Bob Dylan and Neil Young On the Same Billing

We do try not to speculate around here too often. But sometimes it's just too much fun and we can't resist.

When Electric Roulette mentioned that Bob Dylan and Neil Young are on the same billing at a Portugal festival this summer we got to thinking: what if?

The 3 day Optimus Alive! festival is at Passeio Marítimo de Algés, Oeiras in Lisbon, Portugal and Dylan will headline the Festival on Friday July 11. Neil Young is set to headline the three-day event's closing night on Saturday July 12.

Neil will be at Bospop in the Netherlands on 07-11. But Bob's tour ends on 7/11 leaving him free on 7/12.

Well, we can only wish for a Bob & Neil hookup. And if we were in Portugal this summer, we'd definitely try and get a ticket for this one. If for no other reason than to see if Neil upstaging Dylan is a myth.

Afterall, it's not like Bob Dylan and Neil Young have anything in common anyway.

Neil & Ol' Black in London, 3/14/08: The Story Behind The Picture

Photo by Chris a.k.a Crris b

Here's an interesting photo from Apollo Hammersmith, London, England, 3/14/08. It was quite a night by all accounts as Neil Young wound down his Europe tour. The concert was filmed and at the bottom of the frame you can see the video screen for one of the cameras.

Another interesting aspect of the photo is the story behind the photo. Chris writes on her putting together the picture:

On the 2 nights saw Neil at Hammersmith I was miles away. On night of 14th decided I was going to take my DSLR. I was in stalls row L, right at the very end. My camera is a SONY A700. I do have a long white fast zoom lens, but thought it inappropriate/inadvisable to take that :) Minolta lenses with the same A mount are compatible. I have a Minolta 135mm f2.8 that I love. I took that, and a Sony 70-300 but latter too slow & soon swapped over to the Minolta. (A700 not full frame so 135mm=202.5mm).

After a couple of test shots realized needed to stop down by 2 stops, so all photos taken -2 exposure compensation. The "Neil & Ol' Black" is actually a cropped picture. I like to shoot on Aperture priority mode, so left open at 2.8 The A700 will do and give ISO settings down to 6400, but anything over 800 is so very noisy. Still one way of getting the shot, and then a case of seeing what you can do in Photoshop.

I've made various actions, but the one I actually used on "Neil & Ol' Black" was one I downloaded called LOMO [LOMOGRAPHY - over-saturated, blurry, cross processed look]. Then I took original crop & merged the 2 - the LOMO crop pic & the original crop pic into an HDR image [HDR stands for HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE. The idea is one takes RAW (unprocessed in camera) pictures of the same image with varying exposures, and then combine them. So one could have one picture with excellent dark tones and another with excellent light tones- combining them into an HDR image should then give the widest possible dynamic range.]

OK could not resist - just had a go at HDR combining the Neil & Ol' Black" Image with the "fill-flash/vig effect variant" - interesting punchy [bringing up blacks] result. I de-noised all pics using Noise Ninja but this can give some doll-like glassy skin textures, so I tend to fade the effect a bit & keep some noise.

Not sure I followed all that but sounds cool. Thanks for the effort and info.

paz!
Thanks Chris!

Also, see concert reviews of London, England - 3/14 & 15/08.

Randomly Blogged: Deja Vu Film, Johny Barbata, My Morning Jacket

Interview with "Deja Vu"'s Mike Cerre: War experience feeds into album film

Johny Barbata Interview on 4waysite.com

An Open Letter to Neil Young in Response to His Recent Statements on Music Changing the World

The Switchback - Mr. Soul: Neil Young vs. My Morning Jacket’s Jim James on Crawdaddy!

Photos of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Bilbao, Italy 1987

Still "Lookin' for a Leader" Or Show Me The Way and I'll Follow You Someday

Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama

Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all

"Lookin' for a Leader" - 2006

Tomorrow, Pennsylvania's presidential primary will be held and -- more than likely -- we'll finally know whether it will be black man or a woman who will be the Democratic party candidate.

Many would agree that the country is finally ready for someone other than a white male to occupy the White House.

We've discussed Neil Young's song "Lookin' for a Leader" a few times over the years and readers at Thrasher's Wheat have had some lively and intense discussions on what kind of leader the U.S. needs.

And, of course, who could have imagined that Neil could write a song two years ago that would be so presciently relevant when it was all but sneered at by the establishment at the time of it's release?

So what was Obama's reaction to "Lookin' for a Leader" in 2006?:

"The 44-year-old Barack Obama said at a news conference before a fundraiser Saturday he has read the lyrics. But despite being name-checked by a rock 'n' roll hall-of-famer, Obama said he has no intention of running for president in two years.

That doesn't mean Obama is dismissing Young completely: "I'm a big Neil Young fan," Obama said of the Canadian musician.

He and Young met in Chicago at last year's Farm Aid concert. Obama said he sat in a trailer while Young rehearsed the song Southern Man.

"The acoustics in a trailer are terrific. It was unbelievable. . . . It was one of the best times that we've had since I was a senator."

And what did Hillary think of "Lookin' for a Leader"? Well, we've never heard her make any direct comments on the song but there are all sorts of theories about music fans voting tendencies.

And many argue strenuously that one shouldn't be taking voting cues from rock stars anyways. Witness the reaction of Bruce Springsteen endorsing Obama (and imagined). As for politics and music and whether the twain shall meet? We're not saying that music can change the world but maybe -- just maybe -- it'll make folks think before they pull the lever.

So my friends in Pennsylvania, go out and rock the vote tomorrow!


"Every American President has left an impact on his country and the World. This musical history lesson from Neil Young takes a look at the past, present and future of US leadership."

Here are some reviews of "Living with War".

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals Cover Neil Young

We weren't really familiar with Grace Potter and The Nocturnals until we saw some mentions over on Rust. So we checked out a few of her Neil Young covers and thought they were pretty cool.

"Down by the River" - 2008-02-23, Portsmouth [mp3]

"Southern Man" (with Government Mule) - 2007-09-07, Boston [mp3]

Thanks Largehearted Boy!

More Neil Young covers.

Neil Young Video Night in Milan, Italy

On April 21st, there will be a Neil Young Video Night in Milan, Italy, at the venue Spazio Oberdan.

A two hours video retrospective will include many videoclips from the whole career of Neil and some footage took from weird audience recording and TV broadcasts.

The video selection was assembled by long time Italian fan Cristina Guenzi and husband Gianmarco Picuzzi along with Stefano Frollano, author of Neil Young Discography Book. The show will be hosted by an Italian music writer and journalist, Enzo Gentile.

Spazio Oberdan is a 200 seats venue. Free entrance. For more, see
Neil Young Video Night.

Also, check out Stefano's band Young & Old, dedicated to Neil's music on MySpace.

Thanks Stefano!
Ciao!

Kathleen Edwards: The Birchmere, Alexandria, Virginia - 4/14/07

When we heard that Kathleen Edwards sounds like Lucinda Williams fronting Crazy Horse awhile ago, we just knew that we had to check her out. And we've been to several of her shows over the years and thoroughly enjoyed them.

We saw Kathleen Edwards this week at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia and she gave another fine -- yet totally goofy -- performance. This was our third time seeing Edwards and we've watched as she gets more comfortable in front of audiences, she seems to reveal more and more of her endearing and charming side, all the while rocking out and belting out the ballads.

At one point, Edwards was rocking out so hard that her guitar became unplugged and she just kept going not even realizing it until her husband Colin Cripps, on rhythm guitar, plugged it back in. At another point, mid-song she abruptly announces she has to "take a pee", leaps off the stage and heads for the exit. As the band soloed on, she returns without as much missing a beat. Later in the set, while playing the harmonica she explains that her "mouth isn't working right" and hurls her harmonica rack to the floor. All in good fun with the audience cheering on each misfire.

The setlist included songs from "Failer", "Back to Me" and the new "Asking for Flowers". Tunes included "In State," "12 Bellevue," "Oil Man's War," "Good Things," "Summerlong".



At one point the band left the stage and Edwards soloed on "Alicia Ross". A haunting song about Alicia Ross, a young woman from Edwards' native Ontario who went missing in 2005. It was later discovered that Ross was murdered by her next-door neighbor. Riveting stuff.

Then there was the funny "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory" which references the disgraced hockey player Marty McSorley. Edwards went onto explain the music video she intends to make of the song which -- we won't go into here -- but sounds like it'll be a real hoot.

Quite a show. No Neil covers like the last time we saw her where she covered "Unknown Legend" but still a good night out. Check her out when she's in your town.



And we've always found Back To Me to be a great song.



You can check out MP3 samples of the new album Asking for Flowers.

Photos Neil Young | 12.09.07 | Upper Darby, PA

Ben Keith & Neil Young
Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA - 2.09.07
Photo by Rod Snyder

Nice photo gallery on JamBase of Neil Young, 12.09.07 at Upper Darby, PA by Rod Snyder.

More on concert reviews of Philadelphia, PA : 12/9 & 10/07.

Nicolette Larson Covers 'Lotta Love' on YouTube

NICOLETTE LARSON (Live) - Lotta Love

Nicolette Larson's 1979 cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love" was a #1 hit and launched her musical career.

Regarding the song "Lotta Love", she said "I got that song off a tape I found lying on the floor of Neil's car. I popped it in the tape player and commented on what a great song it was. Neil said: 'You want it? It's yours.' "

Larson sang much of the backing vocals on Neil Young's "Comes a Time" and "Harvest" albums, and duets on the song "Motorcycle Mama".

Sadly, Larson died at the age of 45 in 1997.

The A Tribute to Nicolette Larson: Lotta Love Concert is a nice tribute to Nicolette featuring Crosby, Stills & Nash on "In My Life" and "Southern Cross", Jackson Browne on "Running on Empty" and Emmylou Harris on "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues".

From the CD's liner notes: "Neil Young, urged by Emmylou and her producer-husband, Brian Ahern, ambled down Malibu's Broad Beach to play some tunes for Linda and found her harmonizing with Nicolette. So were born the Bullets on American Stars'n Bars."

Also, from the liner notes: "Neil Young sent a bouquet of roses as big as the audience. He could only attend in spirit on the group encore of 'Lotta Love'"

More on the Nicolette Larson Tribute: The "Lotta Love Concert", Feb. 21-22, 1998, at the Santa Monica, CA Civic Auditorium.

And congratulations to Roel and Roos on their marriage! It does take a lotta love.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming Concert This Summer?

UPDATE: The following story has been retracted by the Jackson Hole Underground. So much for "several well-placed industry sources". Won't get fooled again.

---

From Jackson Hole Underground:

Neil Young, one of the icons of classic rock and long a favorite of Wyoming music fans, is slated to perform in Jackson Hole on Saturday, Aug. 16, according to several well-placed industry sources.

Young will be one of the headliners at the nascent Jackson Hole Music Festival. The two-day event will be held at or near Teton Village.

Still a work in progress, the concert is being produced by The Festival Network, which puts on the JVC Jazz Fests in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Newport, R.I. A subsidiary of the company produces the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Festival Network executives visited Jackson Hole earlier this winter and met with local officials, according to a person who took part in the discussions.

The idea of a Jazz Fest-type event at Teton Village has been discussed for years, but this is the most serious planning effort yet, the person said.

The Web page for the Jackson Hole Music Festival says details are coming soon. Young’s site lists Aug. 16 among his upcoming tour dates but does not specify a venue.

Already a considerable buzz has been spreading around the valley.

Neil's tour page does not actually display a tour date -- it only indicates a full moon on that day.

So could there be more Continental summer dates if this rumor proves true?

And will this be the Toast tour?

More on Neil 's summer tour plans. Hopefully, accurate.

Photo Gallery: Hammersmith Apollo, London, March 9, 2008

Hammersmith Apollo, London, March 9, 2008 - Photo by HarryO

Great photo gallery by HarryO.

Thanks HarryO!

Also, see concert reviews from London, England - 3/8 & 9/08.

"Music Can't Change World": Comment of the Moment

Here's a Comment of the Moment on Neil Young's recent observation that "Music Can't Change World" by Antony:

" Music, like books has never been able to change the world alone. A mass reaction and the unity of that in the celebration of music can and did.

At a time when the masses are for many reasons at their most politically indifferent, it is hard to disagree with Neil's comments.

There are few protest songs or politically motivated artists in these times. Why? My take is the absolute consumerism that consumes us as a force.

The majority of people are so wrapped up in their own desires to really care about others. That sounds like a very general statement to make, but only such thoughts provoke.

In terms of artists, the irony is that in an age when the distribution of ideology and music is at its most open; it is not being used for political or spiritual communication in the main.

This is in my belief proof that apathy and selfishness and greed and ego have replaced the desire to create art as a political statement.

In the consumerist and uber-capitalist world we now live in, the corporate machine governs, and the successive generations have fallen for it, hook line and sinker.

Musically, most new bands or artists I see today are a reflection of that society; one that desires fame, riches and worst of all 'celebrity' before artistic satisfaction.

The decline of the independent labels that Punk spawned has left us in a musical vacuum. As an internet pioneer, I have always believed that a new wave of music would spread the world, and once more music with a message would inspire people for change.

I still believe that, and have not lost hope that people via music, will create new communities with political agendas that will drive change.

Watch this space. Apathy is our worst enemy.

Love and Peace
Tony Meehan

More on the reaction to Neil's comment that "Music Can't Change World".

Eric Johnson - The Story Behind the Tour Painter

A great read of an interview with Eric Johnson, Neil Young's tour manager and painter on the Chrome Dreams II tour. From "By appointment, roadie and painter to Neil Young" on Times Online, Eric says: "One of Neil's many gifts is realising people's talents - letting other people shine."

Also, see the gallery of paintings from the Chrome Dreams II Tour.

"Too Far Gone" - Hammersmith Apollo, London, March 9, 2008 on YouTube

"Too Far Gone" - Hammersmith Apollo, London, March 9, 2008

Thanks HarryO!

Also, see concert reviews from London, England - 3/8 & 9/08.

On the Beach: Cover Me

Now this is pretty awesome -- a full album of On the Beach covers.

The Cover Me blog has compiled MP3's of one our longtime favorite "Ditch Trilogy" albums.

Here's OTB's "Blues Trilogy":

The Waco Brothers - Revolution Blues

Mercury Rev - Vampire Blues

Grapefruit Ed - Ambulance Blues

Check out these tracks and go to Cover Me for the rest including a killer "Walk On" by Jeff Tweedy.

More on the "Ditch Trilogy" masterpiece On The Beach.

Thanks Ray!

Ahmet's House: Honoring Ahmet Ertegun Each Tuesday

Ahmet Ertegun - Founder of Atlantic Records
Photo by Jim Cooper/AP

Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, was more than just a giant in the record business. His long list of accomplishments, among which includes his instrumental role in forming Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, signed to the Atlantic label some of the best music for over 60 years.

Each Tuesday night at 9PM EST, Ahmet's House on WBKM.org showcases the great music brought to light by this musical visionary. It is a labor of love, as Ahmet's dedication and passion has inspired WBKM to treat the music, the legacy and the man's memory right.

And they're playing some Buffalo Springfield right now!

So check out the streaming audio paying homage to Ahmet.

Thanks Tony!

Toast: New Unreleased Crazy Horse Album

OK, so the date of the post is April 1 so take it FWIW.

Over on N Y Times comes word of an upcoming release called "Toast". Named after a defunct recording studio, "Toast" is "perhaps one of the most under-estimated and deceptive Crazy Horse records of all time, with many songs originally discarded, and then re-recorded with Booker T. and the MGs."

"Toast" will be the first NYA 'Special Edition' in a new series of unreleased albums.

So, go figure? Obviously, the announcement raises a whole series of questions which we won't even begin to attempt to answer.

With regards to The Archives? Let the speculation continue.

If this is a joke, we guess we'll just call it "Burnt Toast".

Thanks Simpson!

Happy ARC Day!

Well it's ARC day! For the unitiated, Deb "Rewriting the Rules" on Rust has been encouraging folks to play ARC -- one of the more obscure Neil Young recordings -- on April 1 each year.

Part of the Arc-Weld release, Arc is 35 minutes of distortion and feedback from the 1991 Neil Young and Crazy Horse tour.

According to legend, Neil placed a video camera on his amp during the 1991 tour and recorded the beginnings and endings of various songs which were later edited down into the single track of Arc. "It was the sound of the entire band being sucked into this little limiter, being compressed and fuckin' distorted to hell," Neil said.

In honor of ARC Day, Rust Radio will be playing ARC continuously for the next 24 hours.

Also, if you must have Neil Young's ARC, it is available on Amazon. Although we can't imagine what the impact of listening to a MP3 of ARC on iPod headphones might do?!

NO. MORE. PAIN.