Richie Havens
Boulder Theater
Boulder, Colorado
July 14, 2006

Disc One

01. Richie Speaks – The Relativity of Tuning
02. Maggie’s Farm
03. If I Could (?)
04. Way Down Deep
05. Richie Speaks – Sign In The Road
06. Your Love (?)
07. Richie Speaks – Growing Up In Brooklyn
08. Lives In The Balance
09. - Tuning -
10. We All (?)

Total Time: 43:36

Disc Two

01. By The Grace Of The Sun
02. My Love Is Alive
03. The Well
04. Richie Speaks – Kids
05. Here Comes The Sun
06. Woodstock
07. Freedom
08. Richie Speaks – My Generation
09. On The Turning Away

Total Time: 45:32

Richie Havens – vocals, acoustic guitar
Walter Parks – acoustic guitars
Stephanie Winters - cello

Lineage:

AT 831s (SP CMC 2 Cardioids) > Reactive Sounds SPA-2 Boost Box Pre-Amp > Sony MZ RH10 HI-MD Recorder > Linear PCM WAV files uploaded USB2 through Sony SonicStage > Minor editing Cool Edit 2000 > tracking, sector boundary alignment, conversion FLAC Frontend 4.1.1.

Original audience recording by Poor_Yorick located center, front, row 2 (Sec A, Row 2, Seat 17). Lavalier mics clipped to my shirt pointed left and right at approximately 160 degrees.

Thank you for not selling this music or reproducing and distributing it in a lossy format such as MP3.

Comments
When Richie’s show was announced last April, I was quick to purchase seats to see this legendary folksinger from the ‘60s who made such an impression on me more than 35 years ago when he opened the Woodstock festival with his high-octane performance of “Freedom”. As juxtaposed to his ferocious style of strumming the guitar, his insight and observations about life are so gentle and humorous that, I think, folks graciously and patiently permit him the time he takes to tune his guitar in between songs, which is generous. This being said, it was a wonderful night of music in Boulder.

On this night, there was an unused guitar on stage that sat in its stand ready for the calling, but alas, was not used. Richie replaced only a pick toward the end of the show which he acknowledged in so many words by saying, “they don’t make them like they used to”.

The two very talented musicians that played with him, Walter Parks and Stephanie Winters, also appear on his 2004 release, “Grace of the Sun”.

Sitting in row 2, center stage in this intimate, old and wonderful venue - almost directly in front of Richie - was a certainly a thrill, however, for a taper, I would have chosen different seats to lay down a superior stealth reproduction. First, because we sat almost directly between the speaker stacks, and second, because I had to be extremely discreet with my mics and taping rig, much more so than has been my experience.

The latter is not usually a big deal, except when you’re sitting in front of the artist, so close that the bleed from the stage lights is also illuminating you, you get somewhat paranoid that a theater employee is going to make your life difficult, or worse, that the artist, whom you respect, will notice and become cranky and embarrass you as what happened last year at the Bruce Springsteen show in Denver. (Bruce singled out a guy for writing in his journal and pretty much told him to get a life.) Such is life for a person with Catholic guilt.

To complicate matters, I had forgotten my custom (home-made) microphone clip that I clip to my lapel. It holds my two mics virtually invisible, in exactly the formation as I choose and prevents them from rubbing against any surface. As you might imagine, I was so annoyed that I almost turned off my pre-amp and recorder, put everything away and gave myself a zero. But, not so this evening. I just couldn’t accept wasting a perfect opportunity!

So I punted and came up with a makeshift solution. The resulting upside: the sound is actually pretty good. The downside: unfortunately, the right channel mic rubbed against my shirt when I moved, which I tried not to do. You’ll definitely hear it in several places if you listen with headphones. I was able to remove some, but not all the distortion. I’m a bit disappointed and regret the reproduction is not as good as I wanted to share with you. However, I think fans will appreciate the fact that the sound is more than acceptable and it’s another RH show to enjoy.

In terms of editing, I removed some distortion, amplified a few of Richie’s conversations with the audience, attenuated the applause after several songs and cut the tracks. That’s about it.

If you can identify a missing track, please write and I’ll update the list. As is Richie’s style, he performed several covers I could identify including Jackson Browne’s “Lives in the Balance”, George Harrison’s “Here Comes The Sun”, Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”, and David Gilmour’s “On The Turning Away”. Write if I missed any.

There’s also a JPEG of our ticket stubs.

Hope you enjoy the show. Take care of each other.
PY