Tracy Chapman & Natalie Merchant - The Donmar Warehouse London UK 1988

 Tracy Chapman & Natalie Merchant - Donmar Warehouse, London, Britain, 3-25-1988

Paul says and I have to say I heartily agree: I'm extra psyched to be presenting this album. It's actually two acoustic sets making up one concert. The first half features Natalie Merchant when she was still the lead singer for the band 10,000 Maniacs, and the second features Tracy Chapman. They're linked by a duet, but also by more, as I will explain. 

I had been aware of this concert for a long time. I put the duet of Merchant and Chapman singing " Where the Soul Never Dies" on a stray tracks album a few years ago, in fact. But I never considered posting it because I thought the sound quality was a little lacking. However, with the improvements in audio editing technology in recent years, I thought I'd give it a try. I think it sounds very good.

Before I say more about the recording, let me share the interesting story behind how this concert came to be. 

In 1987, Tracy Chapman was a struggling musician living in Boston, performing in small clubs and sometimes on street corners. But that year, she finally got her big break and got signed to a major record label, Elektra Records. Meanwhile, Natalie Merchant was becoming a star as the main singer and songwriter for the band 10,000 Maniacs. In the summer of 1987, they released their third album, "In My Tribe." It made the Top Forty in the U.S. album charts, putting them on the map as a nationwide popular act.

It so happened that 10,000 Maniacs was also signed to Elektra Records. One day, in late 1987, she discovered a demo tape of some of Chapman's songs while visiting the record company's New York City office. She was very impressed, so much so that she actually cried from being emotionally moved by the songs. In late 1987 and early 1988, Chapman recorded her debut album. It would be released in April 1988 under the title "Tracy Chapman." 

Then, in late February 1988, Elektra Records had Chapman perform a special concert in Boston to help build anticipation for her upcoming album. Even though only 150 people could fit in the club, lots of journalists and music industry insiders were invited. Merchant heard about the concert. She was so interested in that demo tape she'd heard that she flew to the concert and met Chapman after the show. Merchant later said, "I felt a kinship because her record was made from the soul rather than to make money. There was similarity between us in the lyrical sentiment and musical quality." A few days later, Merchant sent Chapman a copy of her "In My Tribe," album, and the two began communicating.

This soon led to Merchant inviting Chapman to a concert in London the following month. Actually, it was two concerts, on March 24th and 25th, both at the Donmar Warehouse, which only held about 200 people. This was designed to introduce Chapman to a European audience, as she'd never performed outside the U.S. before. At this point, Merchant had never really done any solo concerts, only concerts with 10,000 Maniacs. But she pushed herself to perform solo in order to help Chapman promote her upcoming album in this way. And even though Merchant was a star and Chapman was an unknown, Merchant opened the concert to help give Chapman a bigger spotlight. The effort worked, because some British journalists attended one or both of the concerts and started to spread word about her music in Britain. Chapman then played a few more solo concerts in Britain, opening for John Martyn, before returning to the U.S.

When Chapman's debut album was released in April 1988, it was out of step with the musical trends of the time. So at first, it did reasonably well, but not great. The album sold 250,000 copies by June. That month, she got to take part in a concert honoring Nelson Mandela that was broadcast worldwide. That caused her sales to skyrocket. A couple of months later, her album reached Number One in the U.S. album chart. Eventually, it went on to sell over 20 million copies. It also helped open the door for many other acoustic-based singer-songwriter types.

So it turns out this concert (and the one at the same venue the day before) was important for both Merchant and Chapman. For Merchant, it was the start of her doing solo work, though it would still be a few years before she left 10,000 Maniacs. And for Chapman, it helped build her reputation at a key time, when her debut album was still a few weeks away from being released.

Merchant further helped Chapman by having her be the opening act for 10,000 Maniacs for a few months, back before the Nelson Mandela concert. Merchant later commented, "She certainly doesn't need any help from me in retrospect. I played with her in England and had her tour with us to get my crowd to see her rather than have her relegated to women's bins or folk bins in the stores. When she toured with us not many people had heard the album, but people sat completely enthralled and she got standing ovations most nights." 

Now, let's get to this recording. I found recordings of the two sets separately, and put them together. But I'm sure they're from the same source. It's an audience bootleg, but a pretty good one. Because the crowd was small, there was almost no crowd noise during the songs. However, the big problem that stopped me from posting this in the past was hiss. So I tried something new. MVSEP has a conversion setting called "Denoise." I tried it, and it did a really great job of getting rid of the hiss, even during the songs, while keeping everything else. This works better than "noise reduction," which often harms the music. 

So that fixed most of the problem. However, the sound of Merchant's set was a bit rougher. The songs sounded pretty good, but the banter was often hard to understand. So I ran the talking tracks through Adobe's "Enhance Speech" program, which specifically helps with the clarity of speech. That helped a lot. The one remaining problem after that was that the first minute or so of Chapman's "For My Lover" was missing. Luckily, that song has some repetition in it, and the verses that were lost were repeated later in the song. So I just copied parts of the song to fill in the missing portion. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

On a final note, some of the songs performed in this concert still haven't been officially released. "After Talking to Myself" by Natalie Merchant has been performed in concert a few times, but it's not even known what the song title is. And Chapman played some songs that would show up on her second album "Crossroads," like "Born to Fight" and "This Time," plus, "If I" and "Be My Baby," which remain unreleased. And their duet of the traditional song "Where the Soul Never Dies" also remains unreleased by both of them.

This album is an hour and 38 minutes long. The Natalie Merchant set is 43 minutes long, and the Tracy Chapman one is 56 minutes long. (Also, just as a nitpicky thing, some versions of this bootleg I've seen list March 20th as the date, but I believe the more accurate date is there were two shows, on March 24th and 25th, and this is from the 25th.)

By the way, note that on the same day I'm posting this, I've added three songs to the Chapman "Acoustic Demos" album I made. All three of them are still unreleased songs recorded way back in 1986, in great sound quality, so you really should give those a listen. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/10/tracy-chapman-acoustic-demos-1986-1988.html 

01 talk (Natalie Merchant)
02 A Campfire Song (Natalie Merchant)
03 talk (Natalie Merchant)
04 Gun Shy (Natalie Merchant)
05 talk (Natalie Merchant)
06 Everyone a Puzzle Lover (Natalie Merchant)
07 talk (Natalie Merchant)
08 Don't Talk (Natalie Merchant)
09 talk (Natalie Merchant)
10 The Painted Desert (Natalie Merchant)
11 talk (Natalie Merchant)
12 Lilydale (Natalie Merchant)
13 What's the Matter Here (Natalie Merchant)
14 Maddox Table (Natalie Merchant)
15 talk (Natalie Merchant)
16 Verdi Cries (Natalie Merchant)
17 talk (Natalie Merchant)
18 Like the Weather (Natalie Merchant)
19 After Talking to Myself (Natalie Merchant)
20 talk (Tracy Chapman)
21 Why (Tracy Chapman)
22 If I (Tracy Chapman)
23 Across the Lines (Tracy Chapman)
24 This Time (Tracy Chapman)
25 Behind the Wall (Tracy Chapman)
26 Baby Can I Hold You (Tracy Chapman)
27 talk (Tracy Chapman)
28 Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
29 talk (Tracy Chapman)
30 If Not Now (Tracy Chapman)
31 For My Lover [Edit] (Tracy Chapman)
32 Born to Fight (Tracy Chapman)
33 talk (Tracy Chapman)
34 Mountains O' Things (Tracy Chapman)
35 talk (Tracy Chapman)
36 Talkin' 'bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)
37 talk (Tracy Chapman)
38 Be My Baby (Tracy Chapman)
39 Where the Soul Never Dies (Tracy Chapman & Natalie Merchant)

Blondie - PBS Soundstage, Chicago USA 2015 | Albums That Should Exist

 

Blondie - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-10-2015

Paul Says: I just posted a Blondie concert album yesterday, (the day before now!) but I'm going to post this one here already before I forget about it. This was Blondie's turn on the excellent TV show "PBS Soundstage."

It's rather unfortunate it took so long before Blondie appeared on this show, especially since the show first began the same year the band was formed, way back in 1974. But at least the band has stayed pretty active coming up with new material. They released three new studio albums in the 2010s. The second one, "Ghosts of Download," was released a year prior to this concert. Although it was a sign of their declining sales that they felt the need to bundle it with a greatest his collection.

This album is a mix of old and new. I count seven songs from their recent albums, compared to seven of their classic hits.

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

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long. 

01 Dreaming 
02 One Way or Another 
03 Rave 
04 Hanging on the Telephone 
05 talk 
06 Gravity 
07 talk
08 Mile High 
09 Call Me 
10 Mother 
11 Euphoria
12 A Rose by Any Name 
13 talk 
14 My Monster 
15 Rapture 
16 The Tide Is High - Groove Is in the Heart 
17 talk 
18 Heart of Glass 

Jackie DeShannon: 1961-2017:Covered | Albums That Should Exist

 Speaking of interesting post from Paul at ATSE

Covered: Jackie DeShannon: 1961-2017

Paul says: Here's another entry in my Covered series highlighting the careers of great songwriters. This time, it's Jackie DeShannon.

DeShannon is more famous as a performer than a songwriter. But she's in a rather strange position, because she had some big hits as a performer that she didn't write, especially "What the World Needs Now Is Love," and some big hits as a songwriter for other musical acts, especially "When You Walk in the Room" and "Betty Davis Eyes." The one big hit she both wrote and had the hit performance was "Put a Little Love in Your Heart."

DeShannon was born in rural Kentucky to parents who were farmers but also very musically inclined. So her music career began remarkably early. She was singing songs on local radio stations by the time she was six years old, and hosting her own radio show and making occasional local TV appearances by the time she was eleven! She signed her first record contract at the age of 16, and began putting out singles, but without much success at first. 

At the time, successful female songwriters were very few and far between. But in 1960 she had enough success to get connected to another female songwriter, Sharon Sheeley. Together, they co-wrote DeShannon's first hit song, "Dum Dum" by Brenda Lee. They also wrote some other hit songs over the next couple of years, like "Heart in Hand" and "Breakaway."

In 1963, she co-wrote the song "Needles and Pins" with Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono. She didn't get songwriting credit on it, but she claims she was a full participant in its creation. I believe her. It was common for aspiring musicians to get screwed out of songwriting credits in those days (and probably still today), and I'll bet that went double for women. At any rate, her version of the song was the first one released. It barely made the U.S. singles charts, but went all the way to Number One in Canada. Instead, the Searchers had a Number One hit with it some months later. That suggested there was a problem with her record company, not with her version. Later in 1963, she wrote "When You Walk in the Room" by herself. Again, her version went nowhere and the Searchers had a bit hit with it.

In 1965, she finally had a big hit as a performer, with "What the World Needs Now Is Love," written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. From that point on, she almost had two music careers at once. She put out many albums and singles, often with her singing cover songs. At the same time though, she wrote successful songs for other musical acts that she usually never released herself. Examples would be "Come and Stay with Me," a hit she wrote for Marianne Faithfull, and "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe," which she wrote for the Byrds. 

She wrote hundreds of songs in many musical genres, and made professional sounding demos of them to give to other musicians. Decades later, several albums of these demos have been released. I think if she would have focused on putting on these songs she wrote herself, she would have had a much more successful performing career. It seems to me though that her record company was more interested in her songwriting, so they didn't encourage that.

In 1969, she had another huge hit with "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," which she co-wrote. It reached the Top Five in the U.S. singles chart. After that, musical trends were changing. There was much more of a focus on singers writing their own songs. For instance, Carole King made the transition from writing hits for others to performing her own hit songs. DeShannon made a similar transition, putting out many albums in the 1970s which mostly consisted of her own songs. Again though, in my opinion, her record companies badly bungled her career. Archival releases decades later show dozens of really good songs she wrote and recorded that weren't released at the time. 

Her performing career slowly wound down. In 1978, she stopped putting out albums. She would only release two more much later, in 2000 and 2011. She also never really toured much. She probably didn't need to, with all the money she made from songwriting. In 1974, one of her albums contained a song she co-wrote, "Betty Davis Eyes." It didn't get any attention at the time, and wasn't released as a single. But in 1981, Kim Carnes had a massive hit with it. It went to Number One in the U.S., and was the best selling song of the year.

For this album, I've concentrated entirely on cover versions, with not even a single song performed by DeShannon. I've already posted a couple of albums by her at this blog, and I'll probably post more in the future, so this isn't the place for more of that. Most of these are the original versions, often the hit versions. But I made some exceptions, especially when I had to choose versions other than the DeShannon ones, for instance with "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." 

Here's her Wikipedia page if you want to know more:

Jackie DeShannon - Wikipedia 

An interesting fact I just saw on that page is that the Led Zeppelin song "Tangerine" was actually written by Jimmy Page about DeShannon. The two of them dated around 1965 when Page was a session guitarist. 

This album is 49 minutes long.  

01 Dum Dum (Brenda Lee)
02 Woe Is Me (Helen Shapiro)
03 Heart in Hand (Brenda Lee)
04 I Shook the World (Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans)
05 Needles and Pins (Searchers)
06 Breakaway (Irma Thomas)
07 When You Walk in the Room (Searchers)
08 Come and Stay with Me (Marianne Faithfull)
09 Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe (Byrds)
10 With You in Mind (Marianne Faithfull)
11 Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Dorothy Morrison)
12 Bad Water (Doris Duke)
13 Boat to Sail (Carpenters)
14 Santa Fe (Van Morrison)
15 Bette Davis Eyes (Kim Carnes)
16 Splendor in the Grass (Ladybug Transistor)
17 He Did It (Samantha Fish)

 

Jackie DeShannon photographed by Sue Cameron for her 1968 album 

‘Laurel Canyon.’

House of The Rising Sun - with Ry Cooder

With Jimmy Page - I Remember The Boy (demo)

Ron Sexsmith - Reasons to Believe, Volume 8: 2016-2023 |Albums that Should Exist (Paul with Pete The Greek!)

Ron Sexsmith - Reasons to Believe, Volume 8: 2016-2023

Paul says: Back in early 2024, I started posting this series of non-album tracks by Ron Sexsmith. This was the idea of a musical associate, Pete the Greek, and I wouldn't have done it without his instigation and continual help. Finally, after a year and a half, the series comes to an end with this eighth volume. (Or at least it's ending until Sexsmith puts out another albums' worth of stray tracks, but that could take years.)

This album is a fairly even split between released and unreleased songs. The released ones are tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10 and 11. One of those, "Flowers All Along the Pathway," is a bonus track from the Sexsmith album "The Vivian Line." Most of the rest are appearances on albums by other musical acts, or on various artists compilations.

That leaves the unreleased songs, which are the remaining six. These are all from concerts, home concerts, or radio shows. For the ones that had audience applause, I got rid of that using the MVSEP program to help them fit in with the other songs without applause. 

Thanks again to Pete the Greek for all his help with this series, and sorry it took so long to post it all.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 Twilight of the Season (Hidden Cameras with Ron Sexsmith)
02 Don't Make Promises (Hidden Cameras with Ron Sexsmith)
03 Stay Loose
04 Sorrow Town (Jamie Lawson & Ron Sexsmith)
05 Suzanne 
06 Driving Home for Christmas 
07 How're You Holding Up (Humanist with Ron Sexsmith)
08 If Not for You 
09 The Faith 
10 Flowers All Along the Pathway 
11 Granddad's Song (SunYears with Ron Sexsmith)
12 I'll Never Fall in Love Again 
13 Dirty Life and Times 
14 You Can Call Me Al (Ballroom Thieves & Ron Sexsmith)

All songs are Ron Sexsmith (except where indicated) 

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: 2010-2018 | Albums That Should Exist

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: 2010-2018

Paul is minded as he missed one but says: "Yesterday, after posting "BBC Sessions, Volume 10" by Squeeze, it was pointed out to me that I had never posted Volume 9. Oops! I thought for sure that I had, since I had it all ready to go. So here it is now.

I found a couple of BBC concerts Squeeze did during this time period. But to be honest, I was getting a little tired of posting concerts mostly consisting of their old hits. In my opinion, they were still writing good new songs during this time period, and I was more interested in hearing those. So the first seven tracks are from a BBC concert in Newcastle, Britain, in 2010. Tracks 10 to 13 are from the 2016 Glastonbury Festival. Tracks 14 and 15 are from the Biggest Weekend Festival in Perth, Britain, which was broadcast by the BBC, just like the Glastonbury Festival.

So that makes up most of the songs. But there are two others. "Please, Please Me," a cover of the Beatles song, is from a 2013 BBC radio special called "12 Hours to Please Me" that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' debut album in Britain, "Please, Please Me." 

"Cradle to the Grave" is from the Andrew Marr BBC TV show. What's particularly interesting is that the lyrics were changed near the end of the song, just for this version. Here's the new lyrics:

I grew up in social housing
Part of what made Britain great
There are some here who are hell-bent
On the destruction of the welfare state

This seems to be a deliberate snub of David Cameron, prime minister of Britain at the time, who actually was on stage during the performance, because he was another guest on the show! Indeed, as a leader of the right wing Tory party, Cameron took part in that party's destruction of the welfare state that has be steadily and gradually weakening Britain's economy. Kudos to Squeeze to have the balls to sing that right to Cameron's face. Cameron clapped and smiled at the end of the song, probably oblivious about the lyrics.

Everything on this album is unreleased. I used the MVSEP program to remove all the crowd noise, so the songs with cheering fit in with the ones without. There are a couple of lesser known older songs here. But most of the songs are from the band's two albums of new material during this time period, "Cradle to the Grave" in 2015 and "The Knowledge" in 2017.  "

This album is 47 minutes long. 

01 talk 
02 When the Hangover Strikes 
03 talk 
04 It's So Dirty
05 If It's Love 
06 The Knack 
07 Model 
08 Please Please Me (Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook & Paul Jones)
09 Cradle to the Grave [Alternate Lyrics Version] 
10 Nirvana 
11 Open
12 Happy Days 
13 Cradle to the Grave 
14 Please Be Upstanding 
15 Rough Ride

All songs Squeeze except as indicated 

 

More Missed BBC Glastonbury coverage! | Olivia Rodrigo - BBC In Concert, Glastonbury Festival UK 2025

 

Olivia Rodrigo - BBC In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-29-2025

Paul says: Here's more from the 2025 Glastonbury Festival. I'm trying to post a couple of these a day until I'm all done. This time, it's Olivia Rodrigo.

In the last couple of decades, there have been a lots of young and beautiful female singers who are style over substance. They've got lots of charisma, but they often can't sing well without the help of Autotune, and they have a teams songwriters to write all their songs. Olivia Rodrigo is different. I realized she's actually a really good singer when I stumbled across a video of her singing "You're So Vain," which you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2veI5qnKxo

And she actually writes her songs, as you can tell by looking at the credits on her albums. Incredibly, the average number of co-writers on hit songs these days is eight or nine. But she writes songs by herself or just one co-writer. Despite being only 22 years old at the time of this concert, she's already so big that she was one of the top headliners for the festival. So kudos to her.

Anyway, if you want to know more about her, here's her Wikipedia page:

Olivia Rodrigo - Wikipedia 

By the way, this set has a prominent guest star, Robert Smith of the Cure. He dueted with her on two famous Cure songs. 

Everything here is unreleased. As I usually did for this festival, I found a high-quality video file, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. 

This album is an hour and 25 minutes long.

01 Obsessed 
02 Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl 
03 Vampire
04 talk
05 Drivers License
06 Traitor 
07 Bad Idea Right 
08 Love Is Embarrassing 
09 Pretty Isn't Pretty 
10 Happier
11 talk 
12 Enough for You 
13 talk
14 Friday I'm in Love (Olivia Rodrigo & Robert Smith)
15 Just like Heaven (Olivia Rodrigo & Robert Smith)
16 talk 
17 So American 
18 Band Intros - Jealousy, Jealousy 
19 Favorite Crime
20 Deja Vu 
21 Brutal 
22 All-American Bitch 
23 Good 4 U 
24 Get Him Back 

All songs Olivia Rodrigo except where indicated otherwise 

You’ve heard the name now check the music! The Old Fogey Strikes Again!

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 10: Quay Sessions, Glasgow Scotland UK 2024 | Albums That Should Exist

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 10: Quay Sessions, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, Britain, 8-1-2024

Paul he say:Here's a concert by the band Squeeze, from 2024.

It's pretty amazing to consider that this band was formed in 1974, which means they've been together off and on for fifty years. Frankly, this concert mostly consists of their hits, with only three relatively new songs sprinkled in. So there isn't a big need for me to post this. However, this has been unavailable on the Internet, as far as I could tell. But an anonymous musical friend taped it off the radio when it was broadcast, and sent it to me. So by posting it here, I believe I'm making it available for anyone for the first time. So thanks to that person for their help.

That shows five songs were performed that didn't make it to the BBC broadcast, including the final encore, "Black Coffee in Bed." 

I do have to say that although the band members are getting up there in age, you wouldn't be able to tell just from listening to it. They still sound very good.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Take Me, I'm Yours
02 Hourglass 
03 Up the Junction 
04 talk
05 One Beautiful Summer 
06 talk 
07 You Get the Feeling 
08 Labelled with Love 
09 talk 
10 Goodbye Girl 
11 Trixie's Hell on Earth 
12 Slap and Tickle 
13 Pulling Mussels [From the Shell] 
14 Is That Love
15 Tempted 
16 Cool for Cats

Ron Sexsmith - Reasons to Believe, Volume 7: 2013-2016 |ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

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

Paul he say: 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.

All songs Ron Sexsmith except where stated

01 Real Pandora 
02 Least of My Worries 
03 Wee Small Hours 
04 Pennies from Heaven 
05 Life After a Broken Heart 
06 Any Day Now (Breithaupt Brothers & Ron Sexsmith)
07 Don't You (Marike Jager with Ron Sexsmith)
08 Sisters of Mercy 
09 Wait until the Sun Comes Up (Ron Sexsmith & Oh Susanna)
10 Circling Round the Drain 
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)

More Thomo from ATSE | Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1988-1992

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1988-1992

Paul says: I had a weird dream last night. In the dream, I heard the song "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" by Richard Thompson, but I noticed a famous Queen song was basically the same song, just with different words and very different production. I don't think it's true that any Queen song resembles that one, but it was a fun was to be reminded what a fantastic song "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" is. And it also reminded me that it's time to post another Richard Thompson album. So here's the next BBC album from him. This one is a collection of BBC studio sessions, all solo acoustic.

Everything here remains unreleased. The first five songs are from an appearance on the Andy Kershaw Show in 1988. Tracks 6 through 11 are from a 1992 radio show called "Kaleidoscope." The sound quality was a little poorer on these. So I made some adjustments using both the UVR5 and Audacity audio editing programs. The last three songs are from another episode of the Andy Kershaw Show, in 1992.

Unfortunately, "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" isn't on here, but it is on the "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" album I've posted here. That's probably the greatest song about war-related PTSD ever written. Most of the songs here are from his albums at the time, like 1988's "Amnesia" and 1991's "Rumour and Sigh." But there are a few rarities and older ones as well.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Killerman Gold Posse (Richard Thompson)
02 Waltzing's for Dreamers (Richard Thompson)
03 Pharoah (Richard Thompson)
04 Push and Shove (Richard Thompson)
05 Killing Jar (Richard Thompson)
06 I Feel So Good (Richard Thompson)
07 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (Richard Thompson)
08 DADGAD Improvisation [Instrumental] (Richard Thompson)
09 I Misunderstood (Richard Thompson)
10 Don't Let a Thief Steal into Your Heart (Richard Thompson)
11 God Loves a Drunk (Richard Thompson)
12 I Ride in Your Slipstream (Richard Thompson)
13 Now that I Am Dead (Richard Thompson)
14 Withered and Died (Richard Thompson)

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1970-1971 | Albums That Should Exist

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1970-1971

Paul says: I'm still not into the Incredible String Band, but here's another BBC album from them, due to their high results in the BBC poll I did a while back. This is a third volume of BBC studio sessions.

There's an official album of BBC performances by this band, but it skips a lot of music. This album is a case in point. The first four songs are from that album, "Across the Airwaves," but everything else remains unreleased. Also, those first four songs are from two different BBC sessions in 1970, while tracks 5 to 8 are from one 1971 BBC session, and tracks 9 until the end are from another 1971 BBC session. 

In the time period here, the band was still a foursome, with Mike Heron, Robin Williamson, Licorice McKechnie, and Rose Simpson. But that would change around the end of 1971. During this time, the band released no less than four studio albums: "I Looked Up" and "U" in 1970, and "Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending" and "Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air" in 1971. 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Everything's Fine Right Now 
02 Raga Puti 
03 Ring Dance
04 Long, Long Road 
05 You Get Brighter 
06 Jigs [The Bird that Lives on Rain - Yellow Flames of Whin - Jenny in the Mosshouse - Drunk]
07 How We Danced the Lord of Weir 
08 The Actor
09 The Circle Is Unbroken
10 Sailor and the Dancer 
11 Tree 
12 Living in the Shadows

As I was one of the people who begged Paul at ATSE to find us more BBC Incredible String Band here is this . . . . largely good quality despite various sources and incarnations

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Hammersmith Palais, London UK 1986 | Albums That Should Exist

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Hammersmith Palais, London, Britain, 11-20-1986

Paul says : Here's another volume of Richard Thompson performing for the BBC. This time, it's a concert from 1986.

"Volume 2" is a concert from 1985. This concert is pretty similar, except it's shorter. Most likely, it was edited down to fit an hour-long radio slot. That includes getting rid of pretty much any banter between songs. Between the 1985 show and this one, however, Thompson released another studio album, "Daring Adventures." So there are three songs performed from that album here: "Valerie," "Jennie," and "A Bone through Her Nose." Too bad "Al Bowlly's in Heaven" from that album also wasn't included, since I think it's one of his greatest songs. (But a version of that song was included in "Volume 1.")

Six of the songs here made it onto the official box set "Live at the BBC." Those are tracks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The rest are unreleased, from the BBC broadcast. The lead vocals were rather low on some songs, especially the unreleased ones, so I adjusted that using the UVR5 audio editing program.

During this tour, like the 1985, the folk duo of Clive Gregson and Christine Collister were a part of Thompson's band, helping with backing vocals and Gregson guitar. So that's why one song, "Like a Man," has the lead vocals by Gregson.  

This album is 56 minutes long.All songs Richard except where noted

01 The Angels Took My Racehorse Away 
02 Valerie 
03 Jennie 
04 A Bone through Her Nose 
05 When the Spell Is Broken 
06 Like a Man (Richard Thompson with Clive Gregson)
07 You Don't Say 
08 Fire in the Engine Room (
09 Wall of Death 
10 Nearly in Love
11 Tear-Stained Letter  

Again I should prominently feature this selection as I was one of the folk who requested more Thompson from Paul’s seeking requests (yeah, you and a thousand others? - ED)

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1984-1987 | Albums That Should Exist

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1984-1987

Paul says; "Just two weeks ago (as I write this in mid-May 2025), I posted what I thought was Volume 1 for a long series of BBC albums from British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson, a concert from 1985. I was wrong. As I was getting ready to post this album, I stumbled across a song I wanted to include from 1984. That predates the 1985 concert. So this is the new Volume 1. That other album is now Volume 2.

You can get the revised version here with new cover art and mp3 tags and so forth:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/04/richard-thompson-bbc-sessions-volume-1.html

This album is a collection of studio sessions, plus a live performance that was too short to make its own album. The first song is from the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1984. The next three are from a BBC session in 1985. Then the majority of the album, tracks 5 through 13, are a live performance recorded for the BBC radio show "Folk on Two." It took place at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on May 20, 1987. Finally, the last song is a live performance from the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1987.

Tracks 2, 3, 4, and 14 have been officially released. The first three are from the album "Live at the BBC," and that last one is from the "Life and Music Of" box set. Everything else is unreleased.

I plan on posting many more Richard Thompson BBC albums. However, there are four BBC concerts that I know exist and I can't find. Here they are. If you have any of them, please let me know:

BBC In Concert, The Venue, New Cross, London, 11-10-1983
Celtic Connections Festival, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 1-17-1998
Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Park, Cambridge, 7-28-2001
Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Park, Cambridge, 7-28-2006 

Note that if someone finds that first one, I'll have to make that Volume 1 and rename everything after. So hopefully that can happen sooner rather than later, before I post more albums.

Also note that this album contains two versions of "She Twists the Knife Again." That's kind of unfortunate, but at least one was done in the studio while the other one was in concert. "

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 Tear-Stained Letter
02 You Don't Say
03 She Twists the Knife Again
04 When the Spell Is Broken 
05 Genesis Hall 
06 Wall of Death
07 Valerie
08 talk 
09 Air for Morris Ogg - Mrs. MacLeod's Reel [Instrumental]
10 She Twists the Knife Again 
11 talk 
12 Al Bowlly's in Heaven 
13 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight 
14 Drowned Dog Black Night 

and again as I was one of the folks who asked Paul if he could find any more Richard Thompson there is this!

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968

 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968 

Paul says: In the poll I conducted in February of new musical acts you'd like to see BBC albums from, the Incredible String Band tied for third place. So here's the start of a series of BBC albums by them. I found enough for seven albums.

Personally, I've never really gotten into the Incredible String Band. I know they were talented, and their style of psychedelic folk was unique and interesting, but their songs generally don't grab me. Still, the voters have spoken, so here you go.

The heart of the band were the singer-songwriters Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, with the two roughly doing about the same number of songs. In fact, for some of the time period of this album, they were the only two members of the band. However, in 1968, their girlfriends at the time, Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson, were also made band members. Happily, they were talented singers and musicians.

This band arguably peaked early, around the time period of this album. If you look at the crowd-sourced ratings of their albums on rateyourmusic.com, their 1967 album "The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" and their two 1968 albums "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" and "Wee Tam and The Big Huge" are their highest rated ones. 

All the performances here are unreleased. The first four songs are from a 1967 appearance on the "Top Gear" radio show, hosted by John Peel. The rest all date from early 1968. Tracks 5 through 7 are from "Once More with Felix," a BBC TV show hosted by Julie Felix. Tracks 8 through 12 are from the "Night Ride" radio show, which was also hosted by Peel. The last two songs are from another appearance on "Once More with Felix."

Unfortunately, one song is repeated, "Painting Box." It's both the first song and the last song. And two of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles because Peel spoke over the music a little bit. That was pretty unusual for him. I did the usual, using the UVR5 program to wipe the DJ vocals while keeping the music.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Painting Box [Edit] 
02 Mercy I Cry City
03 Chinese White [Edit]
04 Nightfall 
05 Three Is a Green Crown
06 Geordie
07 See All the People
08 You Get Brighter 
09 All Too Much for Me
10 Ducks on a Pond 
11 I Bid You Goodnight 
12 Won't You Come See Me 
13 The Half-Remarkable Question 
14 Painting Box 

Now as I was one of the folk who asked Paul if he could find more ISB I have to post this and it is my pleasure to share. I went through a phase last year one time of playing every album back to back and thoroughly enjoyed that but what I didn’t have and was astonished to see others on Paul's site ask for same as live sessions and ROIOs 

Have at it String Band fans!

Alison Krauss & Union Station - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, USA, 2003 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

Alison Krauss & Union Station - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-2003

Paul says: Here's yet another from my flood of "PBS Soundstage" albums. This time, it's from Alison Krauss and her backing band Union Station. The band plays a pretty prominent role, with a couple of the songs here being sung by band members other than Krauss.

Alison Krauss is a star of bluegrass and country, and had her biggest success in the 1990s. Normally, I'm not a fan of bluegrass, but she does it in a very accessible way. Note for instance her cover of the song "Baby, Now that I've Found You," a Motown-styled 1960s song by the British band the Foundations, totally redone by her.

By the way, note that Krauss has a connection to the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" She appeared in the movie, singing the song "Down to the River to Pray." But also, probably the best known song from that movie was "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." Krauss, didn't sing that in the movie, but one member of Union Station, Dan Tyminski, did. So he sang it in this concert as well.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Let Me Touch You for a While 
02 The Lucky One 
03 Baby, Now that I've Found You
04 talk
05 Bright Sunny South 
06 Everytime You Say Goodbye 
07 Stay 
08 Forget about It 
09 I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow 
10 Maybe 
11 talk 
12 We Hide and Seek 
13 talk 
14 When You Say Nothing at All 
15 Oh Atlanta 
16 talk 
17 Down to the River to Pray 
18 There Is a Reason

We adore Alison don’t we? Think so its a universal fact! Peerless voice and the joint venture with Robert Plant one of the most extraordinary ventures in recent (sic) music!

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Every Time You Say Goodbye -CMA Awards 2003

John Prine (featuring guest Billy Lee Riley) - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, U.S.A 1980 | Albums That Should Exist

 Now we’re talking . . . and most welcome given his tragic loss five years ago, worth re-visiting if you don’t have this

John Prine with Billy Lee Riley - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 1-6-1980

Paul says: Here's another "PBS Soundstage" episode. This time, it's a John Prine concert from 1980. 

He was joined on two songs by Billy Lee Riley. Riley had a few hits in the 1950s, especially the song "Red Hot" in 1957. After that, he stayed in the music business for a while, working mostly as a producer. However, by the 1970s, he got a job in the construction industry instead. But in the late 1970s he made a minor comeback, and this appearance was a part of it. He died in 2009 of cancer after some more minor comebacks.

Bob Dylan was a big fan. Here's what he said about him in 2015:

"He was a true original. He did it all: He played, he sang, he wrote. He would have been a bigger star but Jerry Lee [Lewis] came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don't stand a chance. So Billy became what is known in the industry — a condescending term — as a one-hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one-hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who's got 20 or 30 hits behind him. And Billy's hit song was called "Red Hot," and it was red hot. It could blast you out of your skull and make you feel happy about it. Change your life."

I don't have much to say about John Prine in comparison, because I figure a lot more people interested in this album will know about Prine than they will about Riley. A few months prior to this concert, Prine released his sixth studio album, "Pink Cadillac." It was different from his previous albums. Instead of his usual singer-songwriter style, he focused more on 1950s rock and roll, with about half of the album being covers of songs from that era, and the originals on the album being influenced by that style. We can see some of that in this concert, for instance his cover of the 1950s classic "Ubangi Stomp." And his involvement with Riley on two songs fits perfectly into that.

The recording of this unreleased concert is pretty good. However, I had some trouble with the cheering at the ends of songs ending abruptly. Probably, that was when the TV show quickly cut to commercial breaks. So I did a little editing to add a reasonable amount of cheering after every song. The last song, "How Lucky," had no cheering at all. It probably wasn't actually recorded in the same concert as the rest. But I added some cheering at the end of that one too to help it fit in.

This album is 49 minutes long.

All songs by John Prine except where noted 

01 talk 
02 Automobile 
03 Spanish Pipedream 
04 Fish and Whistle
05 talk 
06 Angel from Montgomery
07 The Accident [Things Could Be Worse] 
08 Ubangi Stomp 
09 talk
10 Hello in There 
11 Paradise
12 talk 
13 No Name Girl (John Prine & Billy Lee Riley)
14 talk (John Prine & Billy Lee Riley)
15 Red Hot (John Prine & Billy Lee Riley)
16 Bruised Orange [Chain of Sorrow] 
17 Saigon 
18 How Lucky