Bonnie Raitt
Great American Music Hall
San Francisco, CA
05.24.76 (see notes)

Source: S:(FM?)>LP(?)>?>DAT
Transfer: DAT>Tascam DA-20mkII > coax > Delta Dio 2496 > Wavelab 4.0a (@ 24/48)
Mastering: Wavelab 4.0a > X-Noise (23.1 dB threshold & 85% reduction) + Waves L1-Ultramaximzer (-1 dB left channel + 4 dB threshold increase) > conversion to 16/44.1 > WAV > FLAC


1. //Sweet Home Kokomo
2. Love Me Like A Man
3. Run Like A Thief
4. Thank You
5. Give It Up Or Let Me Go*
6. Sugar Mama
7. Good Enough
8. Walk Out The Front Door
9. My First Night Alone Without You
10. What Do You Want The Boy To Do?
Encore
11. Under the Falling Sky

* w/ Freebo on Tuba

Track 1 begins muddy and indistinct, but improves quickly.

Source Notes:

Broadcast on KSAN. This recording came to me dated "??-??-73." It contains songs that appear on the 1975 album Home Plate and the band here also played on 1977's Sweet Forgiveness, so 1973 is almost certainly wrong.

There are several hints about the correct date. Bonnie Raitt says that Taj Mahal is played at the Boarding House (also in San Francisco) that night and that Chris Smither played at the same venue, which is "my favorite club," about one year ago in February. Unfortunately, neither of those hints has helped me to find a definative date. Bonnie Raitt also says that "We just got off the road, we've been on the road since March 15, and, uh, went to England, had a [great?] time . . . and then spent the last 10 days w/ Little Feat, down through the Southeast . . . ." Finally, at the end of track 9, Bonnie Raitt mentions that there are other fans waiting outside to get into the venue, which suggests that this is an early show and that there was a second performance that night.

According to the liner notes on a Bonnie Raitt bootleg called "Collections" owned by a collector in Europe, this was recorded on 05.24.76 at the Great American Music Hall and broadcast on 05.26.76, (That bootleg contains two songs that are missing from this source: Women Be Wise and You Got To Know How.) So, that's how I've dated this performance. If anyone knows for sure, please let the world know, too.

Mastering Notes:

The original DAT was quite noisy, though not really hissy like an analog tape. There are, here and there, tiny pops and ticks that sound very much like an LP playback, including a few rough boundaries where the recording tape started and stopped. There is also some distortion in the right channel at certain frequencies (check out the piano at the begining of My First Night Without You). None of this is very serious compared to the overall quality of the recording.

I believe that this is an LP > DAT or something similar, and the background noise is a line noise added by the stereo equipment. Whatever it was, I removed it using the X-noise plugin, which required relatively a lot of reduction (23.1 dB threshold, 85% reduction). As for pops and ticks, none of them are loud and you won't notice them unless you're listening to the spaces between songs.

The left channel was on average 3 dB louder than the right. I used the Waves L1-Ultramaximzer to balance the channels and increase headroom by 4 dB.


The Band

Jeff Labis - Piano
Will McFarland - Guitar
Dennis Wooded - Drums
Freebo - Bass & Tuba
Begining track 7:
Peter Bonnetta
Roosevelt Sikes

--mhg :: Dec. 12, 2004 / June 13, 2005