08.02.2013
USA, Los Angeles, Convention Center
MusiCares Person of the Year Gala
exc. Aud.

Disc 1: [1:05:48]
01. Jon Stewart Introduction [4:58]
02. Alabama Shakes - Adam Raised A Cain (slightly distorted at start) [6:15]
03. Patti Smith - Because The Night [4:00]
04. Natalie Maines, Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite - Atlantic City [5:31]
05. Ken Casey - American Land [5:55]
06. Zac Brown and Mavis Staples - My City Of Ruins [8:11]
07. Mumford & Sons - I'm On Fire [3:32]
08. Jackson Browne and Tom Morello - American Skin (41 Shots) [9:22]
09. Emmylou Harris - My Hometown [4:40]
10. Kenny Chesney- One Step Up [7:42]
11. Elton John - Streets of Philadelphia [5:36]

Disc 2: [1:06:59]
01. Juanes - Hungry Heart [4:16]
02. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill - Tougher Than the Rest [4:00]
03. Tom Morello and Jim James - The Ghost of Tom Joad [8:53]
04. John Legend - Dancing in the Dark [4:49]
05. Sting - Lonesome Day [9:03]
06. Neil Young and Crazy Horse (with Nils Lofgren) - Born in the U.S.A. [7:24]
07. Bruce Springsteen - We take Care of Our Own (house band plus Jake Clemons, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa) [5:04]
08. Bruce Springsteen - Death to My Hometown (house band, Jake, Nils, Patti and Tom Morello) [5:31]
09. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road (house band plus Jake, Nils, Patti, Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan and Garry Tallent) [6:12]
10. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (small patch from crappy source at end) (House Band with Jake, Nils, Max, Gary, Roy and Patti) [6:49]
11. Bruce Springsteen - Glory Days (alternate source) (all artists and E Streeters) [4:54]

Source: JEMS Master
Lineage: Edirol R-09HR (built-in mics) > 16/44.1 .wav capture > Peak 6.0/Ozone 5 mastering > FLAC

Notes:
Yes, there were walk-through metal detectors and more security scrutiny than at most shows, but JEMS hasn't been doing this since 1972 without learning a thing or to about getting gear into a venue.

In truth, getting the recorder in was the easy part. MuisCares is set up as giant dinner with some 3000 people seated at 300+ tables in a convention center room that was as big a football field if not longer. So the trick was how to record from tables of noisy eaters, in a gigantic room where no one is really close or near the PA, with security looking closely for cameras (which were banned, but in truth people did shoot with their phones as the night wore on). The answer, without revealing any trade secrets, was to get the recorder away from the tables and people and as close to the PA as possible, hide it in plain sight, set the levels once and walk away. Happily, our approach yielded a solid result. Samples provided.

You'll hear plenty of close chatter at the start before we moved the recorder. The levels were a bit low, so we had to spend a fair amount of time in post adjusting by song, as some of the acoustic performances (e.g. Mumford & Sons) were 40-50db quieter than the electric ones (e.g. Neil Young). I tried to make all the edits and adjustments as seamless as possible but you may notice some shifts that are more jarring than others. Also note that the program did not run one artist into the next but there were often long breaks in between where video from past years was aired. All this has been removed along with some of the longer breaks where there was no action on stage. The band introductions were either handled by the house announcer (who was awful) or Jon Stewart--either way I have put the track IDs at the start of each song, leaving the intro on the tail end of the track before. I think this will make for better listening when you are trying to play a specific song. 

The only frustrating part was that the night ran so long and late that the recorder ran out before Bruce stopped playing (if we hadn't recorded some of the pre-performance portions of the night we would have been OK). The last 30 or so seconds of "Born to Run" have been patched with a crappy phone recording. "Glory Days" is appended from a decent phone recording to complete the show.

You may have read reviews of what was good and bad this night and now you can judge for yourself. Wayne Darlington for JEMS

Dimeadozen.org: Torrent 439568 (by Butterking)