Let's face it - I'm not only never early for anything... but I'm rarely even on time. I seem to go through life with a 15-minute Bermuda Triangle of "how did it get to be (insert _____ o'clock I was supposed to be somewhere) already?!?". To that end, I'm attempting to be Early in all definitions of the word (rather than my usual 11:59 Saturday night post) - I think Stephen Wright said it best: "The early bird gets the worm... but the second mouse gets the cheese." (ha!)...
James Taylor: Rainy Day Man
[purchase]
Rainy Day Man was originally released in 1971, on his James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine album (of the four vinyl covers, I have the one that's plain white with penciled titles) - however, I'm including a version of the song from a bootleg of his October 29, 1970 Paris Theatre show in London, England with Joni Mitchell...
Joni Mitchell: Eastern Rain
[purchase] (never officially released/not commercially available)
The Joni Mitchell website lists her Early Unreleased Songs, many of which have been compiled on a CD for list members (thanks, Bob!) - from AllMusicGuide:
"At the beginning of her career, Joni Mitchell wrote so many songs that she never got around to recording a few of the ones she regularly performed on stage in the late 1960s. One of those was "Eastern Rain," which was covered by Fairport Convention as a highlight of their second album, What We Did on Our Holidays." More here...
Todd Snider: Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues [plus intro]
[purchase]
Boyhowdy covered this one over a year ago but, since it's the first song of Todd's that turned me on to his music (as the hidden track on his 1994 debut CD Songs for the Daily Planet), I had to revisit - however, rather than the studio track, I'm posting a live version from his August 19, 2001 performance at the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest in Lyons, Colorado, which includes an hysterical introduction, as well as a few extra verses admitting he "borrowed" the talkin' blues style from Bob Dylan... but Dylan got it from Woody Guthrie!
Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Opening Act
[purchase] (never officially released/not commercially available)
From Country Universe:
"In a rare coup for a new artist, Mary Chapin Carpenter earned a coveted performance slot on the 1990 Country Music Association Awards [a YouTube video can be found here], and she used it to establish her identity as one of country music’s left-of-center talents. She decided to perform the biting “You Don’t Know Me (I’m the Opening Act),” a cutting dismissal of country star power gone awry. It was a risky move, with the less-than-famous artist taking a stab at the music industry who would determine the fate of her career...
She received a standing ovation at the end of the semi-scandalous story of a rising musician’s struggle. But Carpenter didn’t struggle for long. Two years later, she won the first of back-to-back Female Vocalist of the Year trophies in a CMA career that included 12 nominations, among them, a nomination for Album of the Year and Single of the Year (for the similarly sharp “I Feel Lucky”) in 1992."
Dave Carter: You Must Slumber
[purchase]
From my friend Ron's wonderful website:
"This is a song that Dave wrote when he was 17 years old, and which Tracy indicates was recorded for – but eventually left off – the "Tanglewood Tree" CD. Although it was never released on an official Dave & Tracy album, a recording of it is now available on the Signature Sounds 10th Anniversary Collection disc."