AL STEWART

personnel:
Al Stewart
Peter White - acoustic lead guitar

event: WBOS Music Festival for The Earth
site: South Station
location: Boston MA USA
date: 1993-11-18 [November 18, 1993]

source: audience MASTER
recording location: seated on the aisle of folding chairs set up for concert, somewhat to the L of stage
recording gear: Sony ECM 929 one-point stereo microphone > Sony videocamera (exact model # not remembered)
lineage: audience MASTER > Sound Forge 4.5 [digital conversion] > CDR [unknown make & model outboard burner] > Exact Audio Copy [wav files extracted uncompressed] > DeGlitch [glitches detected & corrected] > Traders' Little Helper [flac files level 8 created, SBEs checked, checksums created] > torrent creation > www
total running time: 49' 00"
file size: 293 MB
sample rate: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz [CD compliant]
imaging: stereo
sound quality: 8 (out of 10)
recorded and mastered: Isotope Feeney
title: The Stewart Succession
label: Mighty Big IF
artwork: yes


free lunchtime concert presented by local radio station

01 Antarctica
02 Almost Lucy
03 Genie On A Table Top
04 Time Passages
05 Trespasser
06 End Of The Day
07 On The Border
08 Clifton In The Rain/Small Fruit Song
09 Angel Of Mercy {incomplete: cut //}
10 Year Of The Cat


Over a period of years, local radiostation WBOS hosted free lunchtime concerts. In warmer months they were held outside (the small park in Copley Square in front of Trinity Church - - - bring your own beach towel and sit on the grass). When the weather started to get cold, the series was moved inside. There were various indoor locations over the years; the concourse at South Station train terminal was the one most employed. A stage was set up and folding chairs were furnished.

PERFORMANCE NOTES
The musical style of Time Passages was reconfigured to an Irish jig.

Over the course of the performance, guitar accompanist Peter White sneaks in quotes from other familiar songs: Theme From Love Story, Ghost Riders In The Sky, I Heard It Through The Grapevine . . .

Although technically not part of this performance, it's worth noting that the opening act for Al Stewart at this lunchtime freebie was Sheryl Crow [!!]. I had never heard of her at the time, I don't think too many other audiencemebers had either (which is to say there was not a big gasp of recognition when she materialized). This was at the beginning of her worldwide assault on the Collective Music Consciousness. I usually did not record opening acts. For the most part it just seemed like a waste of technology and software for minor-league artistes you'd never heard of, and whom you were unlikely to be interested in listening to again down the road. Plus it was more opportunity for somebody official to notice what you were doing and tell you to knock it off. However, halfway through her set I thought Hey, she's pretty good. So I started recording, and was able to catch her last 3 songs (all of which later became very well known).

RECORDING NOTES
The South Station concourse (food court, really) is a large open space with reflective tile surfaces. This accounts for a very ping-y sound, and it gives this recording an almost Phil Spector-style echo - - - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but seems a little anomalous for the music's gentle, folky vibe.

Because this is a trainstation, there are occasional arrival/departure announcements over the PA. The management obligingly agreed to try to sneak them in between songs, but sometimes they overlap or go on for an inconveniently long time. At one point this gets a chuckle from AS. But they do add a kind of surreal folksy feel.

MIXDOWN NOTES
The videocamera's built-in ALC circuitry (limiter) squishes the levels down during louder portions of a recording (in this case applause between songs). I try to compensate for this during transfer to digital by manually riding the gain (on dbx 117 dynamic range enhancer) 'on the fly,' but I notice that you can still slightly hear it kicking in at times on this recording.

WARTS
The song Angel Of Mercy = cut. For some reason (which I cannot now remember) the camera went into pause mode about a minute and a half into it. Here it is faded down. Sometimes a camera would be put into pause unintentionally because the record button (which is also the pause button) was situated very near the wheel that controlled the zoom function, and would get pressed by mistake while making adjustments. Sorry folks - - - but as this capture = (to my knowledge) the only recording of this presentation, it (despite shortcomings) will have to do.

TRESPASSER DEPT.
Please don't upload this elsewhere. I'll do it when the spirit moves me.

- IF -

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show:











AlStewart1993-11-18SouthStationBostonMA (4).jpg
AlStewart1993-11-18SouthStationBostonMA (5).jpg
AlStewart1993-11-18SouthStationBostonMA (6).jpg
AlStewart1993-11-18SouthStationBostonMA (7).jpg
AlStewart1993-11-18SouthStationBostonMA (8).jpg
AlStewart1993-11-18SouthStationBostonMA (9).jpg