Bonnie Raitt - Classic or Dud?

I should have mentioned that her flair on this alb with themes of age, time, mortality---so often such an Ageing Rocker Looks At Life ponderosity, to varying degrees, musically and in doorstop memoirs---first showed in the way she took up "Angel From Montgomery" when Prine released it, I think: a rare theme back when the Average American was approx 23.6 years old; there was that one, and "Hello In There," and uh, "Tears of Rage"? "She's Leaving Home"? Not really the same thing, but about as close as empathy got back then. And, as bird says upthread, she's knocked it out of the park ever since, or often enough: Forever Old! But you can't make a whole album this good about age time etc. without living it, as Alfred indicated at the beginning of his Pitchfork review, and that's not enough, of course: she's got the songs, maybe most of which were written by much younger people--but who feels it knows it, at least some of the time, and she knew when.
Give It Up was also a time-peak, looking back at what she'd learned and aimed for in the 60s, was looking toward in the 70s and beyond, in a moment of sustained balance---wise as a young woman's album and statement could be, limited by that, in a fine way, and antipodal to this album---if you gotta live that long, this is the way to do it.

And now here's a live set Alright at Midnight, from 1976: seems like a good soundboard(?)bootleg, with no info nowhere (except that it's on the Pipe Dream label), and for openers we join "Sweet Home Kokomo" already in progress, but good slide appetizer, and all other tracks seem complete. She follows a totally earned ("Righteous," we said back then)"Love Me Like A Man" with a totally earned as in guilty af "Run Like A Thief," also we get a very tense "My First Night With You," the xpost "Thank You," Bicentennial funk interjections, flashlights of electric piano (didn't catch the name but she says "He
s been playing with Van Morrison), Freebo's bass and tuba, conga ration, a couple of simplified arrangements ("Give It Up Or Let Me Go, "Under The Falling Sky") which totally work---plenty but not too much guitar from Raitt and Will McFarlane, also one of my fave vocals here (even before she hits those high notes) is on A. Toussaint's' "What Do You Want The Boy To Do"---it's 1976, these are the songs she's got!
Boot prob yes, so get it while you can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UkHXOt2cdw

Anyway

In case it's gone by the time you see this, release date is 2022, and here's setlist:

Sweet Home Kokomo (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
1:40

Love Me Like A Man (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
5:03

Run Like A Thief (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:26

Thank You (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:44

Give It Up Or Let Me Go (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
5:47

Band Introductions (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
1:38

Sugar Mama (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
4:24

Good Enough (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:06

Walk Out The Front Door (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
4:45

My First Night Alone With You (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:22

What Do You Want The Boy To Do? (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
3:47

Under The Falling Sky (Live 1976)
Bonnie Raitt
5:34

Bonnie Raitt
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
1976-05-24 (see notes)

01 //Sweet Home Kokomo
02 Love Me Like A Man
03 Run Like A Thief
04 Thank You
05 Give It Up Or Let Me Go*
06 Sugar Mama
07 Good Enough
08 Walk Out The Front Door
09 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

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

Source: FM > LP(?) > unknown > 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
Track 1 begins muddy and indistinct, but improves quickly.
Original uploader's 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 "me" in the above is not me.)

KSAN seems to hold on to a lot of pre-broadcast masters so that may exist somewhere. (IIRC a lot of them leaked out some years ago, mostly dating from 1977.)

Here's a great show from a year later - pre-FM master source, though it's missing the opening number.
https://www.guitars101.com/threads/bonnie-raitt-1977-04-23-new-orleans-la-pre-fm-flac.730293/

Thanks TSF, somehow I heard "Labis" and "Wooded" but my brain refused to trust my ears or vice-versa, because they weren't familiar and maybe "lacked" more common syllables or other parts, also didn't hear "Peter Bonnetta" at all (?), but knew about those other guys(used to have quite a nice early 70s LP by Roosevelt Sykes). Thanks bird, will try to nose around that site for link again later; a basketball video just now kept following me around on there (Web Sheriff in disguise?)