.................................the blog nobody reads: ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

Tracy Chapman - Austin City Limits, Zilker Metropolitan Park, Austin, TX, 8-3-2003

"Tracy Chapman was massively popular in the late 1980s and through much of the 1990s. Her debut album "Tracy Chapman" sold about 20 million copies worldwide, and her 1995 album "New Beginning" sold five million copies in the US alone. But strangely, I've found it very difficult to find any concert recordings at a soundboard level after about 1991. That's not helped by the fact that she's never released a live album. I've previously posted a 2008 concert by her, but that was just a very good audience bootleg. Finally, I've found a worthy later live recording, and here it is.

The reason this sounds so good is because it's from the TV show "Austin City Limits." It seems to me Chapman didn't do a lot of the usual promotional appearances most music stars do. She wasn't that interested in fame, and in fact he music career pretty much stopped altogether after about 2008, with no more album releases or tours from then until now (as I write this in late 2023). But I came across an article about this concert that said the producer of "Austin City Limits" was a big fan of Chapman's music, and pushed hard to get her on the show.

This concert remains unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent. Unfortunately though, it looks like it was edited down to fit in a one hour time slot. There also is no banter, except for one extended discussion she had about seeing seeing bats in Austin, of all things.

I'm not a fan of a lot of Chapman's studio albums after the first couple. I often don't like the production, which seemed to be moving in the dreaded "adult contemporary" direction, and a few weak songs would drag down the good ones. But in this concert she played a mix of newer (at the time) songs with the well known ones mostly from her debut album, and I think all the songs here are really good. This was why I was keen to hear an excellent sounding concert from her later years, to put her later songs in a better way.

By the way, the full video of this concert is available on YouTube if you want to watch it and not just hear it. And if you have other concerts from her of this caliber from after 1911, please let me know so I can share them.” Paul

This album is 52 minutes long.
01 Say Hallelujah (Tracy Chapman)
02 For My Lover (Tracy Chapman)
03 Smoke and Ashes (Tracy Chapman)
04 Baby Can I Hold You (Tracy Chapman)
05 Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
06 Another Sun (Tracy Chapman)
07 talk (Tracy Chapman)
08 Telling Stories (Tracy Chapman)
09 You're the One (Tracy Chapman)
10 Talkin' 'bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)
11 Give Me One Reason (Tracy Chapman)
12 I Am Yours (Tracy Chapman)

TRACY CHAPMAN - LIVE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS - Albums THat Should Exist here . . .

this is just plain lovely and if you doubt it or question the quality just check Smoke and Ashes or Fast Car and Give Me One Reason . . . superb!