Gillian Welch and David Rawlings - Nashville 1994

Reloaded 08/May/2015 - This is the second live performance from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings to be featured on Beehive Candy, because it's just a great selection of songs and a superb gig.

The notes that came with it suggest that this is "one of the (and possibly the) earliest circulating Gillian Welch/David Rawlings live performances, sourced from a soundboard recording. Essential listening, including a range of pre-Revival material no longer played live, in much better quality than the San Francisco pub gig that forms part of  the Working On A Building set".

The concert took place at the Station Inn, Nashville, TN, back on May 19th 1994.

Biography material by Jason Ankeny tells us that Gillian Welch first appeared on the folk scene as a young singer/songwriter armed with a voice and sensibility far beyond her years, earning widespread acclaim for her deft, evocative resurrection of the musical styles most commonly associated with rural Appalachia of the early 20th century. Gillian Welch was born in 1967 in Manhattan and grew up in West Los Angeles, where her parents wrote material for the comedy program The Carol Burnett Show. It was as a child that she became fascinated by bluegrass and early country music, in particular the work of the Stanley Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and the Carter Family.

David Rawlings is a guitarist, songwriter, producer, and singer -- mostly in that order -- who plies his trade on a 1935 Epiphone Olympic, on which he's gained a devoted following for getting more action out of the small archtop guitar than most guitarists get out of modern electrics. Rawlings first came to prominence in 1996 with the release of musical partner Gillian Welch's debut album, Revival. He and Welch met while studying together at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Source: Soundboard.

Sound Quality: Very good MP3 @192kbps.

Genre: Americana, alt country, bluegrass, folk.

Set: Full set.

Set List:

01 Makin' Time
02 One More Dollar
03 Patiently Waiting
04 Two Days From Knowing
05 Wabash Cannonball
06 Pass You By
07 Birds Of A Feather
08 Riverboat Song
09 Tonight I'll Go On Downtown
10 455 Rocket
11 Red Clay Halo
12 Forty One Dollars & Change
13 Introduction
14 Long Black Veil

Links: Official Gillian Welch site HERE.

Reloaded (08/May/2015) download link in comments below.

Pree - New Album - Rima

This is an unashamed plug for Pree. Totally unashamed and I do not care! I will add that Paper Garden Records who released Pree's latest album Rima earlier this week, seem to have a knack in finding great artists, Little Tybee and Eli Mardock to name just two others.

So what's all this Beehive Candy being even more upbeat about a new recording than normal, bearing in mind we tend to write only about music we like anyway! Well cards on the table, I have loved Pree's music since the above mentioned record label first introduced them to me a few years back.

As regards the new album here are the eloquent words that came my way a week or so ago - Known for their unique and vibrant pop songs, Rima was crafted after returning to DC following touring, and a time of reorientation and reexamination of relationships. The ten tracks of Rima (which takes its name from geologic fissures on the Moon) are a series of confrontations--perceptions enhanced and at times distorted by the narrator's own fractured understanding of others.  The album is a study in these divergences of personal relationships and how the narrator copes with their implications as she seeks to define herself and determine what to leave behind, and what is worth hanging onto.

All I would say is I like Pree's music and I love this album, but then I do tend to put things a little more simply using smaller words.

They are touring in May:

5/8 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat (Record Release Show!!).
5/14 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
5/15 - Atlanta, GA @ 529 Bar
5/17 - Decatur, AL @ The Leonard Limoy Center
5/18 - Hattiesburg, MS @ The Thirsty Hippo
5/20 - New Orleans, LA @ The Looking Glass
5/22 - Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
5/25 - San Diego, CA @ The Hideout
5/26 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Mint
5/27 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
5/29 - Eugene, OR @ The Lorax
5/30 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
5/31 - Seattle, WA @ The High Dive
6/2 - Denver, CO @ The Lion's Lair
6/11 - New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall
6/12 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Living Room (Northside Festival: Official Paper Garden Showcase).

Pree Website HERE. Check out the opening song below, and find more on their website.

Hawkwind - Live, Demos and Sessions

This is Hawkwind in three parts, concentrating on rarities from 1970 to 1980. It is also an introduction to another website that if you enjoy Hawkwind's music should know about (perhaps you already do, but no harm in sharing the details).

One of the fascinating things about unofficial recordings is the various sources they come from and the levels of audio quality available. These three recordings kind of demonstrate this.

The first one is clearly a home recording of BBC radio sessions and the music is joined by the wonders of 'radio' noise. That said, I reckon any self respecting Hawkwind fan may well have a copy of this somewhere, for the sake of completeness if nothing else. Don't get me wrong, it is quite listenable, it's just that there is a considerable amount of far better material around, more about later. Audio quality - Average, listenable

Part One:

BBC Radio One Sessions 1970-71

John Peel Intro
Paranoia
See It As You Really Are
I Do It
Hurry On Sundown
See It As You Really Are
Master of the Universe
You Know You're Only Dreaming
You Shouldn't Do That.

Then we have the demo recordings. Now as you know, there are a variety of sources for demo's, it may be one member of the band doing his guide vocals over a guitar or piano for the band to build on. Or it's the full ensemble trying out ideas in the studio and of course anything in between.

Although this is described as the Quark demo's, I am not certain all of it is. Some appears to be studio doodling (if there is such a thing, if not you heard it here first), and some is more rehearsal sounding, whatever it's a must for Hawkwind fans and another part of the jigsaw. The copy I have declares the recording is remastered, I will leave it to you to figure that one out. Audio quality - Good, it's a demo!


Part Two:

Quark Demos (remastered)

Instrumental 1
Damnation Alley 1
Damnation Alley 2
Damnation Alley 3
Spirit of the Age
Days of the Underground
Fable of a Failed Race
Hassan I Sahba
Forge of the Vulcan
Instrumental 2
Instrumental 3

Finally of course there are the live concert recordings. I cannot count the times the term Soundboard is used, when clearly it is an off air recording. FM stereo recordings can often be better than direct soundboard copies as the processing, mixing and means of recording may be superior. Getting it from the soundboard however suggests an inside job, 'being in the know' and so forth. Don't get me wrong sometimes the recording is sensational and the good thing is unless the audience riots you can be sure the quality is going to be pretty good.

This recording was made from the sound desk by a roadie and is remarkably good despite the fact it was straight onto a EMI cassette tape & don't forget in 1980 cassette tapes were pretty hissy affairs. OK it's been cleaned up and is really worth hearing. Audio Quality - Very Good Stereo Soundboard.


Part Three:

Hawkwind Live - Glasgow Apollo - 21-10-1980

Levitation
Motorway City
Death Trap
Shot Down in the Night
Spirit of the Age
World of Tiers
5th Second Forever
Dust of Time
Space Chase
PSI Power
Awakening
Brainstorm
Drum solo
Brainstorm reprise
Silver Machine
Master of the Universe

OK Beehive Candy's lecture on boots and all now concludes, I feel better for it, apologies to all of you who do not.

Now as alluded to earlier there is a very fine website for all Hawkwind fans. The even better news is that Hawkwind (along with many other enlightened artists elsewhere) have formally allowed any non commercially released Hawkwind material to be shared there. Therefore this will be my first and last share of Hawkwind 'stuff' here as you can go and get it all over there!

The Hawkwind Bootleg Emporium is HERE.

Download links (three) in comments below.

R.E.M. - Athens, GA, USA 1981

Reloaded - 05/May/2015 This is R.E.M. recorded live (soundboard sourced) at one of the bands local venues namely Tyrone's O.C., in Athens GA, USA, way back on the 23rd September 1981. This recording features both sets and includes the sound check (not proven but by sound quality etc generally agreed to be from this gig).


This was the bands 26th gig at Tyrone's O.C. the first at this venue taking place just over a year earlier on the 6th May 1980, and that performance was only their 5th ever full live gig. As regular home town shows go, the band sound incredible, full of natural energy, respectful of a growing local following and clearly enjoying and developing their craft.

Noting their early history wikipedia tells us: In January 1980, Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in the Athens record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly punk rock and protopunk artists like Patti Smith, Television, and The Velvet Underground. Stipe said, "It turns out that I was buying all the records that [Buck] was saving for himself." Stipe and Buck soon met fellow University of Georgia students Mike Mills and Bill Berry, who had played music together since high school. The quartet agreed to collaborate on several songs; Stipe later commented that "there was never any grand plan behind any of it". Their still-unnamed band spent several months rehearsing and played its first show on April 5, 1980 at a friend's birthday party held in a converted Episcopal church in Athens. After considering names like "Twisted Kites", "Cans of Piss", and "Negro Wives", the band settled on "R.E.M.", which Stipe selected at random from a dictionary.

The band members eventually dropped out of school to focus on their developing group. They found a manager in Jefferson Holt, a record store clerk who was so impressed by an R.E.M. performance in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that he moved to Athens. R.E.M.'s success was almost immediate in Athens and surrounding areas; the band drew progressively larger crowds for shows, which caused some resentment in the Athens music scene. Over the next year and a half, R.E.M. toured throughout the Southern United States. Touring was arduous since a touring circuit for alternative rock bands did not then exist. The group had to tour in an old blue van driven by Holt, and the band members lived on a food allowance of $2 a day.

During the summer of 1981, R.E.M. recorded its first single, "Radio Free Europe", at producer Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The single was released on the local independent record label Hib-Tone with an initial pressing of one thousand copies, which quickly sold out. Despite its limited pressing, the single garnered critical acclaim, and was listed as one of the ten best singles of the year by The New York Times.

Source: Soundboard. 

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3@192kbps.

Genre: Alternative rock, college rock, jangle pop.

Set: Full set.

Set List:  

First Set:

01 Just A Touch
02 Ages Of You
03 1,000,000
04 Get On Their Way
05 There She Goes Again
06 Action
07 Wait
08 Sitting Still
09 Permanent Vacation
10 Mystery To Me

Second Set:
11 White Tornado
12 I Can't Control Myself
13 Burning Down
14 Shaking Through
15 Laughing
16 Romance
17 Pretty Persuasion
18 That Beat
19 Stumble
20 Radio Free Europe
21 Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)

Encore:

22 The Lion Sleeps Tonight
23 Skank
24 Gardening At Night
25 Windout
26 9-9

Sound check (most probably):

27 Unknown instrumental
28 Sitting still
29 100000030
30 The lion sleeps tonight

Links: Official HERE.

Reloaded 5th May 2015 - download link in comments below.