I think many more of the songs from Mark's solo career would have been more special too us had he played more of them live, or simply "supported" the album which the tour was named after. Too many songs are just put out there (on the album) and never revisited. It's a strange way to treat his "children".
Granted, not all songs may work well live, but surely on DTRW there were several that would have been fantastic live.
This is true, although it is also true that as the years go by it gets harder and harder to fit every album in the setlist as Mark, at least, tries to do.
GH - Bonaparte is almost always there, Rudiger and Cannibals appeared once or twice and left forever (Are We In Trouble Now ??).
STP - Speedway is always there and WII and STP also feature regularly. At least I was lucky enough to hear Silvertown, but The Long Highway, which would have been great with the LP Signature and even Who's Your Baby Now is a fun song to listen to: shelved forever.
TRD - Why Aye Man brought back this year and Hill Farmer's Blues, which is a masterpiece, left. The Ragpicker's Dream could have been there this tour. Criminally underrated.
SL - Postcards is there, but why not Boom Like That?
KTGC - Heart Full of Holes was finally brought up.
GL - Piper is there, so was Reiver in 2010, but where's Before Gas and TV, So Far From the Clyde?
Privateering - Always CBC. But songs like Go Love never appeared, as well as Redbud Tree (correct me if wrong).
Tracker - Another mystery. The choices in 2015 tour were ridiculous. Beryl would be great live: nowhere to be seen. Terminal Of Tribute To, My Heart Has Never Changed?
DTRW - Another mystery. NDT (this one left for good after it crossed the Pyrenees), MM and MBR were there, but OSAAT, Heavy Up and BOTDF were ruled out.
Of course, as always, Mark plays what he wants and 2019 was an improvement on 2015. But there are so many songs we'll never get around to hear live because he always chooses the same ones from the albums.
Agree on HFB, top class masterpiece!
But as I said before, it's likely that the set has to be suitable for the brass.
Which is not a shame, but yes, I missed several songs this time, like HFB, Telegraph an standard (why was it really dropped?), OSAAT from the new record, etc etc..
But again, I have the feeling the songs have to fit the brass-part, and therefore and lot of great ones were not played.
Maybe the brass guys forced TR to be dropped because they got bored, and Mark replied with "OK, Nobody does that one!"
refering to NDT which was dropped too...
Probably not the case, but anyway, setlist must fit the brass was probably the main focus...