Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins with Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-8-1973

Here's another "Midnight Special" TV show episode with a musical theme: country. I like these albums to be coherent in musical style. So, since that's the case here, I posted virtually the entire concert. (The only things I cut out were some brief mentions of who the guests on future episodes would be.) Two big country stars, Loretta Lynn and Marty Robbins, were co-hosts. On top of that, the show was practically a "who's who" of the biggest names in country music in 1973: George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Tanya Tucker, Earl Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Charlie Rich, Don Gibson, Conway Twitty, Johnny Paycheck, and Johnny Rodriguez!

The pairing of Loretta Lynn with Marty Robbins as co-host was rather unexpected. I searched the Internet, and found very few instances of them doing any musical collaborations before this show, or after. But they collaborated well on nearly all the banter for all the songs, as well as singing "Singing the Blues" together, plus starting and ending the show by singing the theme song, "Midnight Special," instead of having the usual version by Johnny Rivers.

There's not much else to say, except if you're a fan of classic country, this should be a special treat for you. I edited the first and last tracks some with MVSEP. For instance, the last track had an announcer speak over the middle of the song, but I managed to get rid of that voice and keep the rest. 

This album is an hour and seven minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (Sammy Jackson)
02 Midnight Special (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
03 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
04 One's on the Way (Loretta Lynn)
05 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
06 Don't Worry 'bout Me (Marty Robbins)
07 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
08 We're Gonna Hold On (George Jones & Tammy Wynette)
09 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
10 Blood Red and Goin' Down (Tanya Tucker)
12 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
13 Caroline Boogie [Instrumental] (Earl Scruggs Revue)
14 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
15 Spokane Motel Blues (Tom T. Hall)
16 Singing the Blues (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
17 Stand by Your Man (Tammy Wynette)
18 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
19 Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich)
20 talk (Marty Robbins)
21 A White Sport Coat [And a Pink Carnation] (Marty Robbins)
22 Devil Woman (Marty Robbins)
23 El Paso (Marty Robbins)
24 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
25 Oh, Lonesome Me (Don Gibson)
26 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
27 The Race Is On (George Jones)
28 Love Is the Foundation (Loretta Lynn)
29 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
30 You've Never Been So Far (Conway Twitty)
31 talk (Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty)
32 Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man (Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty)
33 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
34 She's All I Got (Johnny Paycheck)
35 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
36 Bosier City Backyard Blues (Johnny Rodriguez)
37 Delta Dawn (Tanya Tucker)
38 talk (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)
39 Midnight Special [Reprise] [Edit] (Loretta Lynn & Marty Robbins)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/wFnVXQ1S

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/JwORT3ZtePHawLw/file

The cover photo of Marty Robbins and Loretta Lynn is a screenshot I took of a YouTube video of this exact concert.

Charlie Rich with Anne Murray - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 4-26-1974

Here's another album I made from the trove of "Midnight Special" TV episodes I recently discovered. This one is particularly interesting, in my opinion, because Charlie Rich was a big country music star, but he never released a live album, and there aren't even any live bootlegs from his 1970s peak period. (At least not that I can find.) But now there's one with excellent sound, and a great song list.

Rich, who died in 1995, was unusual for country stars in that he sometimes made music in other genres, including jazz and rock. There actually is a section of this concert where he shows off songs he did in different genres. But from the late 1950s onwards, his career was only moderately successful. Then came 1973. He had two massive hits that year. "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" both hit Number One, not only in the country singles chart, but in the main singles chart as well. More hits followed, leading to the Country Music Awards to name him "Entertainer of the Year" in 1974. Unfortunately though, he began drinking heavily in response to all this success, and his career suffered as a result. He did have some more hits, but essentially retired from music entirely in the early 1980s, with only one album after that.

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

Charlie Rich - Wikipedia 

Given all that, 1974 was a pretty ideal time for a concert recording. (His drinking would already become a big problem in 1975.) The approach I'm taking with these Midnight Special episodes is focusing on just one musical act, and removing the other ones from the episode. In this case, the other acts in the episode were the Staple Singers, Dobie Gray, the Treasures, and Anne Murray. However, I kept Murray's songs, because she sang a duet with Rich, and there was a good stylistic overlap.

The last three songs actually come from a different episode, on August 22, 1975. That one was hosted by Helen Reddy (who hosted many episodes), and Rich only had three songs. One of them, "Behind Closed Doors," is a repeat from the other concert. But I've included it here because that version had him doing it solo, and this one was done as a duet with Reddy.

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. As I'm doing with all of these Midnight Special episodes, I'm adding more crowd noise between songs to link them together. The only problem came with the song "Dance of Love." Near the end of the song, the shows main emcee, Wolfman Jack, spoke over the music for about ten seconds. I used the MVSEP program to wipe out his talking. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title.

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 Lonely Weekends (Charlie Rich)
02 talk (Charlie Rich)
03 Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs (Charlie Rich)
04 talk (Charlie Rich)
05 You Won't See Me (Anne Murray)
06 Break My Mind (Charlie Rich & Anne Murray)
07 talk (Charlie Rich)
08 Don't Put No Headstone on My Grave (Charlie Rich)
09 talk (Charlie Rich)
10 Jazz Instrumental (Charlie Rich)
11 talk (Charlie Rich)
12 Break-Up (Charlie Rich)
13 talk (Charlie Rich)
14 Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich)
15 The Most Beautiful Girl (Charlie Rich)
16 A Love Song (Anne Murray)
17 A Very Special Love Song (Charlie Rich)
18 Big Boss Man (Charlie Rich)
19 talk (Charlie Rich)
20 Dance of Love [Edit] (Charlie Rich)
21 Midnight Blues (Charlie Rich)
22 Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich & Helen Reddy)
23 Every Time You Touch Me [I Get High] (Charlie Rich)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VvnDTH1u

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/J23u5Oe0d4rwosJ/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert.