J.D. Souther - 1976-05-05 - Paul's Mall, Boston, MA

J.D. Souther
May 5, 1976
Paul's Mall, Boston, MA
Audience master recording, very good quality
available as both lossless (FLAC)
and mp3 @ 320 kbps versions

Here is J.D. Souther's show from Paul's Mall in Boston from the same night as Firefall (5-5-76), which was posted a few days ago. Once again, this is a rare, previously uncirculated audience master recording from our friend David M., exclusively available here for the first time anywhere! And this is a great show, in very good quality. After the demise of the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band in Mid-1975, J.D. returned to the studio to record a new solo album, and the recording became an all-star event, with friends and artists like Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Linda Ronstadt, David Crosby, Lowell George, Art Garfunkel, Andrew Gold, Joe Walsh, Waddy Wachtel, Stanley Clarke, and several others, all making contributions. The result was the wonderful album, Black Rose (1976). This tour in May 1976 coincided with the release of the album, and catches J.D. near the height of his most productive period. The show features mainly songs from his 2 solo albums with a couple SHF band songs thrown in. The first half of the set features Souther solo and acoustic, then in the second half he is joined by a lively backing band. It's great to hear both sides of Souther's songs, the softer introspective beauty of songs like 'Faithless Love' and 'Silver Blue', and the more rock and blues aspects of songs like 'The Fast One' , 'Banging My Head Against The Moon', and 'Midnight Prowl'. All in all, a great show. This is the complete first set. The second set consisted of the exact same setlist. Although mostly known as a songwriter, with other people often having more famous versions of his songs (such as The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, or Bonnie Raitt), Souther is a fine singer and wonderful performer himself, and does definitive versions of all his wonderful songs. Always somewhat of a loner and recluse (perhaps why, other than the short-lived SHF Band, he never was part of a Band), he never toured much, which makes this 1976 show all the more special. Over the next several years, Souther only released 2 more albums (You're Only Lonely, 1979 and Home By Dawn, 1984) before somewhat dissappearing from music in the late 1980's. He did some acting in movies and TV in the 1990's, but wasn't heard from much after that. But then in 2008, he returned (after 24 years since his last album) with a new album, If the World Was You, which was recorded live with a 5-piece Jazz group (including Bela Fleck). If you are at all a fan of singer-songwriters or country-rock music, but aren't very familiar with Souther, you really owe it to yourself to check out his stuff, he is one of the best. And this show here is a great place to start. Give a listen to John David Souther in 1976.  

Setlist:
Solo acoustic
01. How Long
02. Kite Woman
03. Faithless Love
04. Holiday In Mexico
05. Don't Cry Now
06. Silver Blue
07. Jesus in 3/4 Time
08. Simple Man
With Band
09. The Fast One
10. Run Like A Thief
11. White Wing
12. Banging My Head Against The Moon
13. Midnight Prowl
14. Trouble In Paradise
15. Black Rose
16. Somebody Must Be Wrong

Backing band - dubbed by JD as 'The Organic Socks'
Ira Engbert, Fuzzy Samuels, Michael Moore, Greg Leroy, Vince Melamed


mp3 version: JD_Souther_1976-5-5_mp3.rar
Flac version: JD_Souther_1976-5-5_FLAC.rar