Various Artists - The Night that Changed America- A Grammy Salute to the Beatles, Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-27-2014

I've posted a bunch of tribute concerts to musical greats, but I've missed this one until now. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles performed on the "Ed Sullivan" TV show in the U.S. This concert was meant to honor the 50th anniversary of that performance. It was filmed on January 27, 2014, but was broadcast nationally on February 9, 2014, which was 50 years to the exact day. The main highlight was that the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed separately and together. But many other big names also played cover versions of their favorite Beatles songs.

That 1964 episode of the "Ed Sullivan Show" was the highest rated T.V. program in the history of the U.S. up until that point. It installed a massive wave of Beatlemania in the U.S. (The wave had already hit Britain and other countries in 1963.) As I've read about the history of rock and roll, I've noticed many later stars credited this T.V. show for inspiring them to become musicians. That's a list that includes Billy Joel, Tom Petty, John Fogerty, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Chrissie Hynde, and many, many more. Here's a very good article that lists many music stars and their recollections about that show:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-ed-sullivan-rock-stars-remember/

Getting this album ready to post was a little difficult, because the applause at the ends of songs was often cut off for commercial breaks. Also, there were some non-musical sections I cut out. For instance, there were video montages of the lives of each of the four Beatles. I did a lot of work to get the songs to transition from one to another naturally, usually by adding in more applause. Comedian Eric Idle had a lot of funny things to say, but those were all lead-ups to the video montages, so that got cut as well. However, you'll note a lot of other famous non-musicians introduced some of the musical acts.

Surprisingly, not only has this concert never been officially released in any audio format, it hasn't been released on video either (although some "grey market" versions exist). The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long. 

01 talk (LL Cool J)
02 All My Loving (Maroon 5)
03 talk (LL Cool J)
04 Ticket to Ride (Maroon 5)
05 talk (Stevie Wonder)
06 We Can Work It Out (Stevie Wonder)
07 talk (Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison)
08 Something (Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison)
09 talk (Kate Beckinsale)
10 In My Life (Ed Sheeran)
11 Don't Let Me Down (John Mayer & Keith Urban)
12 Yesterday (Katy Perry)
13 talk (LL Cool J)
14 Revolution (Imagine Dragons)
15 talk (Dave Grohl)
16 Hey Bulldog (Dave Grohl & Jeff Lynne)
17 talk (Kate Beckinsale)
18 The Fool on the Hill (Eurythmics)
19 talk (Alicia Keys & John Legend)
20 Let It Be (Alicia Keys & John Legend)
21 talk (Anna Kendrick)
22 Here Comes the Sun (Pharrell Williams & Brad Paisley)
23 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Gary Clark Jr., Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
24 talk (Jeff Bridges)
25 Matchbox (Ringo Starr)
26 talk (Ringo Starr)
27 Boys (Ringo Starr)
28 Yellow Submarine (Ringo Starr)
29 talk (Sean Penn)
30 Birthday (Paul McCartney)
31 talk (Paul McCartney)
32 Get Back (Paul McCartney)
33 talk (Paul McCartney)
34 I Saw Her Standing There (Paul McCartney)
35 talk (Paul McCartney)
36 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Paul McCartney)
37 With a Little Help from My Friends (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
38 talk (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
39 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/m1LQbH9L

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IxtME1FVAp1xf6w/file

The cover image of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr is from this exact concert.

Robyn Hitchcock - The Basement, Sydney, Australia, 5-23-2014 (The Basement Tapes)

"The Basement Tapes" were a collaborative music project between Bob Dylan and the Band in the summer of 1967. Over 100 songs were written and performed, the vast majority of them by Dylan. When a double album of the best songs from these sessions were released in 1975, it became a classic. In 2014, Robyn Hitchcock was living in Australia for a few months, and performed a lot there. One place he played in Sydney is called the Basement. I'm guessing that gave him the idea to perform all the songs from "The Basement Tapes" there, since he's a massive Dylan fan.

Actually, I should clarify he didn't perform all the songs from that double album. For one thing, he skipped the eight songs that primarily featured the Band, and honed in on just the Dylan songs. He also skipped a couple of the Dylan ones: "Apple Suckling Tree" and "Odds and Ends." But on the plus side, he did play a couple of Dylan songs that were recorded at that time and arguably should have been released on the double album: "I Shall Be Released" and "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)." He also ended the concert with a later Dylan classic, "Not Dark Yet."

Robyn was mostly in solo acoustic mode for this concert. However, he did have some backing on some of the songs in the second half of the concert, with Jenny Shimmin on banjo, Brendan Gallagher on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and Emma Swift on acoustic guitar and vocals. (In addition to being a talented musician, Swift has been Hitchcock's romantic partner from some time prior to this concert through today in 2026.)

I've had this bootleg in my music collection for years, but I'd never considered posting it here due to sound quality issues. It was only an audience boot, with a lot of reverb/ echo. But audio editing technology has improved drastically in recent years, so I attempted to fix it. I ran every song through the MVSEP program, using their de-reverb filter. The banter between songs then got extra treatment. I ran all of those tracks through the Adobe speech enhancer. In my opinion, this recording now sounds much better. Almost as good as typical soundboard. Not quite, but close.  

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

01 This Wheel's on Fire (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Lo and Behold (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Quinn the Eskimo [The Mighty Quinn] (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Million Dollar Bash (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Too Much of Nothing (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Tears of Rage (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Crash on the Levee [Down in the Flood] (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Please, Mrs. Henry (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 Nothing Was Delivered (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Yea, Heavy and a Bottle of Bread - Tiny Montgomery (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 I Shall Be Released (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Open the Door, Homer (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 Clothes Line Saga (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Not Dark Yet (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bUZD6pgk

alternate:  

https://bestfile.io/en/zWq4QA5nQ41ifHx/file

I was stumped for what to do with the cover art here, since I wanted something that showed both Robyn Hitchcock and something about the Basement Tapes. So, first, I found a photo of Hitchcock from 2014 (specifically, from the City Winery in Nashville, Tennessee, September 18, 2014). Then I found a black and white photo of the Band performing in a basement in 1969. Note I said "a basement," not THE basement of the Basement Tapes. This picture was taken in the basement of the house of Band member Rick Danko, not the basement of the Big Pink house where the Basement Tapes were recorded in 1967. But it was in the same small town of Woodstock, New York, and the Band did practice there a lot, so I'm sure it had a very similar vibe. (Unfortunately, Band member Levon Helm was in the middle of the image, so he is blocked by Hitchcock's body.)

Anyway, I colorized that image. Then I used Photoshop to put Hitchcock in front. It's not a perfect merger by any means, but it works for me. 

Steely Dan - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 9-21-2014

Here is yet another mono soundboard concert that was made public due to a leak of dozens of concerts from the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, in April 2026. This one features the band Steely Dan.

The band consisted of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. In 2017, Becker died of cancer. Fagen carried on without him touring a few more years. But as I write this in 2026 it seems Steely Dan has been retired. So this was one of the last tours of the band with both key members. The last Steely Dan studio album was in 2003. So by the time of this concert, they were mainly playing their best known songs, generally from the 1970s.

By the way, I write this from an airport terminal in London. I am flying back to the US in a couple of hours. Once I am back home and settled in, my posting habits should return to normal. But I think I did a pretty good job of posting about one album a day for the duration of my vacation.

The album is two hours and four minutes long.

01 Cubano Chant [Instrumental] (Steely Dan)
02 Black Cow (Steely Dan)
03 Aja (Steely Dan)
04 Hey Nineteen (Steely Dan)
05 talk (Steely Dan)
06 Black Friday (Steely Dan)
07 Rikki Don't Lose That Number (Steely Dan)
08 Show Biz Kids (Steely Dan)
09 Time Out of Mind (Steely Dan)
10 talk (Steely Dan)
11 Two Against Nature (Steely Dan)
12 talk (Steely Dan)
13 Razor Boy (Steely Dan)
14 Bodhisattva (Steely Dan)
15 talk (Steely Dan)
16 Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More (Steely Dan)
17 Babylon Sisters (Steely Dan)
18 I Want To [Do Everything for You] (Steely Dan)
19 Josie (Steely Dan)
20 Peg (Steely Dan)
21 My Old School (Steely Dan)
22 Reelin' in the Years (Steely Dan)
23 talk (Steely Dan)
24 Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan)
25 The Untouchables (Steely Dan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ThFHP51A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/KF0ryiJctX8vEV1/file

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This album is 58 minutes long.

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/z62DNerS

alternate: 

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

The cover image is from 2005. 

Covered: George Harrison, Volume 5: 2010-2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's a newspaper article about the song: 

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

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

This album is one hour long. 

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YkPbKTAT 

alternate:

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

The cover image is from "circa 2000."

Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 9-26-2014

I'm dealing with two "floods" right now - posting a flood of concerts from the Ebbets Field venue in the 1970s and posting a flood of recently leaked concerts from the Capitol Theatre venue in Port Chester in the 2010s. Here's another from that second flood. This one stars singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle, with both of them in acoustic mode.

By the time of this concert, both Colvin and Earle had long music careers, with their first albums being released in the 1980s. They began performing together in 2014. At first, it seems they only did a handful of concerts in 2014 and 2015. But in 2016 they released an album together, "Colvin and Earle," and toured a lot more. Their collaboration petered out after that. 

I've posted a concert they did in 2016. Many of the songs are different, since this one is from two years earlier, well before their 2016 album was made. Here's the link to that one:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/02/shawn-colvin-steve-earle-hardly.html

As far as I know, that 2016 concert I posted was the only one featuring the two of them together with excellent sound quality, until this one recently was made public (as I write this in May 2026). This is a soundboard boot, like the others coming from the same Port Chester leak. 

A person named Frenfri made some improvements to this before I got my hands on it. That person broke the single file into songs, and make some sonic improvements as well. Also, the singers were identified for the songs as well as the banter. So I kept that information. But I believe both of them were on the stage the whole time. So even when only one of their names is mentioned, the other one could have been stumming along with guitar and/or doing some backing vocals.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 54 minutes long. 

01 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
02 Wake Up, Little Susie (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
03 talk (Steve Earle)
04 Devil's Right Hand (Steve Earle)
05 talk (Shawn Colvin)
06 Another Long One (Shawn Colvin)
07 talk (Steve Earle)
08 Goodbye (Steve Earle)
09 talk (Shawn Colvin)
10 A Matter of Minutes (Shawn Colvin)
11 Crazy (Shawn Colvin)
12 talk (Steve Earle)
13 Pancho and Lefty (Steve Earle)
14 talk (Shawn Colvin)
15 That Don't Worry Me Now (Shawn Colvin)
16 talk (Steve Earle)
17 Someday (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
18 talk (Shawn Colvin)
19 Fearless Heart (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
20 Diamond in the Rough (Shawn Colvin)
21 talk (Steve Earle)
22 City of Immigrants (Steve Earle)
23 talk (Steve Earle)
24 Burnin' It Down (Steve Earle)
25 talk (Shawn Colvin)
26 Sunny Came Home (Shawn Colvin)
27 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
28 The Galway Girl (Steve Earle)
29 talk (Steve Earle)
30 You're Still Standin' There (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
31 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
32 Baby's in Black (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
33 talk (Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle)
34 Copperhead Road (Steve Earle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/giAUUYZ5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/77Fo4va1vBTzYPB/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado on August 30, 2016.

Elton John - Cover Versions, Volume 6: 2008-2017

Here's the sixth and last album in a series of albums of cover versions by Elton John. I had started posted this series back in 2023, but I stopped for a couple of years due to problems with the copyright police. But they seem to be going easy on me lately, so I'm finally finishing off the series.

Only four of the songs here are unreleased. "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Birthday" are from a bootleg of a joint concert John did with Billy Joel in 2009. (He's done a lot of those over the years.) Unfortunately, the sound quality of those two songs are lower than the rest, despite my best efforts to make some audio editing improvements. "Streets of Philadelphia" is from a 2013 MusiCares tribute concert to Bruce Springsteen that I've posted in full on this blog. "Gravity," a duet with Sara Bareilles, is from a 2014 concert.

Pretty much all the other songs are from John's appearances on albums by other musical acts. Check the mp3 tags for more details. The one exception is "I Love You All the Time," which was released as an A-side in 2016.

This is probably going to be the last album in this series because, rather surprisingly, I can't find any good cover versions he did after 2017. Mind you, he's done lots of songs on his studio albums, but these albums only collect covers that aren't the versions from his studio albums. If anyone knows of covers I've missed from this time period, or after, let me know and I'll probably add them in to this album. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Joseph, Better You than Me (Killers, Elton John & Neil Tennant)
02 Back in the U.S.S.R (Elton John & Billy Joel)
03 Birthday (Elton John & Billy Joel)
04 Snowed In at Wheeler Street (Kate Bush & Elton John)
05 Oh Well, Part 1 (2Cellos & Elton John)
06 Streets of Philadelphia (Elton John with Raphael Saadiq)
07 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & Elton John)
08 Gravity (Sara Bareilles & Elton John)
09 I Love You All the Time (Elton John)
10 Where Do the Guilty Go (Elton John & Frankie Miller)
11 Alone Again, Naturally (Pet Shop Boys & Elton John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5co2GBbS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MyoGx6JEfwTVUTa/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Manchester Evening News Arena, in Manchester, Britain, on December 20, 2008.

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

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

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

--- 

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

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UrGS6KRt

alternate:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This album is 52 minutes long. 

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

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H6yJnwZY

alternate:

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

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

Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers - The Van Sessions, Part 3 (2013-2017)

Way back in 2019, I posted two albums I made of the band Nicki Bluhm and Gramblers performing cover songs. They got some media attention for a few years through the gimmick of recording cover songs while the played inside a van driving down the road. For reasons I'll explain, I've gone back and made a third album of their van sessions. I also completely overhauled and added to the two albums I'd made already.

The one problem with these songs recorded in a van was that they were... genuinely recorded in a van! That meant a lot of ambient noise, such as the sound of gear shifts and nearby traffic. When I posted some songs back in 2019, I tried to clean that up as best I could, but there wasn't much I could do, given the tools available at the time. But recently I discovered a relatively new tool for the MVSEP program called "denoise." It does a fantastic job of reducing hiss and other noise without damaging the music. One of the first thoughts I had when I started that was that I could finally get rid of the hiss on the two albums I'd made by this band. But then it occurred to me I could probably fix more songs they did that had even more hiss. There were some I had discarded because the hiss problem was too much.

So I went back to their old videos posted on YouTube and downloaded the songs I had previously skipped. To my delight, when I tried using the denoise function on them, all that hiss disappeared, even on the extreme cases! I swear, what audio editing technology can do these days is like magic. I found enough material for a third album, as well as drastically improving the sound quality for the songs I'd posted already.

Note however that I just redid the other two albums at the same time I'm posting this, and the new songs are scattered over all three albums. Eight out of 14 songs on this album are new.  But also, six out of 16 songs on Volume 1 are new, and four out of 15 songs on Volume 2 are new. So if you like this, you really should redownload the other two volumes as well. Between the new songs and the de-hissed old songs those albums are drastically improved. Here are the links:

Volume 1: 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/04/nicki-bluhm-gramblers-van-sessions-part.html

Volume 2:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/04/nicki-bluhm-gramblers-van-sessions-part_16.html 

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers were in existence from about 2010 to 2018. Nicki Bluhm has continued with a successful solo career, but she hasn't done anything like the van sessions. So this focuses just on the Gramblers time period. Even with the Gramblers, the actually van sessions started strong in 2011 and 2013, and then slowly trailed off. On this album, tracks 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, and 13 were actually recorded inside their van. The rest are from various sources. Tracks 1, 11, and 14 are from concerts. (I removed the applause from those.) The others are from webcasts and radio sessions and things of that nature, without an audience. Check out the mp3 tags for the exact details.

This album is 54 minutes long.

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

01 Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane
02 Lido Shuffle - Boz Scaggs
03 In the Mountains - Sarah Siskind
04 Dire Wolf - Grateful Dead
05 I Wanna Dance with Somebody - Whitney Houston
06 One Toke Over the Line - Brewer & Shipley
07 I Can Get Off on You - Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
08 Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
09 Bird Song - Grateful Dead
10 Mr. Saturday Night - Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers
11 Statesboro Blues - Blind Willie McTell
12 Picture Book - Kinks
13 That's All - Genesis
14 Piece of My Heart - Janis Joplin

And here's the usual song list: 

01 Somebody to Love (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
02 Lido Shuffle (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
03 In the Mountains (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
04 Dire Wolf (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
05 I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
06 One Toke Over the Line (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
07 I Can Get Off on You (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
08 Blue Christmas (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
09 Bird Song (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
10 Mr. Saturday Night (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
11 Statesboro Blues (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
12 Picture Book (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
13 That's All (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)
14 Piece of My Heart (Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/o2xb6dLu

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/0I9h1P6yZA2NzaS/file

The cover is a screenshot I took of the band performing a song in their van. I used Krea AI to improve the detail.

Jimmy Cliff - Wolf Lake Memorial Park Pavilion, Hammond, IN, 7-16-2014

Yesterday (November 24, 2025), the world lost another musical great, Jimmy Cliff. He was 81 years old. I wanted to post something to pay tribute to his musical legacy. I looked around, and to my pleasant surprise, discovered this concert. Someone posted it at a bootleg sharing site for the first time just yesterday, also to pay tribute to him. So you haven't heard this before.

This comes from a soundboard, and the sound quality is excellent. However, there was one problem with the recording: it captured what was heard on stage great, but there was almost no sound of the audience. So I ran every song through the MVSEP program, splitting the crowd noise from everything else. Then I greatly (and I do mean greatly) boosted the crowd noise at the ends of songs and other appropriate places, like during singalongs. So this version sounds even better than the one that first appeared just yesterday.

Cliff put out a lot of classic reggae music in the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s. But then he put out mere okay albums for a long time. However, in 2012, he had an excellent comeback album appropriately titled "Rebirth." It won a Grammy for the best reggae album of the year, and Rolling Stone Magazine named it one of the best 50 albums of 2012. Even though this concert took place well over a year after the release of that album, he was still touring to support it. Four songs here come from that album: "Rebel Rebel," "World Upside Down," "One More," and "Children's Bread."

This is a fairly long concert, which gave Cliff time to play most of his best known songs. He also managed to weave in a kind of personal musical history, which included him performing some of his earliest songs, like "King of Kings" and "Miss Jamaica" from the early 1960s, but also some cover songs that were influences on him, like "Honor Your Mother and Father," "Judge Not" (written by Bob Marley before he was famous), "Hold Me Tight," and "Cupid." All in all, this is a great concert recording to remember him by.

This album is an hour and 58 minutes long.

01 Bongo Man - Rivers of Babylon (Jimmy Cliff)
02 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
03 King of Kings (Jimmy Cliff)
04 Miss Jamaica (Jimmy Cliff)
05 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
06 Hard Road to Travel (Jimmy Cliff)
07 You Can Get It If You Really Want (Jimmy Cliff)
08 Wild World (Jimmy Cliff)
09 Rebel Rebel (Jimmy Cliff)
10 Under the Sun, Moon and Stars (Jimmy Cliff)
11 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
12 Vietnam (Jimmy Cliff)
13 World Upside Down (Jimmy Cliff)
14 Treat the Youths Right (Jimmy Cliff)
15 Rub-A-Dub Partner - Reggae Movement (Jimmy Cliff)
16 Many Rivers to Cross (Jimmy Cliff)
17 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
18 Honor Your Mother and Father (Jimmy Cliff)
19 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
20 Judge Not (Jimmy Cliff)
21 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
22 Hold Me Tight (Jimmy Cliff)
23 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
24 Cupid (Jimmy Cliff)
25 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
26 The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff)
27 I Can See Clearly Now (Jimmy Cliff)
28 Reggae Night (Jimmy Cliff)
29 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
30 One More (Jimmy Cliff)
31 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
32 Welcome Home (Jimmy Cliff)
33 Wonderful World, Beautiful People (Jimmy Cliff)
34 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
35 Sitting in Limbo (Jimmy Cliff)
36 talk (Jimmy Cliff)
37 Children's Bread (Jimmy Cliff)
38 talk (Jimmy Cliff)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/68X6ncJE

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/Ey7q5QBV8qvDarH/file

The cover photo is from the Austin City Limits Festival at Zilker Park, in Austin, Texas, on October 10, 2014.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Carole King, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-24-2014

I recently started posting MusiCares tribute concerts. Here's another one. This one honors singer-songwriter Carole King, from 2014.

I've celebrated King's music on this blog quite a bit already. For instance, she and her songwriting partner Gerry Goffin are the subject of six albums in the "Covered" series. If there's an award for songwriting, she probably has gotten it, since she's written more hit songs than just about anybody on the planet. Oh, and her 1971 album "Tapestry" has sold over 15 million copies, making it one of the best selling albums of all time, as well as appearing in the Number 25 spot in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time. Not to shabby. 

This follows the usual format of such benefit concerts. Lost of guest stars performed their versions of King's songs. Then King gave an acceptance speech. Then she played a few songs at the end of the concert. She had a particularly close relationship with James Taylor, going back to the early 1970s, so it's not too surprising that Taylor dueted with her on most of those final songs.

The music here has not been released in audio format. However, it has come out on a DVD. That's how we have a recording, since these MusiCares concerts generally haven't been bootlegged at all. I converted the DVD to audio format, then broke the music into mp3s. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 39 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Hi De Ho [That Old Sweet Roll] (LeAnn Rimes & Steven Tyler)
03 So Far Away (Pink with Paul Mirkovich)
04 I Feel the Earth Move (Train)
05 talk (Lady Gaga)
06 You've Got a Friend (Lady Gaga)
07 talk (Gloria Estefan)
08 It's Too Late (Gloria Estefan)
09 talk (will.i.am)
10 Love Makes the World - Where Is the Love (will.i.am & Leah McFall)
11 Beautiful (Sara Bareilles, Zac Brown, Jason Mraz & Raining Jane)
12 Way Over Yonder (Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill & Darlene Love)
13 talk (Joy)
14 Where You Lead (Jesse & Joy)
15 Crying in the Rain (Miguel & Kacey Musgraves)
16 talk (Alicia Keys)
17 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Alicia Keys)
18 Been to Canaan (Jennifer Nettles)
19 I'm into Something Good (Amy Grant)
20 It Might as Well Rain until September (Miranda Lambert)
21 One Fine Day (Martina McBride)
22 Up on the Roof (James Taylor)
23 talk (Neil Portnow)
24 talk (Carole King)
25 Home Again (Carole King, Moez Dawad & Ahmad A. El Haggar)
26 Sweet Seasons (Carole King & James Taylor)
27 talk (Carole King & James Taylor)
28 Hey Girl (Carole King & James Taylor)
29 talk (Carole King & James Taylor)
30 Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King & James Taylor)
31 talk (Carole King)
32 Jazzman (Carole King & Tom Scott)
33 I Feel the Earth Move (Carole King & Everyone) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LE6zAFv4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Qi10lCVRGcuAGWH/file

The album cover image is from this exact concert. From left to right: James Taylor, Zac Brown, Carole King, Sara Bareilles, and Jennifer Nettles. (I'm not counting the bald headed man behind King. I don't know who he is.)

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Billy Joel, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, 11-19-2014

Here's another "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" award concert. This one from 2014 honors Billy Joel.

This follows the usual format of these concerts. First, some guest stars performed cover versions of songs by the honoree. Then there was an award presentation, and a speech by the honoree. Finally, the honoree performed a couple of songs to end the concert. There were a couple of twists this time, however. One is that the person to give a speech leading to Joel's speech was none other than Sonia Sotomayor, one of the justices of the U.S. supreme court. That's pretty unusual behavior for a supreme court justice, but I guess she must be a really big Billy Joel fan. The other twist is that Joel played five of his own songs, instead of the usual two or three.

It's unfortunate that the emcee for the concert was Kevin Spacey, due to his sex scandals that pretty much destroyed his career. But those scandals weren't reported on until 2017, three years after this concert. Another disappointment is that Paul McCartney didn't actually perform a song. Instead, he just sent a video message praising Joel. I noticed he would do the exact same thing for the Gershwin Prize concert for Elton John and Bernie Taupin in 2024.

Sadly, this may be the last of these Gershwin concerts I post until I can find more of them. I have most of the concert honoring Burt Bacharach, but I'm missing a couple of songs, so I'm still waiting on posting that. Otherwise, if anyone has any of the others, please let me know so I can share them. That especially goes for the two (Carole King and Smokey Robinson) that seem to only be available to people who pay for a PBS pass that's only available in you live in Wisconsin.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 talk (Kevin Spacey)
02 The Longest Time (Boyz II Men)
03 Lullaby [Goodnight, My Angel] (LeAnn Rimes)
04 It's Still Rock and Roll to Me (Gavin DeGraw)
05 talk (emcee)
06 She's Always a Woman (Josh Groban with Sharon Isbin)
07 talk (Michael Feinstein)
08 She's Got a Way (Natalie Maines)
09 talk (John Mellencamp)
10 Allentown (John Mellencamp)
11 talk (Paul McCartney)
12 talk (emcee)
13 New York State of Mind (Tony Bennett)
14 talk (Sonia Sotomayor)
15 talk (Billy Joel)
16 Movin' Out [Anthony's Song] (Billy Joel)
17 Vienna (Billy Joel)
18 talk (Billy Joel)
19 Miami 2017 [I've Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway] (Billy Joel)
20 You May Be Right (Billy Joel)
21 talk (Kevin Spacey)
22 Piano Man (Billy Joel & Everyone [Edit])

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zGtLvUp6

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I'm not sure who the two men behind him are. If anyone knows, let me know so I can add that information.

Ron Sexsmith - Reasons to Believe, Volume 7: 2013-2016

Man, I've been really painfully slow posting the rest of this series of non-album tracks by Ron Sexsmith. But I finish everything eventually. This is the seventh and second to last album in this series.

All but two of the songs here have been officially released. Tracks 1, 2, 3, and 5 are bonus tracks from the "Forever Endeavor" album, with track 5 appearing only on deluxe edition versions. The other songs are from a bunch of different sources, like various artists compilation albums, soundtracks, and appearances on other musical acts' albums. As usual, check out the mp3 tags for more details.

The two unreleased songs are "Sisters of Mercy," from a Leonard Cohen tribute concert in 2013, and "Wait until the Sun Comes Up," from a concert in 2014. 

As with past volumes, I want to mention that this series was the idea of Pete the Greek, and I wouldn't have done it without his instigation and continual help. 

This album is 47 minutes long.

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

01 Real Pandora - Ron Sexsmith
02 Least of My Worries - Ron Sexsmith
03 Wee Small Hours - Frank Sinatra
04 Pennies from Heaven - Bing Crosby
05 Life After a Broken Heart - Ron Sexsmith
06 Any Day Now - Breithaupt Brothers & Ron Sexsmith
07 Don't You - Marike Jager with Ron Sexsmith
08 Sisters of Mercy - Leonard Cohen
09 Wait until the Sun Comes Up - Ron Sexsmith & Oh Susanna (Suzie Ungerleider)
10 Circling Round the Drain - Ron Sexsmith
11 Half a Chance - Alex Cuba with Ron Sexsmith
12 Don't Wait - Mel Parsons with Ron Sexsmith
13 Off Somewhere - Lori Cullen & Ron Sexsmith
14 Rain - Flypaper Orchestra with Ron Sexsmith

Note that the last song, "Rain," appears to be "Pennies from Heaven" but with new lyrics written by members of the Flypaper Orchestra. 

Here's the usual song list:  

01 Real Pandora (Ron Sexsmith)
02 Least of My Worries (Ron Sexsmith)
03 Wee Small Hours (Ron Sexsmith)
04 Pennies from Heaven (Ron Sexsmith)
05 Life After a Broken Heart (Ron Sexsmith)
06 Any Day Now (Breithaupt Brothers & Ron Sexsmith)
07 Don't You (Marike Jager with Ron Sexsmith)
08 Sisters of Mercy (Ron Sexsmith)
09 Wait until the Sun Comes Up (Ron Sexsmith & Oh Susanna)
10 Circling Round the Drain (Ron Sexsmith)
11 Half a Chance (Alex Cuba with Ron Sexsmith)
12 Don't Wait (Mel Parsons with Ron Sexsmith)
13 Off Somewhere (Lori Cullen & Ron Sexsmith)
14 Rain (Flypaper Orchestra with Ron Sexsmith)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5yK5zB9N

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/YqT1PVLGkrlXSWO/file

All I know about the cover photo is that it's from 2015.

John Fogerty - Weeping in the Promised Land - Non-Album Tracks (2013-2022)

I recently got a request from a commenter to post more of my non-album track albums by John Fogerty. I only have one more by him before we get to the present day, more or less. So here it is. (And by the way, I still have lots of these stray track albums to post by various musical acts, but they've been on the backburner compared to BBC albums and other things recently.)

In 2013, the year of the first song in this album, Fogerty was 68 years old. In 2022, the year of the last song in this album, he was 77 years old. As I write this in 2025, he still has a strong voice and plays lead guitar very well, but it's obvious his songwriting creativity has slowed way down. He hasn't released an album of new original songs since 2007. So the songs here mostly consist of cover versions, plus acoustic versions of songs from earlier in his career, with only a couple new originals ("The Holy Grail" and "Weeping in the Promised Land").

The first song, "Sharp Dressed Man," is a ZZ Top song done with Billy Gibbons, the lead vocalist and lead guitarist in ZZ Top. Both Fogerty and Gibbons sang and played lead guitar on it. It's unreleased, from a bootleg. "New Orleans" is a cover of a 1960s hit performed in concert for a Dr. John tribute album. "Give Peace a Chance" and "In My Life" are John Lennon songs done for a Lennon tribute concert in 2015. They come from an official album of highlights of that concert. Tracks 5, 6, 11, and 12 are unreleased acoustic versions of hits Fogerty had earlier in his career, mostly from when he a member of Creedence Clearwater Revival. They're from radio or Internet shows. "Long as I Can See the Light" is particularly interesting since it was played on piano instead of guitar as usual. 

"Love and War" is a song performed with country star Brad Paisley from his 2017 album, also called "Love and War." "I Won't Back Down" is a cover of the classic Tom Petty song. This is from an concert bootleg, and the sound quality is a little poorer than the other songs. "The Holy Grail" is a single from 2018, and "Weeping in the Promised Land" is a single from 2021. 

"With a Little Help from My Friends" is a cover of the Beatles song from the 2019 official live album "50 Year Trip: Live at Red Rocks." However, it is done in the same style as Joe Cocker's famous hit cover version. "Walk, Don't Run," is a cover on the famous instrumental hit by the Ventures. Fogerty only performed it once in concert, on January 22, 2022, because it was done in honor of the lead guitarist for the Ventures, Don Wilson, who died earlier in the day. Finally, "The City of New Orleans" is yet another cover song of a classic, done from a various artists collection of train songs in 2022.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Sharp Dressed Man (John Fogerty & Billy Gibbons)
02 New Orleans (John Fogerty)
03 Give Peace a Chance (John Fogerty)
04 In My Life (John Fogerty)
05 Have You Ever Seen the Rain [Acoustic Version] (John Fogerty)
06 Centerfield [Acoustic Version] (John Fogerty)
07 Love and War (Brad Paisley & John Fogerty)
08 I Won't Back Down (John Fogerty)
09 The Holy Grail (John Fogerty with Billy Gibbons)
10 With a Little Help from My Friends (John Fogerty)
11 Bad Moon Rising [Acoustic Version] (John Fogerty)
12 Long as I Can See the Light [Piano Version] (John Fogerty)
13 Weeping in the Promised Land (John Fogerty)
14 Walk, Don't Run [Instrumental] (John Fogerty)
15 The City of New Orleans (John Fogerty)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QmbAsD2Q

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/F6uTZi3doqx4Kvi/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 8, 2013.

Various Artists - Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 7: 2005-2018

Here is the seventh and last volume of Stevie Wonder's "Covered" series. Just as a reminder, like all the "Covered" albums I post, the emphasis is on the songwriting. So these are all songs written or co-written by Wonder, but performed by others.

By the time period of this album, 2005 to 2018, Wonder's songwriting had slowed way down. In fact, writing this in 2025, Wonder still hasn't released a new studio album since 2005. So all the songs here are covers from earlier years, especially from his golden era of the 1970s. "You Met Your Match" is the oldest song here, from 1968.

Finally, with this volume, the full scope of Wonder's songwriting genius can be seen. Some of his best songs don't show up until this volume. So all seven volumes should be seen as a whole. 

Just by chance, I didn't find any covers that I liked best from after 2018. But I'm sure more great covers will emerge in the years to come.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 I'm Going Left (Eric Clapton)
02 You Haven't Done Nothin' (Joe Cocker)
03 Village Ghetto Land (Jen Chapin)
04 You Met Your Match (Tower of Power)
05 Sir Duke (Devon Allman)
06 Do I Do (Cuban Jazz Combo)
07 True to Your Heart (Wailing Souls)
08 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Phil Collins)
09 Part-Time Lover (Hyannis Sound)
10 Jesus Children of America (Michele Thomas)
11 Master Blaster [Jammin'] (Minnie Driver)
12 Happier than the Morning Sun (Venice)
13 Another Star (Denise King & Massimo Farao Trio)
14 He's Misstra Know It All (Beverley Knight)
15 I Just Called to Say I Love You (John Prine)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TspNmpTd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BTqEF6EfLzBnzrw/file

The cover photo is from 2003.

Brian Wilson - PBS Soundstage, Palazzo Theatre, Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, 12-11-2014

Here's another episode of the TV Show "PBS Soundstage." This one stars Brian Wilson, the genius songwriter behind most of the hits by the Beach Boys.

There aren't many Soundstage episodes that have been officially released as audio albums, but this is one of them. The album is called "Brian Wilson and Friends." Normally, I would shy from posting released episodes, since they can easily be found elsewhere. However, I'm making an exception here because it turns out a DVD version was released as well that had a bunch of extra songs. I managed to combine the CD and DVD versions to create a closer approximation of the actual concert.

In 2012, the Beach Boys had a reunion that included most of the long-time members of that band, including Brian Wilson. Wilson remained on good terms with most of the others (with the exception of Mike Love, who kept the rights to the band name). So Wilson reunited with some former Beach Boys in this concert. The main one of note is Al Jardine, who played on a bunch of songs and sang lead vocals on a few. But Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar were also guests. They were members for a short time in the early 1970s.

On top of that, there were some other guest stars. Sebu Simonian, who is part of the indie pop duo Capital Cities, sang one song here. (He actually sang another one, but I thought it was a terrible attempt to mix the Beach Boys sound with the modern pop sound, so I didn't include it.) Mark Isham, who plays trumpet and keyboards and scores films, played trumpet on a couple of songs. Finally, Nate Ruess, singer-songwriter for the band fun, sang on a couple of songs.

This concert took place at the end of 2014. However, it was aired on TV around the time of the release of Wilson's next studio album, "No Pier Pressure," released in April 2015. Many of the songs come from that album. So do most of the collaborations with guest stars. That album was criticized for its use of AutoTune and other bad production choices. So it's better to hear those songs here, in my opinion.

The DVD was rather strange because the vast majority of it stuck to showing the concert, but they occasionally stuck in extra things not from the concert at all. For instance, there were a couple of songs featuring actress and singer Zooey Deschanel. But I didn't include them because they were recorded in a studio, not in this concert. I also cut out some interview segments between songs. Luckily, I managed to get rid of most of them without much trouble. But the song "Saturday Night" has "[edit]" in the name because some of the talking overlapped the start of the song. I got rid of that, as I usually do, with the UVR5 audio editing program.

I found a complete song list of the concert at setlist.fm, which you can see here:

Brian Wilson Concert Setlist at The Venetian Theatre, Las Vegas on December 12, 2014 | setlist.fm 

Both the CD and the DVD has some of the songs out of order, so I did some rearranging to get it as close to the actual concert as possible. Two more songs, "Pacific Coast Highway" and "Summer's Gone," appeared as DVD bonus tracks. When I first posted this, I couldn't find them. But a kind commenter had them and sent them to me, so I added them in. There still are some missing songs, however, including some great ones like "God Only Knows" and "Surfin' U.S.A."

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

01 Our Prayer (Brian Wilson)
02 Heroes and Villains (Brian Wilson)
03 Sloop John B (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
04 Dance, Dance, Dance (Brian Wilson)
05 Good Vibrations (Brian Wilson)
06 This Beautiful Day (Brian Wilson)
07 Don't Worry Baby (Brian Wilson with Sebu Simonian)
08 talk (Brian Wilson)
09 Marcella (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
10 talk (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
11 Wild Honey (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
12 Sail On, Sailor (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
13 Sail Away (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin & Ricky Fataar)
14 Half Moon Bay (Brian Wilson with Mark Isham)
15 Don't Talk [Put Your Head on My Shoulder] [Instrumental] (Brian Wilson with Mark Isham)
16 The Right Time (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
17 California Saga- California (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
18 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
19 Help Me, Rhonda (Brian Wilson with Al Jardine)
20 talk (Brian Wilson)
21 Saturday Night [Edit] (Brian Wilson with Nate Ruess)
22 Hold On Dear Brother (Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin & Nate Ruess)
23 Darlin' (Brian Wilson)
24 Pacific Coast Highway (Brian Wilson)
25 talk (Brian Wilson)
26 Summer's Gone (Brian Wilson)
27 California Girls (Brian Wilson)
28 All Summer Long (Brian Wilson)
29 Fun, Fun, Fun (Brian Wilson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/x22YU9ao

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/et3AwKg21SxqTRI/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Celtic Connections Festival, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Britain, 1-24-2014

Here's the fifth, and so far last, BBC album I have of Mary Chapin Carpenter. It's a concert one, but it's rather unusual in that she is backed by a full orchestra (specifically, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra).

In January 2014, a couple of weeks before this album, Carpenter released the studio album "Songs from the Movie." Instead of being new material, it consisted of older songs, but redone with orchestral backing. In this way, it was similar to a couple of Joni Mitchell albums from around 2000 in which she redid some of her songs with an orchestra. This is basically the live version of that album. Nearly all the songs here come from that album. This definitely has a mellow feel, since rocking songs usually don't fit well with orchestral backings.

This album is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 10, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same. But I found an earlier volume in this series that I'd missed, so the volume number changed. That meant the title, cover art, and mp3 tags changed too. 

01 On and On It Goes (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
02 I Am a Town (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
03 Between Here and Gone (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
04 The Dreaming Road (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
05 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
06 Mrs. Hemingway (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
07 Only a Dream (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 Where Time Stands Still (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
09 talk (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
10 Come On Come On (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
11 Goodnight America (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Nvi7WQTK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Bj6QrwWrYbB3itx/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image some.

Suzanne Vega - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1991-2023

Here's another album of Suzanne Vega performing for the BBC. This time, it's a collection of studio sessions.

As you can see from the title, this deals with a very long chronological era, 22 years, from 1991 to 2023. So this is a grab bag of lots of different things. Everything here is unreleased, except for tracks 5 and 6, which came out on a B-side to the song "99.9F" in 1992.

The first four songs are from a concert at the 1991 Cambridge Folk Festival. Maybe the BBC broadcast more of her performance, but I could only find these songs. I removed the applause at the ends of the songs using the MVSEP program, like I did with a few other live songs on this album.

The next four songs, tracks 5 to 8, are from a 1992 studio session. As mentioned above, two of them were released on a B-side. Tracks 9 to 11 are from an appearance on a BBC TV show in 1993. Track 12, an acappella version of "Tom's Diner," is from another BBC TV show, in 1994. Tracks 13 and 14 are from yet another BBC TV show, "Later... with Jools Holland," in 1997. 

After that, there's a very big chronological jump, to 2014, for track 15. That's from the BBC Folk Awards show that year. Then track 16, "Marlene on the Wall," is from the Glastonbury Festival in 2022. She did a whole set, but if there's a worthy recording of it, I couldn't find it. This is the one song the BBC posted on YouTube. Finally, the last three songs are from a 2023 BBC "Piano Room" session. That includes a cover of the Blondie classic "Dreaming," plus a song Vega wrote about the Ukraine war that started in 2021, "Last Train from Mariupol." And there's a second version of "Tom's Diner." I included both because they're very different from each other, with this one being backed by an orchestra.

There probably are some other BBC sessions from this 22 year time period that I'd missed. (Plus I didn't find anything interesting from before 1991.) If you have them, please let me know and I'll add them in.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Cracking (Suzanne Vega)
02 Predictions (Suzanne Vega)
03 talk (Suzanne Vega)
04 Men Will Be Men (Suzanne Vega)
05 Rock in This Pocket (Suzanne Vega)
06 In Liverpool (Suzanne Vega)
07 Gypsy (Suzanne Vega)
08 When Heroes Go Down (Suzanne Vega)
09 As a Child (Suzanne Vega)
10 talk (Suzanne Vega)
11 Blood Makes Noise (Suzanne Vega)
12 Tom's Diner [Acappella Version] (Suzanne Vega)
13 Birth-day [Love Made Real] (Suzanne Vega)
14 Headshots (Suzanne Vega)
15 Horizon [There Is a Road] (Suzanne Vega)
16 Marlene on the Wall (Suzanne Vega)
17 Dreaming (Suzanne Vega)
18 Last Train from Mariupol (Suzanne Vega)
19 Tom's Diner [Orchestral Version] (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cmnEdZ25

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/MoxcFP0aYONvO36/file

The cover photo was taken near the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, during a Lilith Fair tour on July 5, 1997.

U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 11 - Acoustic Session, BBC Radio 2, London, Britain, 10-15-2014

I think it's undeniable U2's music has declined in quality since the early 2000s. One can see it in critical ratings and well as sales. And that's typical for most musical artists. Very few can stay on top creativity after decades. That said, they still have done some interesting stuff in their later years. This is an interesting BBC studio session because the band played their songs in an acoustic style. Actually, it's more accurate to call this semi-acoustic, since they played most of these songs with bass and drums. But still, these are definitely different arrangements of these songs.

This session took place after the release of the band's studio album "Songs of Innocence." That was the album that was controversially included for free for about 500 million Apple iTunes users. It caused a backlash, since many people felt it was forced on them.

The first six songs all come from the "Songs of Innocence" album. The seventh song, "Ordinary Love," wouldn't be released until the 2017 album "Songs of Experience." Those first six songs were later included on a deluxe edition of "Songs of Innocence," but the seventh is still unreleased. 

This album is rather short. So I added an extra song at the end, "Mysterious Ways." It's also done in a similar style, so I think it fits right in. It's unreleased, coming from a tour rehearsal in 2015.

This album is 30 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On February 15, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renumbered the album after finding two earlier albums in this series that I'd missed.

01 Every Breaking Wave (U2)
02 California [There Is No End to Love] (U2)
03 Raised by Wolves (U2)
04 Cedarwood Road (U2)
05 Song for Someone (U2)
06 The Miracle [Of Joey Ramone] (U2)
07 Ordinary Love (U2)
08 Mysterious Ways (U2)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CQ3VCsnN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/PvbTYGoMe5xhmdg/file

For this session, U2 performed in Abbey Road Studios in London, where the Beatles recorded most of their albums, including "Abbey Road." For fun, the band did a photo shoot that was a nighttime version of the Beatles' iconic "Abbey Road" album cover.