A quirky and amusing take in our occasional Essentials series looks at the best live digital-only releases in 2025
This exciting and fun way of listening to live music recordings is a new wrinkle on the old classic CD or LP method. Digital music has the convenience of being able to be distributed anywhere there is an Internet connection, while physical media is mainly manufactured in New Jersey, a state famous for tollbooths, boardwalks and some other attractions that are not coming to mind right now. You can pretty much put together a digital copy of a live recording in your basement, skipping the whole tedious engineering and mastering process if you so choose. Fans who aren’t able to attend a show have access to the being-there experience without the annoying 7-foot-tall person standing up in front of you all night. Now, if that doesn’t sound like a big old wad of fun, we don’t know what does.
Through exhaustive research requiring a Firefox search engine and finally remembering where my notes taken throughout 2025 were stored – in the bathroom under a stack of magazines – I was able to narrow the list of nine down to, well …. nine. But since this is a Top 10 sort of feature, another one was required, sending me back to the Internet where I discovered 16 more and listened to at least three of them.
So without further ado, no, come on, does anybody really know what an “ado” is, and does that mean there also is an “adon’t?” Don’t know, don’t care. The envelope, please. Here are the best of the bunch.
Number 10. The Watson Twins “Seeing Double: The Watson Twins Live in Nashville”
I am so disappointed the title of this album was not “Seeing Double Feeling Single”, but probably one of the identical twin sisters – Chandra or Leigh – might have suspected her sister was planning to either go solo or have a few drinks and start flirting. There are honky-tonk songs, vintage-sounding country ballads, high-spirited soul standouts, and contemporary americana anthems, all fueled by the sisters’ close harmonies and contributions from an electric band. Butch Walker, who produced the sisters’ most recent (2023) album “Holler”, makes an appearance on top-shelf performances of ‘Never Be Another You’ and ‘Sissy Said’.
Number 9. Owen Temple “Live in Texas”
Once I saw Owen Temple play a gig at one of Nashville’s venerable live music venues. Even the folks who were not drinking and whooping thought the show was a gas. There was one concertgoer who stood out from the rest of those that were drinking. He had a large metal buckle on his belt – the kind you win at a rodeo – which had this contraption that apparently flipped down to form a little shelf that holds your bottle or can, leaving your hands free to eat, hold a lit lighter above your head, making hand shadow puppetry, etc. This product has appeared on the TV show “Shark Tank”, which is all you need to know. Temple released an album cleverly titled as “Live in Texas,” which has since been released as a CD along with an EP of three new songs. It was a digital release when I first heard about it, so that’s good enough for me.
Number 8. Joan Osborne “Dylanology”
If you thought Osborne was indisposed to retreat from her own lengthy catalogue, think again. It could be taken as blasphemous to put forth that a woman doing Dylan songs would be the equal of Joan Baez in her time. Well, think again, again. This live recording is a follow-up to Osborne’s 2017 studio album, “Songs of Bob Dylan”, covering the bard’s material with her own soulful renditions. Adding the passion and energy of a live setting to classics such as ‘Buckets of Rain,’ ‘Masters of War,’ ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,’ and ‘High Water (For Charley Patton),’ Osborne manages to row across the Rubicon of Dylan’s wordiness while letting listeners know she’s doing this her way with soul and that’s more than alright.
Number 7. Dave Hause “…. And the Mermaid Album Preview”
Hause is on the way to becoming the americana version of Pearl Jam in terms of releasing scores of live shows to the public. Earlier this month (December), he released a live album titled “….and the Mermaid Album Preview.” I kid you not. Two months earlier, Hause put out a digital studio album called “Dave Hause and the Mermaid.” You are probably asking yourself, and you should, because I don’t have the answer, as to why a preview would come along after the regular release, unless, and this is a guess, there is another album on the way called “The Little Mermaid” or “Splash”. Whatever! The one on this list contains 21 songs recorded “Live from Wayne” with no mention if Wayne is a town, a nightclub or some guy who was hosting a public access TV show with his buddy Garth.
Number 6. Loudon Wainwright III “Loudon Live in London”
It’s becoming harder and harder to laugh because America has become so polarized that entertainers are afraid to make jokes about the wrong thing. Reading the room has never become more important. Wainwright doesn’t seem to share that hesitation. His songs can be either sardonic, funny, bitter, hopeful and a host of other emotions. His albums are filled with tunes that make you laugh and sometimes cry, but it is on stage that this performer really shines. Even his facial gestures are humorous as he does a sort of mouth yoga. He can stretch it so wide that once when sitting at a table in close proximity to the stage, I could have flipped a peanut into his wide-open mouth. He probably would have spat it right back at me, certainly if I’d yelled: “Play ‘Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road”, inspired when he saw a mess of black-and-white fur flattened like a pancake on a suburban road. It was something he couldn’t un-see and wrote a novelty song about the dead skunk “stinking to high heaven”. LWIII doesn’t stink. Download the show. Better yet, go see him on stage.
Number 5. Kevin Gordon “Solo Live Electric”
It’s very costly bringing a band out on gigs, so Gordon decided do his thing solo but with an electric guitar rather than the customary acoustic. It was necessary to get over the disappointment of not being able to hear a show with the band Gordon used on his outstanding 2024 release, “The In-Between”, an album with tracks hot enough to boil a lobster. He plays a handful of them on the live electric recording, which finds the musician cooking like a perfect pot of gumbo, to use yet another food metaphor. No longer with the munchies after inhaling a pint of Häagen-Dazs vanilla, we’ll switch metaphors to say Gordon plays a mean guitar, and borrowing a phrase from Graham Parker, squeezes out sparks like popping neurons in Einstein’s brain. Good enough. Now if I were a roach clip where would I be?
Number 4. Jason Isbell “Live at the Beacon Theater – New York, NY – February 21 & 22, 2025
Isbell is usually automatic for #1 on any of these list thingys. Well, I won’t be intimidated. It’s #4 for you, buster, and your fans best not complain. For those hoping to hear Isbell and the 400 Unit rock out, beware this is a solo acoustic performance. This should be apparent because the image on the pseudo-cover posted on Bandcamp shows him sitting on a chair with an acoustic guitar. One of the cool things about solo acoustic shows is getting to hear the patter and storytelling in between songs. Isbell is no Todd Snider in this regard, but he can be engaging. Interesting that one of the 22 tracks is ‘If We Were Vampires’. which he used to sing as a love song duet with his ex, Amanda Shires. Since the divorce, Isbell got his teeth fixed – the vampire look is so retro – grew a moustache and hooked up with a new girlfriend, who painted the cover for his “Foxes in the Snow” album. Anyway, you should also download “Live from the Ryman, volume 2” (that’s in Nashville, y’all) from 2024 or “Volume 1”, recorded in 2015. The band is onboard for those.
Number 3. Francis Dunnery “One Night in Sauchiehall Street” & “It Bites “Live and Natural”
Both releases are listed because as most of us music cognoscenti are aware, Francis Dunnery is the leader of the band It Bites as well as a prolific solo artist. The best guess is the Dunnery show was recorded in one of the venues on that street in downtown Glasgow. Besides some superb songs, he treats the audience to a veritable smorgasbord of tidbits on astrology, video, literature, performance art and a plan to die when he is 96. It is a night that owes as much to guitar rock as Guinness, which goes double for the It Bites digi-album, a remastered version of the “Live at the Black Country” DVD which came out in 2024 upon the band’s reunion. It is (bad word that begins with “f”) awesome! To my surprise, the Black Country is not a venue but a region in the UK, which hosts a festival each July. Thank you, Mr. Firefox browser, for that information.
Number 2. Beau Jennings “Live at the Depot”
Hot on the heels of his excellent 2024 release “American Stories Major Chords”, Jennings has put out a recording from one of the album release shows last October at The Depot in Norman, Oklahoma. Go Sooners! Kick it off, Jennings, and let’s get this party started. The show begins with three from ASMC: ‘Sooner Superette,’ the title song and ‘Norman Nights.’ The digital album was especially welcomed by this correspondent, who actually considered making the 15-hour drive from East Tennessee to Oklahoma for the record release gigs last year. In all fairness, it was going to be a three-show weekend, I wouldn’t have had to pay for tickets and had a place to stay, so it was at least a semi-reasonable idea.
Number 1. Amy Rigby “Hang in There Live in New York City”
But you know who is really engaging? Amy Rigby. Final answer. If you scroll on over to her Bandcamp page, you’ll find sprinkled amid her official releases a number of digital live albums. On “Hang in There Live in NYC” she is accompanied by Eric Goulden (aka Wreckless Eric) on bass and guitar and Sam Shepherd (no, not that one) on drums. Many of her plethora of sardonic, funny and sometimes touching tunes are there: ‘Hell-oh Sixty’, ‘Dylan in Dubuque’, ‘Dancing with Joey Ramone’, but sadly not ‘Tonight I’m Gonna (Give the Drummer Some)’ from her superb “Middlesence” album, boasting the fabulous lyrical riddle: Hey, what’s the difference between a drummer and a US savings bond? I don’t know, what? One will eventually mature and earn money”. Uh, we know who she’s talking about but for the sake of propriety will keep it under our hat. Here’s a question. Does anyone have a brainy intellectual on their Secret Santa gift list and wonders what to get this person? Buy them a chess set or the game “Name That Philosopher.” This album is not for them. Why? Because it is charming and makes you laugh.
