Hot August Night/NYC

Personnel: Linda Press, Julia Waters, Maxine Willard Waters (vocals); Doug Rhone, Hadley Hockensmith (guitar); Donald Markese (woodwinds, alto saxophone); Larry Klimas (saxophone); John Fumo (trumpet); Arturo Velasco (trombone); Tom Hensley (keyboards); Alan Lindgren (synthesizer); Ron Tutt (drums).
Audio Mixer: Bernie Becker.
Photographer: Jesse Diamond.
Recorded at Madison Square Garden in August 2008, Hot August Night/NYC: Live from Madison Square Garden finds Neil Diamond performing an extensive, even exhaustive, collection of songs in front of a capacity crowd. There are a few songs from his Rick Rubin-shepherded 2000s comeback albums, but this, like the other Hot August Night editions before it, is hits-heavy and crowd-pleasing -- and if Neil doesn't quite have the energy or voice that he did in the '70s, he still knows how to work an audience and leave them satisfied. As a bonus, the two-CD set includes six songs recorded at other locales, resulting in a package that includes 33 songs in all. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine