Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Dolly Parton, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-8-2019

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. This one honors Dolly Parton.

I'm running out of MusiCares concerts to post. (I only have one more after this.) The problem is, these annual concerts have small audiences who have to pay big donations to get in, plus there are metal detectors. So audience bootlegs are almost unheard of. The reason we have a worthy recording of this one is that it was broadcast as a one-hour special on Netflix. I streamed the audio from that, and cut it into mp3s. Let's hope this isn't a one-off and other MusiCares will come out in similar ways.

This concert followed the usual format: guest stars singing covers of songs by the person being honored, then that person giving an acceptance speech, then that person playing a couple of songs. In this case though, it seems Parton only sang one song at the end.

Unfortunately, this album is quite short for such concerts at less than an hour. That's because some songs were not included in the Netflix special, and I couldn't find them elsewhere. I know at least Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood sang a duet version of  "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You." I'm not sure if there are others. (As usual, if anyone has any of the missing songs, please let me know so I can include them.)

I also found it a bit surprising that Emmylou Harris didn't sing a song, since she was there. She and Linda Ronstadt gave a short introduction speech for Parton. Perhaps she did sing, and that's another missing song. Or it could be she didn't sing out of respect for Linda Ronstadt, who gave the introduction speech with her, but can no longer sing due to troubles with her vocal chords. Since Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt recorded two "Trio" albums together, it might have been rough on Ronstadt seeing the other two sing but not her. I don't know, that's just a guess. 

At least what we have here has excellent sound quality.

UPDATE: On February 19, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. When I first posted this, it was missing "Jolene," performed by Pink. In my original notes, I commented that this was a shame, because that's one of Parton's signature songs, along with "I Will Always Love You." But a kind person sent me this missing song. Unfortunately, the sound quality is rougher than the rest. Also, it got cut off at the end. The person who sent me the song said it was taped off the TV, and that's when the broadcast ended, so maybe that's all that's available. As a result, I put it at the end. I did my best to improve the sound quality. I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the rest and then I ran the vocal through a Reverb Removal filter. That helped a lot, but still, there was only so much I could do.  

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Islands in the Stream (Miley Cyrus & Shawn Mendes)
03 talk (Little Big Town)
04 Everything's Beautiful in Its Own Way (Brandi Carlile & Willie Nelson)
05 Here You Come Again (Katy Perry & Kacey Musgraves)
06 The Grass Is Blue (Norah Jones with Puss n Boots)
07 talk (Little Big Town)
08 9 to 5 (Chris Stapleton)
09 Not Enough (Mavis Staples & Leon Bridges)
10 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (Cam, Jennifer Nettles & Margo Price)
11 The Seeker (Lauren Daigle)
12 talk (emcee)
13 I Will Always Love You (Yolanda Adams)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris)
16 talk (emcee)
17 talk (Dolly Parton)
18 talk (Miley Cyrus)
19 talk (Dolly Parton)
20 Coat of Many Colors (Dolly Parton with Linda Perry)
21 Jolene [Edit] (Pink)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SnahZw7a

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Fty1I7Lp5donyob/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton. 

Various Artists - A Celebration of Townes Van Zandt, University of Texas at Austin, Austin City Limits, Austin, TX, 12-7-1997

Here's something I only recently discovered, so it went to the top of my pile of albums to post, while it was still fresh in my mind. It's a tribute to singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, from 1997.

Van Zandt died on January 1, 1997 from heart failure. That wasn't that surprising, since he fit the profile of a "live hard and die young" kind of person. He had addictions with alcohol and heroin pretty much is entire adult life, and was manic depressive as well. But he was a much beloved figure in the Texas country music community. So most of his musical friends took part in this concert, put on by the "Austin City Limits" TV show, to honor his legacy.

As you can see from the cover photo, all the various singers were arranged in a large semi-circle facing the audience. There was a largely unseen band in the background supporting them. Each performer generally got one song, though Guy Clark got two, and sometimes there were duets or backing vocals.

If you're not familiar with the songwriting of Van Zandt, this is a good way to learn his best known songs. He didn't write many hit songs (with "Pancho and Lefty" being a big exception), but his songs were often covered by other country artists due to their quality.

As far as I know, everything here is unreleased. I found this on YouTube, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. The sound quality is very good.  

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 To Live Is to Fly (Guy Clark)
02 talk (Guy Clark)
03 talk (Peter Roman)
04 No Lonesome Tune (Peter Roman with Nanci Griffith)
05 talk (Steve Earle)
06 Ft. Worth Blues (Steve Earle)
07 talk (Steve Earle)
08 talk (Nanci Griffith)
09 Tecumseh Valley (Nanci Griffith)
10 talk (John T. Van Zandt)
11 Highway Kind (John T. Van Zandt)
12 talk (John T. Van Zandt)
13 talk (Willie Nelson)
14 Pancho and Lefty [Edit] (Willie Nelson & Emmylou Harris)
15 talk (Emmylou Harris)
16 If I Needed You [Edit] (Emmylou Harris with Steve Earle)
17 talk (Rodney Crowell)
18 Heavenly Houseboat (Rodney Crowell with Emmylou Harris)
19 talk (Lyle Lovett)
20 Lungs (Lyle Lovett with Steve Earle)
21 talk (Lyle Lovett)
22 talk (Jack Clement)
23 For the Sake of the Song (Jack Clement)
24 talk (Guy Clark)
25 Don't Take It Too Bad (Guy Clark)
26 talk (Guy Clark & Susanna Clark)
27 White Freightliner (Everybody)
28 talk (Guy Clark)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/peaMv6Ki 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/fAfL3f83E5vmOhc/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From right to left: Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, John T. Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle, and Peter Rowan. The others were part of the circle (on the other side of Harris). But I chose not to fit them in, because if I did, everyone would have looked significantly smaller.

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 12: Willie Nelson and Family

Here's the 12th and final album I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is a set by country legend Willie Nelson. 

I credited it to "Willie Nelson and Family" in part because that's how he was actually billed as, but also because it fits. Not only did family members like his songs Micah and Lukas Nelson play on all the songs, but Micah Nelson sang lead on one of the songs ("Everything Is Bullshit") and band member Waylon Payne sang lead on another ("Help Me Make It through the Night"). 

At the time of this concert, Nelson was a remarkable 92 years old! It's pretty amazing to be that damn old and still be headlining a concert with lots of big names like this one. Unfortunately, I have to say that age has been affecting his voice. He largely dodged this issue by singing songs that didn't challenge his vocal range, but still, sometimes it was hard not to notice as I listened to this.

This set was the longest one from the concert by about ten minutes. For the last three songs, Nelson was joined on stage by most of the other stars from the concert (other than the elusive Bob Dylan), though it isn't that obvious on the song performances.

For some reason, the YouTube feed that I recorded of the entire concert went silent about 2/3rds into Nelson's set. That delayed my posting of the entire concert. Just when I was starting to worry that I'd have to only post part of this set, the whole set finally showed up on bootleg sites. So all's well that ends well. 

This was a particularly impressive Farm Aid, in my opinion, in terms of the quality of the musical acts that performed in it. Let's hope they raised a lot of money to help farmers, and that next year's concert will be as good, or better. 

This album is 53 minutes long. 

01 Whiskey River (Willie Nelson & Family)
02 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
03 I Never Cared for You (Willie Nelson & Family)
04 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (Willie Nelson & Family)
05 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
06 Will You Remember Mine (Willie Nelson & Family & Lily Meola)
07 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson & Family)
08 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
09 Just Breathe (Willie Nelson & Family)
10 Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (Willie Nelson & Family)
11 Georgia on My Mind (Willie Nelson & Family)
12 Help Me Make It through the Night (Willie Nelson & Family)
13 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
14 Everything Is Bullshit (Willie Nelson & Family)
15 Last Leaf (Willie Nelson & Family)
16 Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (Willie Nelson & Family)
17 Will the Circle Be Unbroken - I'll Fly Away (Willie Nelson & Family)
18 It's Hard to Be Humble (Willie Nelson & Family)
19 talk (Willie Nelson & Family)
20 I Saw the Light (Willie Nelson & Family)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v6T9ow9c

alternate:

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

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Willie Nelson - PBS Soundstage, Park West, Chicago, IL, 9-28-2009

Yesterday, I noticed that out of the dozens of "PBS Soundstage" episodes I have yet to post, three of them are of musical acts that performed at the Farm Aid 40 concert a couple of days ago. So yesterday I posted a Soundstage episode with Bob Dylan in it, and today I'm posting episodes of Wynonna Judd and Willie Nelson. Here's the Willie one, from 2009.

In 2009, Nelson was 76 years old. That sounds pretty old for a singer, but age seems to have little meaning for him. He's currently 92 years old as I write this in 2025, and he's still going strong. Maybe all that pot he famously smokes helps his health, who knows. 

Anyway, he put on a fine performance here, with a lot of interesting song selections instead of just the big hits. Heck, he didn't even play his signature song, "On the Road Again."

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

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 Whiskey River (Willie Nelson)
02 talk (Willie Nelson)
03 Man with the Blues (Willie Nelson)
04 talk (Willie Nelson)
05 You Done Me Wrong (Willie Nelson)
06 talk (Willie Nelson)
07 Cry, Cry, Darlin' (Willie Nelson)
08 talk (Willie Nelson)
09 Dark as a Dungeon (Willie Nelson)
10 talk (Willie Nelson)
11 Your Poison Love (Willie Nelson)
12 talk (Willie Nelson)
13 Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down (Willie Nelson)
14 talk (Willie Nelson)
15 Freight Train Boogie (Willie Nelson)
16 talk (Willie Nelson)
17 Drinking Champagne, Feelin' No Pain (Willie Nelson)
18 talk (Willie Nelson)
19 Dream of Me (Willie Nelson)
20 talk (Willie Nelson)
21 You Asked Me To (Willie Nelson)
22 talk (Willie Nelson)
23 Trouble in Mind (Willie Nelson)
24 Whiskey River [Reprise] (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iDPHBBXs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pkwLR2f4JehW6D6/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Willie Nelson, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, 11-18-2015

Back in 2023, I posted a Joni Mitchell tribute concert. You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/04/various-artists-joni-mitchell-gershwin.html

The reason I mention that off the bat is because it turns out that was a "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" tribute concert, and I've found a few more of them. Here's one from 2015, honoring Willie Nelson. (By the way, I just redid the cover art of the Joni Mitchell one, so all of the ones I post will have the same font and so forth.)

This award is actually bestowed by a branch of the U.S. government, the Library of Congress. It was first awarded in 2007. It's been an annual thing since then, although four years were skipped. (One skip was due to the Covid pandemic, in 2021. I don't know why there weren't awards ceremonies in 2007, 2012, and 2017.)

Here's the Wikipedia page about the prize:

Gershwin Prize - Wikipedia 

Just in the past few days, I've managed to find several more of these concerts, and I plan to post all of them here soon. 

These are the ones I've found so far:

2007 Paul Simon
2009 Stevie Wonder
2010 Paul McCartney
2012 Burt Bacharach & Hal David
2014 Billy Joel
2015 Willie Nelson (here)
2020 Garth Brooks
2022 Lionel Richie
2023 Joni Mitchell (posted already)
2024 Elton John & Bernie Taupin

Meanwhile, here are the ones I can't find:
2013 Carole King
2016 Smokey Robinson
2017 Tony Bennett
2019 Gloria & Emilio Estefan

I'm calling on one of you out there to please help me find the rest. It seems videos of these other ones are available, via the PBS website. For instance, here's the Lionel Richie one:

Gershwin Prize | Lionel Richie: Gershwin Prize | Season 2022 | Episode 1 | PBS

However, to be able to watch them, one needs to pay for the KPBS Passport. So if anyone has that, and can record the audio and/or video of it and share that with me, then I'll be able to post the other ones as well. It would be a share if those remain out of reach, especially the Carole King, and Smokey Robinson ones.

Speaking of remaining out of reach, this Willie Nelson was very hard to find. For instance, it's not on YouTube, and everything like this is on YouTube. But I was able to find a single mp3 file of the entire concert. Then I broke it up into mp3s for each song.

One interesting thing about this concert, compared to the other Gershwin Prize concerts I've found so far, is that there weren't that many guest stars, but many of the guest stars got to perform two songs instead of one. For instance, that was the case with Neil Young, Paul Simon, and Alison Kraus. And in the cases of Neil Young and Paul Simon, I thought I'd seen just about every unique songs they've performed, but I've never seen any recordings or mentions of these.

However, the big star of the show, naturally, was Willie Nelson himself. He performed four songs at the end, including a duet with Cyndi Lauper.

By the way, if you look at the song list, you may wonder who "David Mao" is. He was the Librarian of Congress at the time. I've noticed that in all these concerts, the person in that position gets to give the introductory speech to the inductee. That must be an interesting perk for that government job.

Everything here is officially unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long.

alternate:

01 talk (emcee)
02 Stay All Night (Neil Young & Promise of the Real)
03 talk (Don Johnson)
04 Funny How Time Slips Away (Leon Bridges)
05 talk (Don Johnson)
06 Crazy (Raul Malo)
07 talk (emcee)
08 talk (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
09 Remember Me (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
10 talk (Don Johnson)
11 Pancho and Lefty (Rosanne Cash)
12 talk (Don Johnson)
13 Georgia on My Mind (Jamie Johnson)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Michael Feinstein)
16 talk (emcee)
17 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (Alison Krauss)
18 talk (Jamie Johnson)
19 Seven Spanish Angels (Alison Krauss & Jamie Johnson)
20 talk (Don Johnson)
21 I Never Cared for You (Anna Gabriel)
22 Whiskey River (Neil Young & Promise of the Real)
23 Man with the Blues (Paul Simon with Buckwheat Zydeco)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (David Mao)
26 talk (Willie Nelson)
27 Night Life (Willie Nelson)
28 talk (Willie Nelson)
29 Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (Willie Nelson & Cyndi Lauper)
30 talk (Willie Nelson)
31 Living in the Promised Land (Willie Nelson)
32 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/L2TUsCTY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fHU7DyaiBYIQjdb/file

The cover photo is from the point in the concert when Willie Nelson and Cyndi Lauper sang the song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" together.

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.

US Festival '83, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 6-4-1983 - Day 4, Part 3: Willie Nelson

The third album I can present from Day Four (Country Day) of the 1982 US Festival is a set by Willie Nelson.

Nelson is such a famous figure that I assume he needs no introduction. So I'll just describe a bit where his career was at the time of this festival. In short, he was doing very well. Remarkably, even though this was only the sixth month in the year of 1983, he'd already released THREE new studio albums since the start of the year! One was an album with just himself, another was a duet album with Waylon Jennings, and a third was a duet album with Merle Haggard. All of them made at least the Top Five in the country charts. The album with Haggard included the song "Pancho and Lefty" (written by Townes Van Zandt), which hit Number One in the singles chart, and would go on to be considered one of the greatest country songs of all time. Rolling Stone Magazine also listed it as one of the top 500 greatest songs of all time, period.

Since Nelson had done a duet album with Jennings earlier in the year, and Jennings played at the festival earlier in the day, it made sense that they would duet together. But apparently Nelson thought that Jennings wouldn't show, because he performed the song "Good Hearted Woman" by himself. Then, just one song after that, Jennings showed up on stage. So they did another song together, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," then did a duet version of "Good Hearted Woman."

Also, near the end of the set, Nelson played his signature tune "On the Road Again," and then immediately played the whole thing a second time.

Technically, this set has been officially released as the album "Live at the US Festival, 1983." But it's such a rare album that I couldn't find it anywhere. Instead, I found a YouTube video and converted that into mp3s. The sound quality is excellent.

With this album, I'm finally done posting all I have from the 1983 US Festival. Nelson was the final act on the final day.

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

032 Whiskey River (Willie Nelson)
033 Stay All Night [Stay a Little Longer] (Willie Nelson)
034 Funny How Time Slips Away (Willie Nelson)
035 Crazy (Willie Nelson)
036 Night Life (Willie Nelson)
037 talk (Willie Nelson)
038 If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time [Instrumental Version] (Willie Nelson)
039 talk (Willie Nelson)
040 If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time (Willie Nelson)
041 Good Hearted Woman (Willie Nelson)
042 talk (Willie Nelson)
043 Sweet Memories (Willie Nelson)
044 Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings)
045 talk (Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings)
046 Good Hearted Woman (Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings)
047 Why Do I Have to Choose (Willie Nelson)
048 Help Me Make It through the Night (Willie Nelson)
049 Bloody Mary Morning (Willie Nelson)
050 Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Willie Nelson)
051 Instrumental (Willie Nelson)
052 Blue Skies (Willie Nelson)
053 Georgia on My Mind (Willie Nelson)
054 All of Me (Willie Nelson)
055 Stardust (Willie Nelson)
056 My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (Willie Nelson)
057 I Can Get Off on You (Willie Nelson)
058 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (Willie Nelson)
059 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
060 On the Road Again [Second Version] (Willie Nelson)
061 Always on My Mind (Willie Nelson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17046257/VA-1983USFstvlDay0403WlliNlsn_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HUmFfB3y

Similarly to the situations with the other two albums for Country Day, I had to resort to making a screenshot from a YouTube video for the cover art. 

Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 4-6-1999

I've previously posted "All-Star Tribute" concerts for Paul Simon and Brian Wilson. I discovered they were part of a short-lived annual tradition at the TNT TV network. There are only a couple more, so I plan on posting them too. Here's the next one, an "All-Star Tribute" to country legend Johnny Cash.

In 1999, Cash's health was in serious decline. He wouldn't die until 2003, at the age of 71. But by 1999, he rarely gave public performances. As he mentioned in his stage comments here, he hadn't performed on stage in the past year and a half. After this, he would only make about half a dozen additional musical performances, none of them full concerts. So although he did sing at the very end of this concert, maybe with his health in mind he only sang two songs.

The rest of the concert featured an impressive roster of musical stars singing songs made famous by Cash. It should be noted that the biggest stars, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and U2, weren't actually there but videotaped musical performances that were played at the concert. 

Unfortunately, one person who couldn't sing at this concert was Cash's famous musical daughter Rosanne Cash. This concert happened to take place during a three-year time period in which Rosanne was unable to sing due to a polyp on her vocal chords. She did, however, give a brief speech.

Most of the concert was emceed by actor Jon Voight. However, some of the other banter was by singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin, actor Kevin Bacon, and actor Tim Robbins. There were some additional parts that I cut out. These were narrated video tributes to different stages of Cash's life. I cut those out because they were mainly meant to be seen, not heard.

Like the other "All-Star Tributes" in this series, this concert remains officially unreleased. I found the video of it on YouTube, then converted that to audio. The sound quality is excellent throughout.

This album is an hour and a half long.

01 Jackson - Orange Blossom Special (Sheryl Crow & Willie Nelson)
02 talk (Jon Voight)
03 I Guess Things Happen That Way (Chris Isaak)
04 Get Rhythm Intro (Chris Isaak)
05 Get Rhythm (Chris Isaak)
06 talk (Jon Voight & John Carter Cash)
07 talk (Willie Nelson)
08 I Still Miss Someone (Willie Nelson)
09 talk (Jon Voight)
10 talk (June Carter Cash)
11 Ring of Fire (June Carter Cash)
12 talk (Jon Voight)
13 Train of Love (Bob Dylan)
14 talk (Jon Voight)
15 The Man in Black (Mavericks)
16 talk (Jon Voight)
17 The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Kris Kristofferson)
18 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
19 Sunday Morning Coming Down (Trisha Yearwood with Kris Kristofferson)
20 talk (Larry Gatlin)
21 Ghost Riders in the Sky (Brooks & Dunn)
22 talk (Jon Voight)
23 Tennessee Flat Top Box (Lyle Lovett)
24 talk (Lyle Lovett)
25 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Give My Love to Rose (Bruce Springsteen)
27 talk (Jon Voight)
28 Flesh and Blood (Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
29 talk (Kevin Bacon)
30 Delia's Gone (Wyclef Jean)
31 talk (Jon Voight)
32 talk (Dave Matthews)
33 Long Black Veil (Dave Matthews & Emmylou Harris)
34 talk (Jon Voight)
35 talk (Rosanne Cash)
36 talk (Marty Stuart)
37 Belshazzar (Marty Stuart with the Fairfield Four)
38 talk (Jon Voight & Bono)
39 Don't Take Your Guns to Town (U2)
40 talk (Jon Voight)
41 talk (Tim Robbins)
42 Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)
43 talk (Johnny Cash)
44 I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VysgekNb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FO4eXOKBVGBjELk/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/dmd9S

The cover shows John Mellencamp with Johnny Cash at this exact concert. Curiously, Mellencamp didn't appear in any of the songs. Perhaps he had a song or two that got cut out of the TV broadcast, or perhaps he had a non-performing role, I don't know. But I thought it was a good photo to show how Cash was honored.

Sheryl Crow - Be Still My Soul - Non-Album Tracks (2002)

Here's the next in my long series of Sheryl Crow stray tracks albums. 2002 was the year she released her studio album "C'mon C'mon." Yet she performed enough songs to fill up this album, plus a couple more on the next album in this series.

There are a few original songs here, such as "Be Still My Soul," "Let's Get Free," "I Want You," and "You're Not the One." The others are generally covers of very famous, classic songs by the likes of Buffalo Springfield, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, Patsy Cline, the Rolling Stones, and John Lennon. Three of the songs are duets with Willie Nelson, and she also duets with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones on "Wild Horses."

The first five songs are officially released. They were B-sides, bonus tracks, or the like. The remaining six songs are all unreleased, and all come from live bootlegs. But the sound quality on those are all excellent, as they come from soundboard recordings or TV shows. 

The one song that doesn't sound as good is the bonus track, "Dead Flowers." It's almost good enough to be included, but the sound quality isn't quite up to snuff.

01 Be Still My Soul (Sheryl Crow)
02 For What It's Worth (Willie Nelson & Sheryl Crow)
03 Let's Get Free (Sheryl Crow)
04 Missing (Sheryl Crow)
05 I Want You (Sheryl Crow)
06 You're Not the One (Sheryl Crow)
07 Good Times, Bad Times (Sheryl Crow)
08 Midnight Rider (Sheryl Crow)
09 You Remain (Willie Nelson & Sheryl Crow)
10 Crazy (Willie Nelson & Sheryl Crow)
11 Wild Horses (Rolling Stones & Sheryl Crow)
12 Happy Xmas [War Is Over] (Sheryl Crow)

Dead Flowers (Sheryl Crow & Bonnie Raitt)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105030/SherylC_2002_BeStllMySoul_atse.zip.html

I don't remember what the source of this cover art photo is exactly, but it is from 2002.

Various Artists - Farm Aid on the Road 2020, 9-26-2020

Here's another recent live stream benefit concert with lots of big names. Farm Aid has been happening every year since 1985, funding a non-profit that benefits Americans with family farms. Of course, the 2020 concert has had to be a virtual event, with artists prerecording their songs from their homes. This is a particularly long concert, almost three hours, after the many cuts I made.

Speaking of those cuts, I didn't cut any of the music. But there was lots of talking between songs, including testimonials from farmers and even some commercials. I cut all that out. Musician Jon Batiste introduced each of the other musicians, and I cut all those intros out too. I also frequently edited down the comments from the artists themselves to the bare bones. My thinking there was I wanted this to be focused on the music, with repeat playability.

In terms of the music, this differs from some other similar benefit concerts during the pandemic in that the big name artists got to play up to four songs instead of just one or two. Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews all got to play four songs each, and most of the others played two. Willie Nelson and his two sons Lukas and Micah ended the show with eight songs, with them rotating who did the lead vocals. (Particle Kid is the name of Micah Nelson's band.)

the sound is generally excellent. The only exception to that is Neil Young's set. Neil, being weird as he often is, decided to play his songs in a chicken coop in a farm. So there's a lot of ambient noise, especially the clucking of chickens. There was nothing I could do to improve the sound there, but it still sounds okay.

As I mentioned yesterday when posting the "A Night for Austin" benefit concert, there are a lot of these sorts of concerts in 2020, but I pass on most of them. However, like the Austin one, I was impressed by the consistently high quality of music in this one. I encourage you to give it a listen.

01 Home (Jack Johnson)
02 Better Together (Jack Johnson)
03 And It's Still Alright (Nathaniel Rateliff)
04 Time Stands (Nathaniel Rateliff)
05 Where Rainbows Never Die (Chris Stapleton)
06 Starting Over (Chris Stapleton)
07 To Live (Norah Jones)
08 Sunrise (Norah Jones)
09 The Movie Song (Record Company)
10 Black Patch (Kelsey Waldon)
11 Colors (Black Pumas)
12 Confines (Black Pumas with Jack Johnson)
13 Don't Drink the Water (Dave Matthews)
14 Rye Whiskey (Dave Matthews)
15 Grey Street (Dave Matthews)
16 Shadows on the Wall (Dave Matthews)
17 Drink Up and Go Home (Valerie June)
18 Lonesome Valley (Valerie June)
19 Longest Days (John Mellencamp)
20 Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp)
21 Easy Target (John Mellencamp)
22 Rain on the Scarecrow (John Mellencamp)
23 The Eye (Brandi Carlile)
24 The Mother (Brandi Carlile)
25 Field of Opportunity (Neil Young)
26 Homegrown (Neil Young)
26 talk (Neil Young)
27 Harvest (Neil Young)
28 Old Man (Neil Young)
29 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
30 You Don't Know like I Know (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
31 All My Tears [Be Washed Away] (Jamey Johnson)
32 Every Night Is Saturday Night in New Orleans (Jamey Johnson)
33 Far Away (Edie Brickell with Charlie Sexton)
34 Jubilee (War & Treaty)
35 Little Boy Blue (War & Treaty)
36 Letting Me Down (Margo Price)
37 Prisoner of the Highway (Margo Price)
38 American Life (Particle Kid)
39 Focus on the Music (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
40 King Harvest [Has Surely Come] (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real)
41 Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (Willie Nelson with Micah Nelson & Lukas Nelson)
42 I Thought about You, Lord (Micah Nelson with Lukas Nelson & Willie Nelson)
43 Hands on the Wheel (Lukas Nelson with Micah Nelson & Willie Nelson)
44 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson & Micah Nelson)
45 I'll Fly Away (Jon Batiste)
46 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Willie Nelson & Jon Batiste)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/p27jfimd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q4dteikU0RLjn9p/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/inCmM

For the album cover, I decided to use the official logo for the concert. This appeared at the very start of the concert video when it appeared on YouTube. I made some adjustments to the date at the bottom, but otherwise left it unchanged.

Various Artists - A Night for Austin Benefit Concert, 6-10-2020

Back in June 2020, there was a benefit concert to help concert venues in Austin, Texas that were in financial danger due to the coronavirus lockdown ending all concerts for a while. It was organized by the married couple Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, and they got a lot of big names to help out. I missed hearing about the concert when in happened, but I'm catching up to it now.

Generally speaking, each artist only performed one song. As the hosts, Paul Simon took part in three songs, and Edie Brickell took part in two. Because this was recorded at the height of coronavirus related problems, there was no fixed location. Instead, all the performances were recorded in advance in the musician's homes. 

I've cut this down a fair amount to make it better for repeat listenings. I didn't remove any of the music. However, there was a lot of talking between songs, and I cut that down quite a lot. There was a lot of talk praising Austin, Texas as a musical hub, and people complimenting Simon and Brickell for arranging the benefit concert, and asking people for donations to help out, and so on.

There have been a lot of these kinds of benefit concerts since the pandemic began. Most of them don't interest me that much. But I like most of the artists here, and the song selection. Simon and Brickell kept the quality control high. 

The concert is an hour and forty minutes long.

By the way, I had to figure out the names of all the songs. I think I got them all right, except for one. I didn't know the title of the 19th track, done by Flaco Jimenez, but a kind commenter gave me the name, so I've fixed that one.

01 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
02 Sailin' On Through (Terry Allen)
03 Rainy Taxi (Britt Daniel)
04 The Governor (Gary Clark, Jr.)
05 Lonestar (Norah Jones)
06 Shadows (Kalu & the Electric Joint)
07 Roll with What You've Got (Charlie Sexton with Doyle Bramhall II)
08 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66 (Asleep at the Wheel)
09 Easy Does It (David Ramirez)
10 [Hey Baby] Que Paso (Augie Meyers with Flaco Jimenez & Los Texmaniacs)
11 When It Don't Come Easy (Patty Griffin)
12 Baby, Please Come Home (Jimmy Vaughan)
13 Five Hearts Breaking (Alejandro Escovedo)
14 Colors (Black Pumas)
15 Mr. Lee (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
16 The Last Thing on My Mind [Instrumental Version] (Jerry Douglas)
17 Too Sick to Pray (Ethan Hawke & Indiana Hawke)
18 Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Shawn Colvin)
19 Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio (Flaco Jimenez & Los Texmaniacs)
20 No Wicked Grin (John Hiatt)
21 When Something Is Wrong with My Baby (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
22 Pontiac (Ryan Bingham)
23 Just Outside of Austin (Lukas Nelson)
24 If I Had a Boat (Lyle Lovett)
25 Little Brother (Vince Gill)
26 Keep Believing (Edit Brickell)
27 America (James Taylor)
28 Homeward Bound (Paul Simon)
29 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zxh3gDTF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/yi07m5b1AQ7NlgH/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/e8Hmd

The album cover is based on a promotional poster for the concert. The poster was rectangular, with the bottom portion listing all the artists who took part. I simply cut that part off, and the rest fit in a square space very nicely. So I didn't make any changes except cropping the image, and pasting in the date of the concert at the bottom.

Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes - Live Set, KUT, Studio One, Austin, TX, 2-18-1996

Willie Nelson is clearly one of the country music greats, and I'm a fan of his music. But I'm not such a big fan that I have lots of bootlegs of him. However, this one stands out. You may well like it even if you're only a casual Willie Nelson fan.

First off, note this is a full collaboration between Nelson and Kimmie Rhodes. Rhodes isn't very well known - none of her albums have ever made the charts. But she's a talented singer-songwriter who has been putting out albums since the early 1980s. Nelson has done a lot of collaborating with her, both on stage and in the studio. Most notably, he sang two duets with her on her 1996 album "West Texas Heaven," and then did a whole duets album with her, "Pictures in a Frame," in 2003.

I haven't been able to find any write-up about this particular concert. But Nelson and Rhodes made a joint appearance on KUT, a public radio station in Austin, Texas, in 1996. It seems from Nelson's comments between songs that he expected a relatively short appearance, since he asked only after a few songs if they still had time left. However, the DJ had a long block of time on the station, and allowed them to keep going and going. They ended up playing for two hours and 15 minutes!

There are several things I like about this. For one, although they played with a small band, there's little to no drumming, and the other instruments are generally acoustic, so it's kind of an "unplugged" concert. Also, you can tell they're winging it, deciding what songs to do on the spot, probably including many songs they'd never practiced before, and yet they nailed the songs time after time with almost no flubs at all. What's especially great is that Nelson and Rhodes sing nice harmonies on most of the songs, even though one can they were winging that too. Plus, Nelson's lead guitar work can be heard all over this as well.

Basically, in my opinion, it's as if these musicians got together just to have fun and sing songs together in a no-pressure situation, and that's exactly what they did, except it happened to be recorded live on the radio. What a lucky break that we get to be flies on the wall.

As far as sound quality goes, it's excellent all the way through. I hardly had to make any changes, except balancing the overall volume levels for some songs. But one thing I did have to do was fix the song titles. I found a couple different bootleg versions of this floating around the Internet, but many of the song titles were wrong on those versions. For instance, one version labeled a song "Fine Top," another one called it "Pine Tops," but the true name is "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie." In particular, most of the instrumentals were given the wrong names. But I took the time to listen to the studio versions to make sure I correctly fixed them.

Oh, by the way, apparently this radio show really was called "Live Set," because it's mentioned as such in the banter between songs. (I'd originally assumed that some bootlegged hadn't known what else to call it.)

01 I Just Drove By (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
02 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
03 Our Father's Face (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
04 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
05 Down Yonder [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
06 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
07 Just One Love (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
08 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
09 Won't You Ride in My Little Red Wagon (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
10 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
11 Spirit of E9 [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
12 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
13 Hard Promises to Keep (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
14 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
15 Mariachi [Instrumental] - I'm Waiting Forever (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
16 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
17 Bells of Joy (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
18 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
19 Amazing Grace (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes with Johnny Gimble)
20 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
21 Wedding Bells (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
22 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
23 There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight - Look What Thoughts Will Do (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
24 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
25 I've Been to California (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes with Johnny Gimble)
26 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
27 We Don't Run (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
28 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
29 Your Memory Don't Die in My Grave (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
30 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
31 White Freightliner Blues (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
32 I Never Cared for You (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
33 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
34 'Till I Gain Control Again (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
35 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
36 Still Water Runs the Deepest (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
37 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
38 In the Garden (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
39 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
40 Pine Top's Boogie Woogie [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes with Bobby Nelson)
41 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
42 Milk Cow Blues (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes with Johnny Gimble)
43 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
44 I Guess I've Come to Live Here in Your Eyes (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
45 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
46 I'm Gonna Fly (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
47 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
48 Valentine (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
49 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
50 Matador [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
51 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
52 Wild Roses (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
53 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
54 She Is Gone (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
55 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
56 Red Headed Stranger (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
57 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
58 What a Way to Live (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
59 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
60 Night Life (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)
61 talk (Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ixqf84yz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/nrDebZrAcSp72Zu/file

For the album cover, I wanted a photo of Nelson and Rhodes together. I could only find a couple, period. The one I chose is decent, although the colors seem a bit off. I don't know when or where it's from though. I later used the Krea AI program to increase the detail.

Norah Jones - Home Concerts 3, New York City, 4-29-2020 (Willie Nelson Tribute)

As the coronavirus lockdown goes on, Norah Jones has really been killing it. She keeps putting on interesting mini-home concerts once or twice a week. Just yesterday, she did an extra special concert that was her most interesting one yet, in my opinion. On the date of country legend Willie Nelson's 87th birthday, she did a special Willie-Nelson-themed show. All the songs were written by Nelson, with the exception of one song, "Remember Me," which is a song Nelson covered on one of his albums.

This is a fairly short show at 27 minutes. I could have waited until she did another mini-concert and then bundled this one with that one. But I think it's good to present this on its own due to its consistent Willie Nelson theme. The vast majority of the songs are songs Jones hasn't officially released. (I do have her doing "Crazy" and "Funny How Time Slips Away" on earlier stray tracks albums I've put together, with the latter being a duet version with Nelson.)

The sound quality here is just fine. One exception is that she tends to talk very quietly between songs. But I was able to easily fix that by raising the volume on all those talking bits.

Finally, viva Willie Nelson, who as I write this in 2020, is still going strong musically at 87 years old!

01 Funny How Time Slips Away (Norah Jones)
02 talk (Norah Jones)
03 I Gotta Get Drunk (Norah Jones)
04 talk (Norah Jones)
05 Permanently Lonely (Norah Jones)
06 talk (Norah Jones)
07 Remember Me (Norah Jones)
08 talk (Norah Jones)
09 Crazy (Norah Jones)
10 talk (Norah Jones)
11 Night Life (Norah Jones)
12 talk (Norah Jones)
13 Hands on the Wheel (Norah Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15603563/NorahJ_2020_HomeCncerts3__4-29-2020_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I could have gone with a screenshot of Jones playing these songs. But she doesn't really look any different than she did for the covers in the last two home concert albums of hers I've put together. So instead, I thought it was fitting to use a photo of Jones and Nelson together. The photo is from a concert appearance they did together in 2003.