Merl Saunders

Merl Saunders & His Funky Friends

Merl Saunders
3/24/2001
Starr Hill Music Hall
Charlottesville, VA

SRC: SBD > Inspiron 8000 (ESS Maestro internal sound card) > WAV > CD > EAC > SHN > WAV > FLAC

Recorded, transferred and seeded by Bill Tetzeli (btet@adelphia.net)
4/20/2006

CD 1

1. Merl's Tune
2. Built for Comfort
3. Lay Back Baby
4. Sugaree
5. Positively 4th Street
6. That's What Love Will Make You Do
7. Nostalgia for Jerome
8. Julius

CD 2

1. Don't That Make it Better?
2. Funky System
3. Wondering Why
4. Fire on the Mountain
5. Struggling Man
6. My Funny Valentine

CD 3

1. M.S.
2. Boogie on, Reggae Woman
3. Bertha
4. "One More Set!"

Encores:
5. Man Child
6. So What > 
7. Thank You > 
8. I Feel Like Dynamite

SHNs converted to FLAC for convenience of trading and to be more future-compatible.  Test SHNs recompressed from extracted WAVs verify 100% against checksums for original SHNs.

Known flaw: Right channel cuts out on MS from 6:14-6:42.  This section was monized by pasting in the left channel.



A little history: Back in March 2001 I had the opportunity to interview Merl for WTJU, University of Virginia's radio station, the day before he played at Starr Hill.  The interview went well, and afterwards I phoned his road manager, Ken Kaplan, and asked if it would be all right to tape from the board.  At first Ken refused, but when I told him I just wanted to be able to play a few cuts to let people who couldn't get to the show know what they'd missed, he said fine, as long as I signed a nondistribution agreement.  Struggling Man, Merl's live album, had just been released, and Ken didn't want it facing unnecessary competition.  I wrote up the agreement, brought it down to Starr Hill a few hours before the show, and Merl and I signed.  I was so overwhelmed to meet this legend in the flesh for the first time, and yet he seemed incredibly friendly and humble.  That night Merl rocked the house, showing no sign of the passage of years in his playing or singing.  The recording went without a hitch, save for a brief outage on one of the channels.  After the show he sat near the merch table talking to fans; he was chatting with a beautiful girl who was looking adoringly at him, as kindly and familiarly as if she were his daughter.  Suddenly he saw me, reached out an arm and with a huge grin cried, "Biiilllllll!"  Made my evening, no doubt. :-)

Anyway, fast forward to about two months ago.  After an unsuccessful attempt at reaching Merl through his Myspace page, I got in touch with his son, Tony (a successful musician in his own right), to see if he could speak with Merl about allowing the recording to be circulated.  After a few emails back and forth, Tony relayed to me that circulating would be fine, but there would have to be some link to his father's recordings on Tamago, since those were Merl's sole source of income for his medicine and treatment for his stroke.  I agreed at once, eager to do what little I could to repay him for all the incredible music of his I've enjoyed over the years.

Many thanks both to Merl for allowing me to tape this show and distribute the SBD, as well as to Tony for his assistance.  Again, please go to http://www.tamago.us (note the ".us" domain) and help Merl out by buying some of his music.  It's the least we can do to show him our gratitude for all he's given us over the past forty years.

Merl Saunders And His Funky Friends - July 12, 2001
Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA

Recording Info:
SBD (Stereo Feed From House Mix) + (Stage) Rode NT2 ->
Behringer MX1604A -> Sony SBM-1 -> Dat -> CD
(2 Discs Audio / 1 Disc FLAC)

Mixed and Recorded By Charlie Miller
charliemiller87@earthlink.net
October 24, 2008

Notes:
This is a recording of the set that Merl Saunders performed on July 12,2001 at the Mockingbird Foundation's Phish Tribute Album ("Sharin' in the Groove") Release Party
at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA.
See http://www.mockingbirdfoundation.org/press/gamh.html
for additional information about the event.

Setlist:
d1t01 - Introducition
d1t02 - Expressway To Your Heart
d1t03 - Meet Me In The Morning
d1t04 - Make It Funky
d1t05 - Gee Baby, Ain?t I Good To You
d1t06 - 
d1t07 - Nostalgia For Jerome
d1t08 - Don't It Make It Better
d2t01 - Dark Star
d2t02 - So What
d2t03 - 
d2t04 - Thank You (Fa Lettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin) -> Feel Like Dynamite

Encore:
d2t05 - 
d2t06 - 


SHNTOOL OUTPUT:
    length     expanded size   cdr  WAVE  probs   filename
     7:27.55      78980204     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t01.wav
    10:32.46     111593036     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t02.wav
     8:43.16      92294876     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t03.wav
     9:13.24      97605692     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t04.wav
     5:41.14      60185372     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t05.wav
    10:04.26     106606796     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t06.wav
     8:49.39      93407372     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t07.wav
     7:27.67      79008428     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d1t08.wav
     9:27.55     100148204     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d2t01.wav
    10:08.07     107267708     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d2t02.wav
     6:42.04      70922252     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d2t03.wav
    12:48.35     135557564     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d2t04.wav
     5:16.65      55895324     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d2t05.wav
    14:03.00     148705244     ---   --    ---    merl2001-07-12d2t06.wav
   126:26.03    1338178072 B                      (totals for 14 files)


SHNID	Artist	Date	Venue	City	State
84631	Merl Saunders	2001-03-24	Starr Hill Music Hall	Charlottesville	VA
SBD > Inspiron 8000 (ESS Maestro internal sound card) > WAV > CD > EAC > SHN > WAV > FLAC
95442	Merl Saunders & His Funky Friends	2001-07-12	The Great American Music Hall	San Francisco	CA
flac16;Recording Info:SBD (Stereo Feed From House Mix) + (Stage) Rode NT2 -> Behringer MX1604A -> Sony SBM-1 -> Dat -> CD; Mixed and Recorded By Charlie Miller

Live Concert Database