocker - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1969-1971

I have to admit it's basically false advertising to call this some of Cocker's BBC sessions. There isn't a single song here that was actually done for the BBC! But, as I've said previously, I consider his career peak to be the years 1968 to 1971, and I wanted songs for the rest of that time, if I could find source material that was of equal sound quality to the BBC tracks that made up Volume 1. I feel I did that. 

The first five songs all come from concert performances. But these sound great, because they were taken from an official Joe Cocker box set called "The Long Voyage Home." The next three songs are unreleased, and come from French and German TV appearances, so they have excellent sound quality too. 

The last three songs don't sound quite as good as the rest, because they're from a concert bootleg, and probably an audience recording instead of a soundboard. But I think they're worthy of inclusion here, due to their unusual nature. After Cocker's notoriously wild "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" concert tour, which ended in early 1970, it seems he was mentally and physically exhausted. He didn't tour or release any new music (except for one single) until early 1972, so he kept a low profile for most of two years. One exception to that is he made a guest appearance at a Rita Coolidge concert, playing the three songs here. None of the songs were ever officially recorded and released by him. So they're worthy for that, plus their sound quality is still pretty good, though not great.

The song "Cry Me a River" had a major problem in that a TV announcer spoke over the soloing section in the middle of the song. Previously, I had cut this section out rather than have the announcer talking. But I used new sound editing program X-Minus to simply erase the talking, and keep the soloing.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Let It Be (Joe Cocker)
02 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
03 I Shall Be Released (Joe Cocker)
04 Something's Coming On (Joe Cocker)
05 Something (Joe Cocker)
06 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
07 Dear Landlord (Joe Cocker)
08 Cry Me a River [Edit] (Joe Cocker)
09 Horizontal Blues (Joe Cocker)
10 When This Battle Is Over (Joe Cocker & Rita Coolidge)
11 The Devastating Things Love Can Do to You (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Va3Mun8A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ybCWqKWP7mlGNhz/file

The album cover photo was taken at a concert at the Fillmore East in New York City, in March 1971. I later improved the quality with the Krea AI program.

Grace Potter - Twilight Hour, Volume 7 - Home Concert, Topanga, CA, 7-13-2020 to 7-20-2020

I still have some home concerts from 2020 left to post. For instance, I've got a few more from Grace Potter. So here's the next one from her.

This is just like the others in her "Twilight Hour" series. Basically, she played these songs with a small band - I think just a guitarist and a drummer. There was a lot of talking between songs, and sometimes some snippets or failed attempts (since she often was winging it). I didn't include any of that, just the songs that were successfully done.

This comes from two consecutive songs, one week apart. For the first show, she played her own personal rarities, including some songs she's never officially released. For the second show here, she played all of her own songs, but stuff she released, mostly from her earlier albums.

01 At Your Request (Grace Potter)
02 Deliverance Road (Grace Potter)
03 Somebody Fix Me (Grace Potter)
04 Somewhere Out There (Grace Potter)
05 Til the Morning Comes (Grace Potter)
06 Letter to My Children (Grace Potter)
07 Crazy Parade (Grace Potter)
08 Sweet Hands (Grace Potter)
09 That Phone (Grace Potter)
10 Roulette (Grace Potter)
11 One Heart Missing (Grace Potter)
12 Ah Mary [Country Version] (Grace Potter)
13 Can't See Through (Grace Potter)
14 The Lion the Beast the Beat (Grace Potter)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15328372/GraceP_2020_TwilghtHourVolme7HmeConcrtTopangaCA__7-13-2020__to_7-20-2020_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, once again I used one of Potter's chalk board drawings. I don't think it was specifically for either of these shows, but hey, close enough for horseshoes.

Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Upstairs - Acoustic Versions (2014)

I have so much Robyn Hitchcock music to post that it seems overwhelming to me. So I'm going to try to post more from him soon, to try to chip down the backlog. In 2014, he released the studio album "The Man Upstairs." These are all unreleased, acoustic versions of the songs from that album.

I should add the caveat that these are most of the songs from the album, but not all of them. I wasn't able to find an acoustic version of just one song, "Somebody to Break Your Heart." But on the plus side, I've added two more songs he released on singles around that time, "Follow Your Money," and a cover of the Neil Young song "Motion Pictures." ("The Ghost in You" and "The Crystal Ship" are also covers.)

Even though the songs are all unreleased, the sound quality is generally very good. Six of the 11 songs were recorded in the studio without an audience, usually due to in-person radio station performances. The only one that sounds a bit worse than the rest is "Ferries." I could only find two performances of that song, so we're lucky to have anything at all for that one.

This album is 45 minutes long.

By the way, last year, Hitchcock released an album called "The Man Downstairs," that consists of rarities from "The Man Upstairs" album. I won't be posting songs from that on this blog, since I don't want to cut into the sale of that album, so if you're interested, I suggest you buy it.

01 The Ghost in You (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 San Francisco Patrol (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 To Turn You On (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Trouble in Your Blood (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Don't Look Down (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Ferries (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Comme Toujours (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 The Crystal Ship (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Recalling the Truth (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Follow Your Money (Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift)
11 Motion Pictures (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15274625/RobynH_2014_TheManUpstairAcousticVersions_atse.zip.html

The artwork for "The Man Upstairs" included the above photo inside a booklet. It was extremely washed out, and fairly blurry. I used Photoshop to sharpen and darken it some. The writing of Hitchcock's name is the same as on the official album cover.

The Specials - Gangsters - Non-Album Tracks (1978-1980)

I'm a big fan of the Specials. Like the English Beat whom I posted about yesterday, they didn't stay together very long, but pretty much all their music is top notch. They only released three albums (if you count the Special AKA as the Specials, and I do). However, I was able to find two albums' worth of stray tracks. Here's the first such album.

The first four songs are technically by the Coventry Automatics. But that was an early name of the Specials, and included key members Terry Hall and Jerry Dammers, though two other members hadn't joined yet. So I'm crediting those to the Specials for simplicity's sake. 

All but two songs here have been officially released, but some have come out in rather obscure ways. The first four songs mentioned above were included on an archival release. Five more songs were from singles or an EP, including the hit single "Gangsters," which went to the Top Ten in Britain. Two more are from BBC sessions ( the "Long Shot Kick de Bucket - The Liquidator - Skinhead Moonstomp" medley and "Sea Cruise"). By the way, I plan on posting some Specials BBC sessions albums here eventually, but I think those two songs deserve to be included here, as well on those albums. The medley also appeared on a 1980 EP, but that was a live version, and I think the BBC version, effectively a studio version, sounds better.

Speaking of sound quality, the two unreleased songs, "Man from Wareika" and "Madness," are from a live bootleg. They sound good, but not as good as everything else on this album. By the way, "Man from Wareika" first appeared on a 1977 album by Rico Rodriguez. He'd already had a long musical career since the 1950s as a trombonist before joining the Specials when that group formed. He also released a solo version of "Sea Cruise" in 1980. So that explains why the Specials did those songs.

I wasn't sure what to do with the song "Rat Race." It was a hit single in 1979, then it was included on the 1980 album "More Specials," but only the US version. I poked around, and it seems the British version still doesn't include the song. So US Specials fans are very likely to have this song on album already, and British fans are not. Thus, I've included it as a bonus track only. So keep it or not, depending on your situation.

This album is 45 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 Wake Up [Instrumental] (Specials)
02 Rock and Rock Nightmare (Specials)
03 Look but Don't Touch (Specials)
04 Jay Walker (Specials)
05 Gangsters (Specials)
06 Guns of Navarone (Specials)
07 Man from Wareika [Instrumental] (Specials)
08 Madness (Specials)
09 Maggie's Farm (Specials)
10 Rude Boys Outta Jail (Specials)
11 Racquel (Specials)
12 Braggin' and Tryin' Not to Lie (Specials with Roddy Radiation)
13 Long Shot Kick de Bucket - The Liquidator - Skinhead Moonstomp (Specials)
14 Sea Cruise (Specials)

Rat Race (Specials)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701085/TSPECILS1978-1980_Gngstrs_atse.zip.html

The cover art uses a publicity photo taken in New York City in 1980. I added the record company logo, since it usually featured on the band's releases.