Steve Earle - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 2-1-2014 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 Steve Earle - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 2-1-2014

Paul says: Here's yet another album from the April 2026 Port Chester soundboard leak. This one stars singer-songwriter Steve Earle.

In April 2013, Earle released his most recent album at the time, "The Low Highway." But that was close to a year prior to this concert, so I don't think he was especially promoting the album he only played two songs from it, "Burnin' It Down" and "Remember Me." Instead, he played songs from all points in his career, as well as the occasional cover versions, such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Tom Ames' Prayer." Also note that the concert was a solo acoustic one.

For the last two songs, Earle was joined by singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen. I believe he was the opening act.

This album is an hour and 31 minutes long.

01 Where Have All the Flowers Gone 
02 Guitar Town 
03 My Old Friend the Blues
04 Someday 
05 talk
06 Hometown Blues 
07 South Nashville Blues 
08 Tennessee Blues
09 talk 
10 Now She's Gone 
11 Goodbye 
12 talk
13 Sparkle and Shine 
14 Every Part of Me 
15 Valentine's Day 
16 talk 
17 Devil's Right Hand 
18 Burnin' It Down 
19 talk
20 City of Immigrants 
21 talk 
22 Remember Me 
23 talk
24 The Galway Girl 
25 talk 
26 Copperhead Road 
27 talk 
28 Loretta (Steve Earle & Robert Earl Keen)
29 Tom Ames' Prayer (Steve Earle & Robert Earl Keen)

( all tracks Steve Earle except where indicated)

 Unwind that rig!

Since guitar Town came out and my old friend John Northcote gave me a copy of the album I was hooked . . . . . love Robert Earl Keen too

Steve Earle - Guitar Town (eTown webisode #765)

a stone classic favourite song of all time . . . 

Steve Earle & Marty Stuart - "My Old Friend The Blues" | Live at the Grand Ole Opry

The Moody Blues - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 11-27-2012 | Albums That Should Exist

 The Moody Blues - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 27-11- 2012

Paul says: I just posted an announcement, asking for feedback on which of the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester soundboard leak concerts I should post first. The first comment suggested the Moody Blues, so here we go.

By 2012, the Moody Blues were well past their glory years, with their last studio album coming in 2003. They were down to three members dating back to the 1960s: Justin Hayward, John Lodge, and Graeme Edge. But they still put on a good concert, at you can hear here. They stayed together until the end of 2018, when Edge died. Since then, all the original members have passed except Hayward, the band's main singer and songwriter.

I have to admit I "cheated" a bit with this concert. The Capitol Theatre soundboard leak mentioned above actually included all of this November 27, 2012 concert, plus the second half of the November 28th. The set lists were basically the same, except the November 28th portion we have included the song "Driftwood." So I stuck that into this concert, in the same spot it occupied on November 28th.

This album is an hour and 52 minutes long. 

01 Gemini Dream 
02 The Voice
03 Steppin' in a Slide Zone 
04 You and Me
05 Tuesday Afternoon 
06 Gypsy 
07 talk 
08 Nervous
09 talk 
10 Say It with Love
11 talk 
12 Peak Hour
13 I Know You're Out There Somewhere 
14 The Story in Your Eyes
15 talk
16 Driftwood 
17 Your Wildest Dreams 
18 talk 
19 Isn't Life Strange
20 The Other Side of Life
21 talk
22 Higher and Higher 
23 Are You Sitting Comfortably 
24 talk 
25 I'm Just a Singer [In a Rock and Roll Band] 
26 Late Lament [Poem] 
27 Nights in White Satin
28 talk 
29 Question 
30 Ride My See Saw

 (all tracks Moody Blues)

The Moody Blues - Question [new single from Threshold records! 1970]

Cat Stevens - Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA, 4-26-1974 | Albums That Should Exist

 

Cat Stevens - Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA, 4-26-1974

Paul says: Here is a full-length bootleg Cat Stevens concert from 1974. He was backed by a full band.

There are tons of great Cat Stevens concert recordings from 1970 and 1971, both officially released and unofficial. Then there's a pretty obscure official live album from 1974, called "Saturnight." I don't like that one though, because it's far short of a full-length concert, and the song order is mixed up. It was only released in Japan (where the concert took place) until 2024, and still has only a limited release since then. Also in 2024, an official concert album from 1976 was released, called "Majikat." That one is very nice, but there's a lot of years between 1971 and 1976, considering that was the prime of his music career.

When it comes to concert bootlegs for him, it's very slim pickings between 1971 and 1976. The best full-length one I could find is this one, from Boston in 1974. It's an audience boot, which is disappointing, but it's a particularly good one. It occurred to me that, thanks to the advances in audio editing technology in recent years, I could bring this up to nearly soundboard level. So that's what I tried to do. I used the MVSEP program to clean up crowd noise during songs, boost the lead vocals that were low in the mix, and so forth. I think it sounds a lot better. It's not as good as the "Majikat" or "Saturnight" official live albums, but it sounds plenty worthy to my ears.

This concert took place a month after the release of his 1974 studio album "Buddha and the Chocolate Box." That's one of my favorite albums from him. (I've posted an alternate version of it at this blog that makes it even better.) So naturally he played some songs from that. This also contains an except from his long "Foreigner Suite" called "Sunnyside Road" that makes a nice song when all on its own.

One song here, "Sitting" has "[Edit]" in its title. That's because there was a particularly difficult section of the song near the beginning. You can probably hear it. I tried all I could to make that sound better, but I could only do so much. 

This album is an hour and twenty minutes long.

01 talk 
02 Wild World 
03 talk 
04 Longer Boats 
05 Oh Very Young 
06 Sitting [Edit] 
07 talk 
08 Foreigner Suite- Sunnyside Road 
09 talk 
10 Where Do the Children Play 
11 talk 
12 Moonshadow 
13 How Can I Tell You 
14 Bad Penny 
15 Later 
16 Lady D'Arbanville 
17 talk 
18 Peace Train 
19 Father and Son 
20 Music 
21 18th Avenue 
22 Bitterblue
23 Hard Headed Woman 
24 talk 
25 King of Trees
26 Sun-C79
27 Sad Lisa

 (all tracks Cat Stevens)

Not entirely sure why I have posted links to this one as I feel a tad ‘Meh!’ about Cat Stevens now despite enjoying his work up until Catchbull At Four at the time and introduced to him via my wife and now can take or leave his rather over worked, tired and sentimental schtick but hey . . . he was important once

The Decemberists - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 26th Sept 2015 | Albums That Should Exist

 

The Decemberists - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 9-26-2015

Paul said: Here's another concert from the great Capitol Theatre in Port Chester soundboard leak. Except to see a LOT more of these from me in the next couple of months! I'd love to post all of the 85 or so I have yet to post by the end of 2026, so I could start with a relatively clean slate in 2027. Out of all the musical acts I've heard from these shows so far that I wasn't familiar with yet, I think I was most impressed by the Decemberists. 

Their Wikipedia entry has this to say about the band: "The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2000. ... As of 2024, the band has released nine studio albums with their lyrics often focusing on historical incidents and folklore. Audience participation is a part of their live performances, typically during encores. The band stages whimsical reenactments of sea battles and other centuries-old events, typically of regional interest, or acts out songs with members of the crowd."

Here's the link to their full Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decemberists

In January 2015, the band released the studio album "What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World," and they were touring to support that at the time of this concert. Previously, the band generally released concept albums about some pretty esoteric concept. For instance, this concert ends with a bunch of songs from the band's 2009 album "The Hazards of Love," which is a concept album about a woman who falls in love with a shape-shifting boreal forest dweller, only to be opposed by the forest queen. But the band's 2015 album was more straight-forward, by their standards. A New York Times review said the album "strikes a note of pop concision and maturity, building on what worked on [their previous album] 'The King Is Dead.' Lyrically, there are fewer thistles and minarets and palanquins - and, musically, less digressive excess - than once made up the Decemberists' trademark style."

Like most albums I'm posting from the Capitol Theatre leak, I started with a single audio file consisting of a mono soundboard of the whole concert. Then I broke it into individual mp3s. That was tricky here, especially for their suite of songs from "The Hazards of Love," but hopefully I got the song breaks right. 

This album is an hour and 49 minutes long. 

01 talk (Decemberists)
02 The Crane Wife 3 [Instrumental] (Decemberists)
03 Leslie Anne Levine (Decemberists)
04 talk (Decemberists)
05 Down by the Water (Decemberists)
06 talk (Decemberists)
07 Rox in the Box (Decemberists)
08 talk (Decemberists)
09 Philomena (Decemberists)
10 The Wrong Year (Decemberists)
11 talk (Decemberists)
12 On the Bus Mall (Decemberists)
13 talk (Decemberists)
14 Why Would I Now (Decemberists)
15 Make You Better (Decemberists)
16 talk (Decemberists)
17 Carolina Low (Decemberists)
18 talk (Decemberists)
19 July, July (Decemberists)
20 talk (Decemberists)
21 O Valencia (Decemberists)
22 talk (Decemberists)
23 The Chimbley Sweep (Decemberists)
24 talk (Decemberists)
25 Fits and Starts (Decemberists)
26 talk (Decemberists)
27 Prelude - The Hazards of Love 1 [The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone] (Decemberists)
28 A Bower Scene - Won't Want for Love [Margaret in the Taiga] (Decemberists)
29 The Rake's Song (Decemberists)
30 The Hazards of Love 4 [The Drowned] (Decemberists)
31 talk (Decemberists)
32 Of Angels and Angles (Decemberists)
33 talk (Decemberists)
34 Dear Avery (Decemberists)

Think all this Decemberists attention is because of the new animation (from the team that brought you Coraline (superb 7 year stop motion animation masterpiece!)

 

Step into the world of Wildwood with the original motion picture soundtrack by Academy Award–winning composer Dario Marianelli, featuring new music by The Decemberists.

WILDWOOD

Power to the People Festival, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD, 10-3-2026, Part 3 - Nathaniel Rateliff | Albums That Should Exist

 

Power to the People Festival, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD, 10-3-2026, Part 3 - Nathaniel Rateliff

Here's the third out of ten albums of the October 2026 Power to the People Festival. This one stars singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff.

I've posted a Nathaniel Rateliff performance before, from the 2025 FarmAid benefit concert. So I won't say much about him this time.

At the time of this concert, he hadn't released a new studio album since 2024. So the songs here are from a variety of his albums. Plus, "Standing in the Rain Boys" is an unreleased song at the time of this performance.

This album is 33 minutes long. 

01 talk 
02 Tonight No. 2
03 talk 
04 Heartless
05 South of Here 
06 talk 
07 Standing in the Rain Boys 
08 talk
09 The Future 
10 talk 
11 And It's Still Alright 
12 talk 
13 Time Stands 

[all tracks Nathaniel Rateliff] 

Dave Matthews, Joan Baez & Nathaniel Rateliff – Deportee (LIVE) | Power to the People | 2026

Billy Strings - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 2-18-2021 | Albums That Should Exist

Is this a first? Think so! our first Billy Strings boot . . . . . !!!

Billy Strings - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 2-18-2021

Paul says: Here's another concert from the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. It's not actually from the April 2026 Port Chester leak. But I came across it while searching for more from that leak. It appears to have been some kind of webcast, so the sound quality is an excellent soundboard. The star this time is Billy Strings.

Strings occupies an unusual spot in terms of musical styles. He is typically called a bluegrass artist, and there is definitely a heavy aspect of that in his music. His father was a bluegrass musician and he developed a love for that kind of music from an early age. But he also grew to love rock and even heavy metal, and played in those kinds of bands as a teenager. 

He especially has found an audience with fans of "jam band" music, for instance sometimes playing entire concerts of Grateful Dead covers. Consider that when he got married in 2023, Trey Anastasio of Phish, Les Claypool of Primus, and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead played at the marriage reception. That's not what you'd expect of a typical bluegrass musician! 

And while this concert contains a lot of bluegrass songs, it also contains some left field choices, such as a cover of "Dark Star," probably the Grateful Dead's most praised psychedelic jam song, as well as "Bird Song," also by the Dead. Most of the rest of the songs are originals, except for "Home of the Red Fox," "Ole Slewfoot," "Sorrow Is a Highway," "Dusty Miller," and "Takin' a Slow Train."

Note that this concert took place during the social distancing phase of the Covid pandemic. So, while it took place in the Capitol Theatre, the venue was entirely empty. That's why there's no audience response at the ends of songs.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strings

This album is an hour and 58 minutes long.

01 The Fire on My Tongue (Billy Strings)
02 talk (Billy Strings)
03 In the Morning Light (Billy Strings)
04 talk (Billy Strings)
05 Long Forgotten Dream (Billy Strings)
06 Bird Song (Billy Strings)
07 talk (Billy Strings)
08 While I'm Waiting Here (Billy Strings)
09 talk (Billy Strings)
10 Home of the Red Fox [Instrumental] (Billy Strings)
11 Ole Slewfoot (Billy Strings)
12 talk (Billy Strings)
13 Sorrow Is a Highway (Billy Strings)
14 talk (Billy Strings)
15 Everything's the Same (Billy Strings)
16 talk (Billy Strings)
17 Must Be Seven (Billy Strings)
18 talk (Billy Strings)
19 Dusty Miller [Instrumental] (Billy Strings)
20 Dark Star (Billy Strings)
21 Love and Regret (Billy Strings)
22 Dark Star [Reprise] (Billy Strings)
23 talk (Billy Strings)
24 Takin' a Slow Train (Billy Strings)
25 Love like Me (Billy Strings)
26 talk (Billy Strings)
27 Pyramid Country [Instrumental] (Billy Strings)
28 Hide and Seek (Billy Strings)
29 talk (Billy Strings)

The cover image shows Billy performing at the Capitol Theatre in February 2021, but on a different date. It's from February 23, 2021, a few days after this concert.

Jefferson Airplane - Polo Field, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 9-30-1989 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 Jefferson Airplane - Polo Field, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 9-30-1989

Paul says: Jefferson Airplane is reknowned for the great music they did in the 1960s and early 1970s. But the band also got back with all the key members for a reunion album and tour in 1989. That's pretty much been forgotten because the album (cleverly titled "Jefferson Airplane") was pretty bad. But the same couldn't be said of the tour, since they mostly played their older classics. It turns out there's a recording of the very last concert the band ever played together. Unfortunately, it was merely a good audience bootleg. But I did a lot of work on it. Now, it sounds close to soundboard-level quality, in my opinion.

The key five members of Jefferson Airplane were Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, Jack Casady, and Jorma Kaukonen. After the band broke up around 1972, they continued to play in various combinations. Slick, Kantner, and sometimes Balin played in Jefferson Starship, then later just Starship, for most of the 1970s and 80s. Meanwhile, Casady and Kaukonen spent most of their time at Hot Tuna. But there were exceptions. For instance, in 1986, Kantner, Balin, and Casady joined forces as the KBC Band and put out an album with that same name.

By the mid-1980s, Slick was the only original Jefferson Airplane member in Starship. That band had big commercial success, with the song "We Built This City" reaching Number One on the U.S. singles chart in 1986, and then "Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now" also reaching Number One in 1987. But the songs were critically panned, with "We Built This City" in particular sometimes appearing on worst songs of all time lists. Slick decided she wanted out, and left Starship in 1988. (It continued with other band members, led by lead vocalist Mickey Thomas.) 

Slick actually decided to leave the music business altogether. She later stated, "All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire." But before quitting, she agreed to one last album and tour with the original Jefferson Airplane. This concert pretty much was the end of her music career. She only made occasional brief appearances in concerts after this. For instance, she sang with a revived Jefferson Starship (now led by Kantner) for a few songs for a 1995 concert, and then again for a 2001 concert. But that was about it. So kudos to her for sticking to her principles.

Interestingly, this concert completely skipped all the Starship hits, and only played one Jefferson Starship hit, "Miracles." All the other songs were from the 1960s or early 1970s or the band's 1989 reunion album.

This final concert came about due to a benefit project led by Paul Kantner. The idea was to have a free concert at Golden Gate Park. But everyone who attended was supposed to bring a can of food to give to the San Francisco Food Bank. About 60,000 people attended, and donated about 45,000 pounds of food.

Here's what a newspaper review said about the concert at the time: "Jefferson Airplane rocked the Polo Field, their sound ringing through the massive infield, bouncing off eucalyptus and cypress trees and echoing deep into the woods. The crowd was a jumble of aging hippies and second-generation tie-dye teenagers, smiling cops and mellow Hells Angels, babies, dogs and old-fashioned Park winos." I believe the only opening act was Hot Tuna. But I don't have that recording. 

Here's an interesting article about the concert from a local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, at the time. The quote above comes from it:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/When-Jefferson-Airplane-s-1980s-reunion-14447131.php

To improve the sound quality, I edited every single song. I ran the songs through the MVSEP program once to get rid of crowd noise during the songs (but keeping the cheering at the ends). I then ran all the songs through that program again to boost the lead vocals relative to the instrumental portions. Then I ran the songs a third time to reduce the reverb. The original version sounded decent, but I think this sounds a lot better.

This album is two hours and 18 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bill Graham 
02 She Has Funny Cars 
03 Somebody to Love 
04 talk 
05 Plastic Fantastic Lover 
06 talk 
07 Won't You Try - Saturday Afternoon 
08 talk 
09 Today 
10 talk
11 Good Shepherd 
12 talk 
13 Lather 
14 talk
15 Solidarity
16 Wooden Ships 
17 talk 
18 America 
19 Freedom 
20 talk 
21 Third Week in the Chelsea
22 talk 
23 Panda Song 
24 Miracles 
25 The Wheel 
26 talk 
27 Ice Age 
28 talk 
29 Summer of Love 
30 talk 
31 True Love
32 Planes
33 White Rabbit 
34 Volunteers 
35 talk 
36 It's No Secret 
37 Rock Me Baby 
38 Crown of Creation 
39 3-5ths of a Mile in Ten Seconds 
40 talk by Bill Graham 

(all tracks Jefferson Airplane) 

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love- San Francisco, CA (9/30/1989) 

Play JA live in ’89 here

SONG OF THE DAY!

TURN IT UP!

Jefferson Airplane

Planes

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks - New Old Fillmore, San Francisco USA1970 | Albums That Should Exist

 Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks - New Old Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, 4-10-1970

Paul says: Here's a great Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks concert bootleg that wasn't in the public domain until today - as I write this on October 7, 2026. It was made public as part of the Bob Matthews collection that I talked about previously.

In late September 2026, I posted a handful of concerts from the Bob Matthews collection. Since then, new bootlegs have continued to become public from that collection, at roughly one per day. But I haven't posted any in a while for one reason or another. For instance, there has been a big stretch of releases of Youngbloods concerts - nine of them in the last two weeks. They're all pretty similar, so I was good with posting just one. Some others were only partial concerts. But whenever I come across one I like, such as this one, I'll try to make posting it a priority.

The venue of this concert confused me at first: "The New Old Fillmore." The history of venues in San Francisco with the name Fillmore in it is confusing. At first, there was "The Fillmore," which was run by promoter Bill Graham from 1966 to 1968. But the neighborhood was getting dangerous and the place was rather small, so he moved to a new location (previously known as the Carousel Ballroom) in the summer of 1968. He opened up another venue in New York City at the same time, so these two places became known as the Fillmore West (San Francisco) and Fillmore East (New York City). 

What happened to the old Fillmore though? I didn't know this until putting this album together today, but from about mid-1969 to mid-1970 it was taken over by new management and renamed "The New Old Fillmore." So that's where this concert took place. This new management was associated with the band the Flamin' Groovies, so I presume they played there a lot. And, in fact, the Bob Matthews collection has already released a Flamin' Groovies concert at this venue from the day after this, April 11, 1970, but I didn't post it because it's partial recording consisting of two and a half songs. However, I managed to find out that on at least April 10th and 11th, there were four acts on the bill each night: the Amboy Dukes, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, the Flamin' Groovies, and the headliners, Hot Tuna. Since this has been posted and that partial Flamin' Groovies one has been posted too, I'm hopeful we'll get the other sets from those days as well. We'll see.

By the way, the Fillmore West and Fillmore East closed down in the summer of 1971. The original Fillmore eventually reopened in 1994 and has stayed open ever since. Once again, it's just called "The Fillmore." (Although, given that it's technically the successor to the "New Old Fillmore," maybe it should be called the "New New Old Fillmore!") 

This is a fun set. I wasn't familiar with Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks until recently, but I'm liking them more and more. The sound quality is fantastic, like most of the Bob Matthews collection so far. There was some background noise on the talking tracks, but I got rid of most of that with the help of the MVSEP program. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 talk 
02 How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away 
03 talk 
04 By Hook or by Crook
05 talk 
06 Canned Music 
07 talk 
08 Cheaters Don't Win 
09 talk 
10 Shorty Falls in Love 
11 News from Up the Street 
12 talk 
13 Milk Shakin' Mama 
14 I Scare Myself 
15 talk by emcee 

All tracks  Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks

Paul also notes: 

The cover image comes from a TV show appearance from around this time. It might be the Flip Wilson show, since I found a low-res video of the band performing there with the same clothes and background, but they might have used that background and wore those same clothes as a regular thing at the time, I don't know. Anyway, the photo was in color but rather small and low quality. I improved it with the use of the Gemini program.

Martin Meadows

Martin says: Dan Hicks and the "classic"  lineup of his Hot Licks -  Sid Page (violin), John Girton (guitar), Jaime Leopold (bass) and Lickettes Maryann Price and Naomi Eisenberg! - performing "By Hook or by Crook" and "Shorty Falls in Love" - identified here as "Another Night”. 

I would venture that this is perhaps a rehearsal for the Flip Wilson show of 9/28/1972 - of which there is a video here    • Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks on Flip Wilson   - because the backdrop is the same. 

There is also "strange", misplaced laughter and applause, which might indicate that something else was going on at the same time.

Michael Hedges - Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA, USA 12-11-1997 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 

Michael Hedges - Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA, 11-12-1997

Paul says: Here's a concert by the fantastic and underrated guitarist Michael Hedges. Guest poster Fabio from Rio was instrumental in having this album get posted. He's the one who found the video of this and suggested that we turn it into an audio album. He also has an interesting personal story about Hedges, so I've asked him to do the write-up and share that story. Take it away, Fabio:

"It's been almost 30 years since we lost one of the greatest guitarists of the last century in a fatal car crash on a slippery road near Mendocino, CA, on December 2, 1997. It is a pity that so many people have never heard of him or his music. Hedges was not only a remarkable guitar player, but also a hugely talented composer and singer. He practically reinvented acoustic guitar playing, and many of his techniques and innovations have since been embraced and incorporated by guitarists all over the world. So, it is about time that more of Michael Hedges' music found its way onto the Albums That Should Exist blog, and this - his last known recorded concert, just weeks before his death - seems like a good place to start!

I saw Hedges live once, during his only visit to Rio, Brazil, in 1996, about a year before his untimely death. He performed in a small underground bar at a hotel near Copacabana Beach. By then, I had only recently been introduced to his music by my brother, who is also a guitarist. There were perhaps 40 people in the tiny venue, and we were seated at a table right next to Hedges. If I had stretched out my arm, I could literally have grabbed his leg!

After the concert, we and two other guys stuck around at the bar. Before long, Hedges — drinking something that looked like an almond milk power drink — showed up and started chatting with us. He talked to us for what seemed like ages, as if we were old childhood friends. He answered our questions, accepted some CDs of Brazilian music (apologizing that he had nothing from his side to give us in return), and even tuned an acoustic guitar to one of his signature tunings, showing us how to play some of his licks. It was basically an impromptu 15-minute masterclass! That gives you an idea of what a great guy he was.

But that was a different concert, and unfortunately it wasn't recorded. (At the time, I didn't tape the concerts I attended.) Here, about a year later, we have a good example of one of his typical late-period concerts. It consists of original instrumental pieces and songs he sang himself, some excellent covers, the occasional oddity (such as the recitations of "Jabberwocky" and "Oklahoma," and the brief, jokey "Free Bird" rendition that precedes "All Along the Watchtower"), and an overall wonderfully relaxed atmosphere, with plenty of laughs from the audience.

Hopefully, we'll have more Hedges here at ATSE soon. Paul and I have compiled a great collection of almost all the live covers performed by Hedges into a four-volume set, which we'll be sharing soon. And I have around 50 of his live concerts in my collection, so there should be plenty more to come eventually, if there's interest."

---

Thank you, Fabio. The only that I'd want to add to that is some information about the audio editing. The video sounded pretty good at first listen, but it turned out it need a lot of work. There was a lot of hiss, so I ran all the songs through the MVSEP program to get rid of most of that. The vocals during the talking bits didn't sound good either, so I ran all of those through the Adobe vocal enhancer. I also ran all the songs through MVSEP again to improve the balance between the lead vocals and the instruments. On top of all that, it turns out the audience was very quiet during the songs, except there was a LOT of coughing. Pretty much every song had at least one cough, sometimes more. So I had to remove those one by one. There might be a couple that I've missed, but it's way better than before.

So ultimately, this was essentially sounding like an audience boot at first, given that it was a fan-recorded video instead of a professional one. But after all those edits, I believe this sounds as good as most soundboard boots. 

This album is an hour and 45 minutes long.

01 Aerial Boundaries [Instrumental] 
02 While My Guitar Gently Weeps 
03 talk 
04 Jitterboogie [Instrumental] 
05 Baal T'shuvah [Instrumental] 
06 Ragamuffin [Instrumental] 
07 talk 
08 Rickover's Dream [Instrumental] 
09 Free Swinging Soul 
10 Rough Wind in Oklahoma 
11 talk 
12 Silent Anticipations [Instrumental] 
13 talk 
14 Confortably Numb 
15 talk (Michael Hedges)
16 Arrowhead [Instrumental]
17 talk 
18 Shell Shock Venus 
19 talk 
20 Because It's There [Instrumental]
21 talk 
22 Ritual Dance [Instrumental] 
23 talk 
24 Like a Rolling Stone 
25 Jabberwocky
26 The Rootwitch [Instrumental] 
27 talk 
28 Gimme Shelter 
29 Oklahoma 
30 talk 
31 Free Bird 
32 All Along the Watchtower 
33 talk 
34 No Expectations 

(all tracks Michael Hedges) 

Paul also notes: There was a lot of difficulty making this cover image. Technically, it's a screenshot taken from this exact concert. However, the footage was very low-res. So using Gemini, there was some pretty creative filling in of details to get this result. But this is how he would have really looked, with that harp guitar (for a portion of the concert), those clothes, and so on. Even for his helmet, because the screenshot was dark and murky there, I relied on a different photo of the custom-made, strange, beat-up helmet (that worked with his microphone) he was using at that time to make sure it was accurate.

Michael Hedges - While My Guitar Gently Weeps 

Billboard Live in West Hollywood 9/24/1997, 

a few months before he died in a terrible car crash in California.

Paul McCartney - Solo Ballads (1969-2026) | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 Paul McCartney - Solo Ballads (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Paul says: Here we are, with the last album in guest poster Mike Solof's eight album series of the best rockers and ballads from the solo careers of the four ex-Beatles. As I mentioned in the write up to the last album in this series, for Paul McCartney's solo rockers, McCartney has had a long and prolific career, so there's just more of his songs. That led to a solo rocker album just for him, and now this solo ballad album just for him.

As usual with this series, the songs generally come from the well-known studio albums. That's the case here. However, there's a surprise in that one song, "Best Love," is a Paul lead vocal on a song that appeared on an album by comedian Steve Martin (who also happens to be a surprisingly good banjo player, so it's a serious song). 

Also, four of the songs are special edits made by Mike, the ones with "[Mike's Mix 2026]" in their names. That's because some of these songs were a little rocking to truly qualify as ballads. So Mike edited them to make them sound more gentle and mellow. 

Although this series is over, Mike wanted to carry on making rocker and ballad best ofs for other musical acts. Hopefully you will see one result from that posted here soon. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 I'm Carrying 
02 Once upon a Long Ago [Mike's Mix 2026] 
03 Waterfalls
04 With a Little Luck [Mike's Mix 2026]
05 Here Today 
06 Best Love (Steve Martin & Paul McCartney)
07 This One [Mike's Mix 2026] 
08 Maybe I'm Amazed [Mike's Mix 2026] 
09 My Love 
10 My Valentine 
11 Distractions
12 This Never Happened Before 
13 Wanderlust 

(all tracks Paul McCartney except where noted) 

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers - "Best Love" (featuring Paul McCartney)

Rounder Records

The Levon Helm Band Newport Folk Festival, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI, 8-3-2008 | Albums That Should Exist

 

Newport Folk Festival, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI, 8-3-2008 - The Levon Helm Band

Paul says: Here's another album from the 2008 Newport Folk Festival. This time, it's a set by the Levon Helm Band.

Levon Helm is best known as the main lead singer and drummer for the Band. But since the Band first broke up around 1977, he's had a long solo career as well. Unfortunately though, by the time of this concert, he was showing signs of physical decline, which can be heard in his voice. He would die four years later, in 2012, at the age of 71. He still generally sounded like you'd expect here, though. And he spread the lead vocals duties around a bit, letting some other members of his band sing a couple of songs, including one by his daughter Amy Helm. Generally, the songs were a mix of those from his solo albums, plus some classics by the Band.

As usual for this festival, the sound is excellent, while everything is unreleased. However, there was a problem with the first song, "The Same Thing," since the first thirty seconds or so were missing. I found another concert from the same year, at the Bonnaroo Festival, and used that to patch in the missing bit. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title. 

This album is an hour and six minutes long. 

01 The Same Thing [Edit] (Levon Helm Band)
02 Ophelia (Levon Helm Band)
03 talk (Levon Helm Band)
04 Fannie Mae (Levon Helm Band)
05 talk (Levon Helm Band)
06 Love Played a Game (Levon Helm Band)
07 talk (Levon Helm Band)
08 Long Black Veil (Levon Helm Band)
09 talk (Levon Helm Band)
10 Got Me a Woman (Levon Helm Band)
11 Ashes of Love (Levon Helm Band)
12 Anna Lee (Levon Helm Band)
13 talk (Levon Helm Band)
14 Deep Elem Blues (Levon Helm Band)
15 Rag Mama Rag (Levon Helm Band)
16 The Shape I'm In (Levon Helm Band)
17 Chest Fever (Levon Helm Band)
18 talk (Levon Helm Band)
19 The Weight (Levon Helm Band with Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)

The Levon Helm Band - Ophelia - 8/3/2008 - Newport Folk Festival (Official)

The Levon Helm Band - Got Me A Woman - 8/3/2008 - Newport Folk Festival (Official)

(In fairness I did post this the other day but heck, I can’t resist it - Levon and band are having SUCH fun!

The Levon Helm Band - Fannie Mae - 8/3/2008 - Newport Folk Festival (Official)

I think pretty much the entire Newport 2008 set is on YouTube but heck you wanna download the whole lot you can’t better’n Pauls here!

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Newport Folk Festival, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI, 8-3-2008 | Albums That Should Exist

 Newport Folk Festival, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI, 8-3-2008 - Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

Paul he say: Here's another album from the 2008 Newport Folk Festival. This time, it's a set by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Technically, it was billed just as a Gillian Welch performance, but David Rawlings played a prominent role. Since they have usually been billed a duo in the years since, I did that here to be consistent with other albums I may post from them.

As usual, the music here is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent. However, there was a problem with the last song, "Jackson." I was able to patch the problem though. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

Speaking of "Jackson," it's one of two cover versions here. The other one is "Gone at Last."

This album is an hour and one minute long.

01 talk by emcee 
02 Look at Miss Ohio 
03 talk
04 I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll
05 talk 
06 Lawman 
07 talk 
08 My First Lover
09 talk 
10 No One Knows My Name 
11 talk 
12 Throw Me a Rope 
13 Gamblin' Man 
14 talk 
15 Red Clay Halo 
16 talk 
17 Knuckleball Catcher 
18 talk 
19 Sweet Tooth
20 Orphan Girl 
21 talk 
22 Gone at Last 
23 talk 
24 Jackson [Edit] 

(all tracks Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Red Clay Halo - 8/3/2008 - Newport Folk Festival (Official)

The Levon Helm Band + Gillian Welch David Rawlings & friends - The Weight @ The Newport Folk Festival (Aug 3, 2008)

John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 4-30-2015 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 4-30-2015

PAUL SAYS: Here's another great concert from the April 2026 Port Chester soundboard bootleg leak. This one features John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett. But it's not a split bill where one of them played a set and then the other one did. Instead, both of them stayed on stage the entire time, frequently helping out on each others' songs. It was just the two of them on stage with their acoustic guitars.

Prior to getting this concert ready for posting, I had no idea how frequently Hiatt and Lovett have collaborated musically. They never put out an album together, so I'd missed it. But they're toured together like this almost every year since 2008, at least. And they've done it again this year as I write this in 2026.

As usual with these Port Chester boots, the sound is in mono. But other than that, the quality is excellent. 

This album is two hours and six minutes long.

01 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
02 Lift Up Every Stone (John Hiatt)
03 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
04 Church (Lyle Lovett)
05 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
06 Buffalo River Home (John Hiatt)
07 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
08 Whooping Crane (Lyle Lovett)
09 talk (John Hiatt)
10 Marlene (John Hiatt)
11 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
12 Sonja (Lyle Lovett)
13 talk (John Hiatt)
14 Crossing Muddy Water (John Hiatt)
15 White Boy Lost in the Blues (Lyle Lovett)
16 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
17 Master of Disaster (John Hiatt)
18 talk (Lyle Lovett)
19 All Downhill (Lyle Lovett)
20 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
21 Real Fine Love (John Hiatt)
22 She's No Lady (Lyle Lovett)
23 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
24 Feels like Rain (John Hiatt)
25 Fiona (Lyle Lovett)
26 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
27 Thing Called Love (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
28 L.A. County (Lyle Lovett)
29 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
30 Perfectly Good Guitar (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
31 If I Had a Boat (Lyle Lovett)
32 Have a Little Faith in Me (John Hiatt)
33 My Baby Don't Tolerate (Lyle Lovett)
34 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
35 Slow Turning (John Hiatt)
36 talk (John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett)
37 Step Inside This House [Step Inside My House] (Lyle Lovett)

John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett - "Thing Called Love" (Letterman 2009)