Merry Christmas 2017

Refresher of Christmas-related posts

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! Although no new Christmas collection this year (I usually do one every other year, and last year I did two!), there are plenty of Christmas-related posts and downloads available here. So, if you haven't previously checked out my delightful and eclectic Christmas collections, I invite you to do so now (links to those pages below). In addition, there are several other Christmas-related shows and compilations that have been posted previously. To see all the Christmas-related posts check here. As I've said before, personally, I love Christmas music of all types, classical, rock, pop, jazz, etc., from the traditional to the outrageous, the serious to the silly, the classics to the newest ditties, and these compilations contain some of my favorites. Enjoy the season while it lasts. 


BB's Chronicles Christmas Collections 2016 (featuring 2 full collections - Bright and Blue)


BB's Christmas Chronicle 2014 - Tiny Tree Christmas


BB Chronicles Holiday Sampler 2012 - No Rest for Ye Merry Gentlemen


BB Chronicles Echlectic Christmas Chollection 2010


Other Christmas posts:

Aimee Mann and Ted Leo Christmas Shows: 2014 - Boston ; 2015 - Boston

Bruce Springsteen Live Christmas compilations

Chicago - 1998 Christmas show

Bill Kirchen's Honky Tonk Holiday Party - 2010 - Northampton, MA 

Lossless (FLAC) upgrades for Guess Who shows

More Guess Who-related news. For those that prefer their music files to be Lossless, I've recently upgraded a couple of previously available Guess Who shows with Lossless (FLAC ) versions to provide enhanced sound quality. The previously available mp3 (320 kbps) versions will also continue to be available. Here are the shows that have recently added Lossless files:

guess-who-1974-05-06-st-louis-mo-fm.html

guess-who-1970-10-10-kansas-state.html 

So, although you should already have these shows (if you don't, get them right away), here they are in full Lossless glory, for those that demand such things.

Steely Dan - The Lost Gaucho and Outtakes (corrected and enhanced version) - 1979

Steely Dan
The Lost Gaucho and Outtakes
(NEW upgraded version - phase-corrected and cleaned-up)
~1979
Studio outtakes, good to excellent sound quality
For this version, Phase-correction and audio touch-ups and clean-up work provided by Anthony Ochoa for the BB Chronicles

Now available in lossless (FLAC) and mp3 (320 kbps) versions!

My previous post of Steely Dan's Lost Gaucho and Outtakes has consistently been one of the most popular posts ever here at the 'Chronicles'. So naturally, as I was preparing many posts for upgrading (to lossless and/or improved, upgraded quality where possible) a month or so ago, and since previously these were posted only as mp3 files, I planned on including the Lost Gaucho in this upgrade group. Coincidentally, around this same time, I was contacted by an alert blog reader who had recently downloaded the files from here, and who happened to be an audio engineer, and he noticed that for the entire CD1 of the post, the left and right channels were completely (180 degree) out of phase with each other, which resulted in cancellation and loss of sound from some frequencies (particularly low end), and an overall loss of fidelity in the recordings. When I checked it out, he was absolutely right, and as I checked around for other (and Lossless) sources, I found that all the available sources I could find also had the same out-of-phase problem, so it appeared that these were the versions that have been around the trading circles for years. Fortunately, correcting this type of phase issue is quite simple to do, and it is surprising that it has not been fixed before now. Anyway, my new audio engineer blog friend, Anthony Ochoa, was interested in not only fixing the phase problem, but also going through the recordings and doing some EQ and clean-up work on them to bring them up to a higher sound quality. So, that is what he did, and his resulting work on CD1 (The Lost Gaucho) has restored these files to a much fuller, richer sound, almost to a commercial quality level. Unfortunately, the many sound problems on the other batch of outtakes on CD2 were not so easily fixed, as Anthony told me, the "warbling & mushy" sound was probably due to a transfer from "a lousy cassette tape that was poorly calibrated and poorly maintained, as was the deck used to play it back" resulting in some sound problems that can't be fixed. Nonetheless, Anthony also did go through the lesser quality CD2 files and performed some "clean-up work" on them to fix some gaps, fades, and erroneous noise.  Thus, CD1 now has greatly enhanced sound quality, while CD2 only has some minor enhancements, but nonetheless this is an overall upgraded and improved package, and is also now available in lossless as well as mp3. Generally, for my recent upgrades, I have not made new posts, just updated the old one, but for this exciting new enhanced and upgraded version, I thought a new post was warranted. Thanks to Anthony for taking time to make these improvements and make this available. For more info and background on the original recordings and sessions, see the original post here. Note: I am leaving the original post (and link) intact, so that those interested in the unaltered files can still get those. 


CD1: The Lost Gaucho (phase-corrected and equalized)
01 Kind Spirit
02 Were You Blind That Day
03 The Bear
04 The 2nd Arrangement
05 Talkin' About My Home
06 Time Out Of Mind
07 Kulee Baba
08 Gaucho (instr.)

CD2: Various Demos, Outtakes, & Alternate Versions (cleaned-up)
01 Gaucho
02 The Second Arrangement
03 Glamour Profession
04 Babylon Sisters
05 My Rival
06 Gaucho (piano demo)
07 Babylon Sisters
08 The Second Arrangement
09 Talkin' About My Home
10 I Can't Write Home About You
11 Kulee Baba


FLAC - Steely Dan_The Lost Gaucho and Outtakes(corrected-enhanced)_FLAC.rar

New Link! (08/26/21)
mp3 - Steely Dan_The Lost Gaucho and Outtakes(corrected-enhanced)_mp3.part1.rar
          Steely Dan_The Lost Gaucho and Outtakes(corrected-enhanced)_mp3.part2.rar

Counting Crows - 2014-11-23 - Alcatraz, Milano, Italy

Counting Crows

2014-11-23
Alcatraz, Milano, Italy

Update: Download not available.
Go to counting crows official website.

Ok, sorry for the lack of posts for the past month, but I have just been really busy on a big project for work and have had absolutely no time for the blog lately. But, I will be finishing things up this week, and hopefully will have a couple of holiday-themed posts coming soon. In the meantime, here is a recent full-length Counting Crows show I just acquired. I haven't even gotten the chance to listen to the whole show yet, just heard enough to verify that it is an audience recording with what seems like very good sound quality. So, enjoy this. By the way, I have been really loving the new Counting Crows album, Somewhere Under Wonderland,  even more now than when I first mentioned it last month. It may be their best album ever (certainly one of their very best). It is definitely the best album of 2014, as far as I'm concerned. I just can't get enough of it. It is probably their most bouyantly rockin' album, with killer tracks like 'Dislocation', 'Elvis Went to Hollywood',and 'Earthquake Driver', yet also has a couple of their very best acoustic tracks, and Adam's most gut-wrenchingly, emotionally powerful heartbreaker of all with 'Possibility Days', a magnificent track, and that doesn't even mention the 8+ min mini-opus 'Palisades Park', which Adam has claimed is the best song he's ever written. I can't understand why there has not been more talk and buzz around this album as one of the year's very best, as it is great. But then, what do I know, I'm just a music fan. Anyway, check out this Crows show, and if you like it, then go buy their album, you won't regret it. An official soundboard recording of this and many other Counting Crows shows is available at www.livecountingcrows.com


Setlist:
CD1
01 intro
02 Round Here
03 Scarecrow
04 If I Could Give All My Love -or- Richard Manuel Is Dead
05 Cover Up the Sun
06 Mr. Jones
07 Colorblind
08 Mercy
09 Omaha
10 Possibility Days
11 1492
12 Miami
13 Like Teenage Gravity (Kasey Anderson cover)

CD2
01 God of Ocean Tides
02 Goodnight L.A.
03 Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell cover)
04 Blues Run the Game (Jackson C. Frank cover)
05 Earthquake Driver
06 A Long December
07 Hanginaround
08 intro Encores
09 Palisades Park
10 Rain King
11 Holiday In Spain
12 California Dreamin' (from speakers)

Unfortunately, Download is not available (Copyright infringement notification). Official Soundboard recordings for all recent Counting Crows shows are available through the band's live show website www.livecountingcrows.com

I was under the impression that Counting Crows had an open taping policy, and that sharing of audience recordings was allowed, but apparently that has changed. Perhaps since they now offer official recordings of their shows through their website, they do not allow any recordings of shows that they have available for sale. I'm not sure. I tried to make sure that this was an audience recording and not the 'official' recording before posting, but it doesn't seem to matter, as they apparently do not allow this recording to be shared, so it has been removed. I apologize for any inconvenience caused to the band or to the readers of this blog. I leave this post up for informational purposes. I fully support this excellent band and encourage you to buy their new album, Somewhere Under Wonderland, and any of their live recordings available for purchase.
   

Link Restoration Update

Links Fixed!

OK now, I think I have finally completed fixing/updating/re-doing virtually all of the download links lost in the hotfile shutdown. And, in some cases, also fixed some other problems or upgraded file quality where I could. So, hopefully everything is now back to running order. There are still several links to outside sources (other blogs, now defunct sites, etc.) that are not functioning, and I will keep working to fix those where possible. I also will continue to try to update/upgrade some of the older  (192k) files to higher quality where possible. But other than those tweaks, things should be back to nearly full functioning once again. I almost hesitate to make such an announcement, because inevitably, that is when some problem or minor catastrophe strikes again. But hopefully, I can keep things up and running for awhile. If you do still find non-functioning links, let me know and I will try to fix them ASAP. Thanks for your continuing support and patience through this setback. New posts will be coming soon.

Getting back on the horse?

Some of you may have noticed that I have started to re-upload a few of the most popular and recent posts to Hotfile. This is being done on a trial basis, and we'll see how it goes. Let me know how it as working for you. At this point, it will remain on a somewhat limited basis (that is, I am not re-posting large numbers of the lost downloads), just for a select number of posts. I'm doing this somewhat surreptitiously, so you'll have to check to see if any of the ones you were specifically interested have been reposted. If they have, you are in luck, if not, well, that's the way it goes, I guess. I will continue focusing mainly on restoring some of the more unique posts that cannot be obtained anywhere else, but again, not everything will be able to be reposted. As I said, we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I will continue posting new stuff as I come up with it. So, hopefully, there will still be enough stuff here for you to at least stop by occasionally to check out. Hang in there, and I will try to do the same. Thanks for your patience.

America - 'New' old recording? Well, not really

Recently, I was excited to find what appeared to be another early live recording from America (at the Guitars101 forum). It was labelled as from a 1973 BBC radio show. However, in obtaining and listening to it, it was clear that it was just a highly edited version of the 02-1972 Philadelphia (Sigma Sound Studios - WMMR Broadcast) show that has already been posted and is available here (and which included the full show - 4 more songs than this BBC show, and all of the between song talk and banter). Although this may indeed have been broadcast by the BBC in 1973, it most certainly was taken from the same source show as the 1972 Philadelphia show and broadcast. And although the recording is very good, it is not quite as great as the sound quality of that superb Philadelphia FM recording (previously offered). It is, however, definitely from a different recording, as this one does not have the brief cut (from tape flip) in 'Coming Into Los Angeles' that was present in the previous recording, so that is the one 'new' aspect of this recording, as it contains that one section missing from the previous recording of this show. Accordingly, I have spliced together that brief missing segment into the track from the Philly show, to recreate the full-length song, without the cut (the splice is relatively seamless, barely noticeable). That 'corrected track' has now been put into the download for the 1972 Philly show, so it is now already included in any further downloads of that show. Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that this supposed 1973 show is not anything 'new' (and thus I will not be posting it), just an edited version of a previously available show, and that a superior full version of the show is already available. And now with this spliced version correcting the one track that was cut in the previous version, we now truly have the full concert. There are so few available recordings from this great period, so, although this one turned out not to be anything 'new', it still was great to see something else turn up (and now we have the 'complete' Philly show in great quality).  

For those that don't already have the 1972 Philly show, here is the link page for that show, which is now available in Lossless, as well as mp3: 

America_1972_Philadelphia_FM_updated page

New Reposts - Links Updated

Several posts with dead or inactive links have been reposted and updated with new links.

Updates include:
Neil Young - A Perfect Echo Vols 1-4, Lossless (SHN )
Neil Young - A Perfect Echo Vol. 6, Lossless (FLAC)
Neil Young - Archives Be Damned 2000
The Kinks - Kinks in Concert 1974
The Kinks - Club Vegas Rehearsal Session, 1993
Genesis - 1982 Reunion Concert at Milton Keynes