TODAY: Farm Aid 2018 - Hartford, CT, Sept 22

This year's Farm Aid festival will be in Hartford, CT, on Saturday, Sept. 22.

The festival lineup will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, as well as Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, and Particle Kid. Additional artists will be announced later this summer.

Click here for all the Farm Aid 2018 Details.

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LOOKING FWD: Farm Aid 2018 This Weekend - Hartford, CT

Neil Young and Promise of the Real - Live at Farm Aid 2017 - Full Set
This year's Farm Aid festival will be in Hartford, CT, on Saturday, Sept. 22.

The festival lineup will feature performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, as well as Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, and Particle Kid. Additional artists will be announced later this summer.

Click here for all the Farm Aid 2018 Details.

Farm Aid Board
Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews

“The crisis farmers are in now is even worse than 1985, because there are fewer farms left to lose.” --@johnmellencamp. https://t.co/DQQ5Pq7Uhi

— Farm Aid (@FarmAid) September 18, 2018

"F*!#in' Up"
Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

Farm Aid 2017 Concert: Burgettstown, PA, Saturday Sept 16

Photo by thrasher

Also, see:

• Farm Aid 2017 in Burgettstown, PA: Review and Photos by Glyn Emmerson
• Full video of Neil Young at 2017 Farm Aid Press Conference
• Farm Aid 2017 in Burgettstown, PA
• About That Time That We Went To A Farm Aid Concert...

We'll see you @ FA18 Hartford this weekend!

"F*!#in' Up"
Lukas Nelson & Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

Farm Aid 2017 Concert: Burgettstown, PA, Saturday Sept 16

Photo by Hounds That Howell

(Click photo to enlarge)

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LOOKING BACK: Farm Aid 2017 in Burgettstown, PA

Neil Young

Farm Aid 2017 - KeyBank Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA

Photos by Glyn Emmerson

(Click photo to enlarge)

As we look ahead to this coming weekend's Farm Aid 2018 in Hartford, CT, on Saturday, Sept. 22, here's a look back at last year's Farm Aid 2017 at the KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA. The review and photos are by Glyn Emmerson.

Enjoy!

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Farm Aid 2017 at the KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown, Pa. 

by Glyn Emmerson

"America was already great. 

We don't need to apologize and feel bad. Farmers are the real American heroes today."

~~Neil Young

Artist collaborations ruled the roost at the 32nd annual Farm Aid that took place at Burgettsburg, located a stoners throw from Pittsburgh as Co-founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young offered up the tunes as the crowd chowed down on locally grown produce and craft beers. Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Sheryl Crow, Lucas Nelson, Jamey Johnson, Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff entertained the crowd of 23,000 at the Keystone Pavilion where politics took a backseat to the good food movement and the farmers. Neil Young and Dave Matthews played some of their first gigs of the year virtually guaranteeing a sellout.

The communal spirit of giving pervaded both the music and food as the artists joined in on each other's sets throughout the day adding a crunchy organic vibe to the homegrown affair.

Neil Young's set was a full throttled blast off of his greatest hits as the Promise of the Real, with Nelson offspring Lukas and Micah, pushed the grizzled Canadian's fuzzy distortion into jolts of sandblasted squall on the opener "F**kin Up". "Cortez the Killer" was next that started off slowly then built into a 10 minute blow out . "Cinnamon Girl" almost tour the roof off the shed as Lukas and Young whiplashed that notorious one note lead into bolts of sonic delight.

Acoustic numbers including "Heart of Gold", "Human Highway" and "Comes a Time" , settled things down a bit for their final showdown of "Like a Hurricane" that had the band recreating a musical vortex of cosmic thunder. "Rockin' in the Free World" left everyone with blistered ear drums and a hopeful return to the rock and roll stage that Young has been missing from this year.

Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds

Dave Matthews premiered a new one with Tim Reynolds called "Odds Are Against Us". They opened with "Don't Drink the Water" in one of Matthews only appearances onstage this summer. Reynolds tasty licks up and down the fretboard on his Martin dreadnaught accented Matthews frenetic and high strung choppy rhythms into a hoedown of guitars.

John Mellencamp

John Mellencamp offered up the hits including "Small Town" and "Jack and Dianne" adding -"I don't even know why I play this one, I only play it cause I know you guys want to hear it"- and he was right!. The power anthem "Scarecrow" with its signature three chord riff and powerful refrain that jumpstarted the movement back in 1985 took us back to a time when agribusiness and corporations were threatening the family farmer to extinction.

Jack Johnson invited the Avett Brothers onstage for "Mudfootball", Sheryl Crow, and Jamey Johnson on Dylan's "Shall be Released" and called out Lukas Nelson to join him adding a mischievous sense of adventure to the days jamouts. He opened his set with a song he wrote at the last Farm Aid he performed at two years ago called "Willie Got Me Stoned and Took all of my Money" that was a playful account of a card game with the pig tailed country legend that left him "penniless and with no money for a cab ride home!".

Jamey Johnson took us back to the Catskills with the Band's "Up On Cripple Creek" with a band that rocked out true outlaw-country fashion. He ended his set with the Guthrie anthem "This Land is Your Land. The Avett Brothers foot stomped their way thru way thru "Lightroom". Still looking good and havin' some fun Crow opened with "Everyday is a Winding road" and dedicated "Midnight Rider" to Gregg Allman with Willie , Lucas , Jack Johnson and Margo Price sitting in.

Nathaniel Rateliff's set was a horn driven revue of countrified soul. Margo Price played it country and simple on her own set and guested on Crow's and the Promise of the Real's. Blueberry Smoke's set took us back to the classic rock of the seventies and looked a lot like Lynerd Skynerd offspring up there.

Willie Nelson opened with "Whiskey River" and banged out one big song after another with an infectious grin and winks to the ladies in the crowd. On "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die " and "I'm Not Dead Yet", the Texas legend's stoneyed humor shone through like a beacon as the night glided to the grand finale of "It's All Going to Pot" and Hank Williams "I Saw The Light" as Young and Mickey Raphael traded licks on harmonica ending yet another incredible day of music to the folks who give us our daily bread.

Willie Nelson

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Thanks so much for sharing the review and photos Glyn! We really enjoyed looking back at last year's Farm Aid 2017 as we look ahead to this coming weekend's Farm Aid 2018 in Hartford, CT, on Saturday, Sept. 22.

We'll see you @ FA18 Hartford this weekend!

For more on last year's Farm Aid 2017 in Burgettstown, PA.

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Lukas Nelson: "Something I wrote about my Father that I wanted to share..."

Lukas Nelson speaks from the heart.

Lukas asks us to "watch with an open heart" something he wrote for his Father, Willie Nelson that he would like to share with us.

Thank you Lukas. Thank you Willie. See you guys @ FarmAid next weekend! Keep singing truth to power.

Willie Nelson & Lukas Nelson
Farm Aid 2017 Concert: Burgettstown, PA, Saturday Sept 16
Photo by thrasher
(Click photo to enlarge)

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Broken Arrow Magazine Archive Launches on Sugar Mountain | Neil Young Setlists

Broken Arrow Magazine #134 - The Final Issue
Photo by Uwe Grahl | Facebook
Back in 2014, much to our dismay -- and many others in the RUST community, as well -- Broken Arrow Magazine, published by the Neil Young Appreciation Society announced its final issue.

(See more on Broken Arrow Magazine To Cease Publishing - The Final Issue for NYAS?.)

But hope springs eternal and wee just received this note from NYAS's Scott Sandie that life goes on for BA!

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Hi,

This is Scott Sandie, your old editor from Broken Arrow. This email is going out to all the old NYAS members who are still in my contact list.

For the past year or so there has been a working party preparing all 134 issues of Broken Arrow magazine for free online release. That project has reached the end of its main stage, and some 8000 magazine pages are now ready for viewing and search. Tom Hambleton has very kindly agreed to host these pages over on Sugar Mountain and has done a really great job in laying it all out in his inimitable fashion.

The link is: Broken Arrow Magazine | Sugar Mountain

Broken Arrow Magazine | Sugar Mountain

You will see that can browse and open each issue. You can search on keywords from the index and access pages that way too. Each issue is roughly a 15MB PDF file, so it is a little slow loading up if you have a poor connection. To look at one page, you have to load the entire issue into memory. Tom has also been working hard on making it mobile friendly, so it might work on your phone as well.

So drop by, have a look at the magazines, carry out searches and generally play about in the pages. See what you think. And if you find any glitches please let me or Tom know.


Regards,

Scott

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Such great news Scott! And many, many thanks Tom on Sugar Mountain for coding and hosting.

On a personal note, we've known Scott & Tom for decades. Both Scott & Tom are a true gentlemen in every sense of the word, ultimate Neil fanatics and they have our undying respect for what they've been able to accomplish.

Broken Arrow Magazine has meant so much to so many, and the end was never easy. But what can you say other than......"Thank You!" Scott Sandie, Tom Hambleton and the incredible Neil Young Appreciation Society & Sugar Mountain | Neil Young Setlists!!!

Peace & Love
thrashers
(thanks to Bernie B. Shakey, too.)

A RUST Trio*
Thrasher (Thrashers Wheat), Scott Sandie (Broken Arrow Magazine | NYAS) & Tom Hambleton (Sugar Mountain | Neil Young Setlists)

2009 Bridge School Benefit Concert

(* We just missed Roel of RustRadio.org by a minute for a full RUST Quartet!)

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Expecting To See Neil Young: For The Turnstiles, Cough Up The Buck$, Watch Out For The Greedy Hand

4 SHOW PRE-SALE NOW - Neil Young Archives (NYA) Times-Contrarian

Late Thursday, 4 Neil Young concerts were announced for ticket pre-sales on Neil Young Archives (NYA) Times-Contrarian:

• Sep 26 & 27 @ The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (w/ Promise Of The Real)
• Sep 30 & Oct 1 @ Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA (Solo)

And -- predictably -- the praises and indignation began. Prices too high. Annoying measures taken to thwart scalping. Neil's support of Democrats. etc.

We do find it sort of perplexing that after all these years -- and hundreds of comments later -- folks are still bitching and moaning about concert tickets. Even after Neil delivers exactly what his fans have been requesting.

Here's a comment on "4 SHOW PRE-SALE NOW - Neil Young Concert Tickets" by dd:

I don't begrudge a musician charging whatever he wants.

It's his business, both literally and figuratively. I was simply stating that it was funny/ironic that was praising him for keeping the prices relatively static so many years later and was then faced with an increase hours later. I know Port Chester is a small venue, half the size of the Wang Theater. Perhaps that's why he's charging more. And he's certainly not the only one doing so.

And of course I get that record sales aren't paying the bills (although I don't know that Neil's records have paid the bills since...Harvest Moon? He hasn't been a big seller since Harvest, I suspect, which is purposeful, to some extent. He didn't want to be middle-of-the-road, so he veered into the ditch, to paraphrase the man himself. It does, however, make it difficult for younger fans, at the very least, to come up with the funds. Of course, they can grab a grass seat at an amphitheater, which is affordable. No one sells those for over $100. I was just feeling sticker shock, since it's the most expensive ticket I've ever purchased (and the seats were even more). I remember being a teen, bummed that the balcony seats were all gone and that I would be spending all of my money on the orchestra ticket. I don't regret it now, I didn't regret it then.

BUT I do believe there is more to it than what the market will allow.

Just because you CAN charge a price doesn't mean you have to. I'm a firm believer that an artist gets to choose his/her audience. Neil, so individualistic and idiosyncratic, has nurtured a loyal fanbase that has followed him for decades. At the same time, by charging prices that only the most fervent and/or well-to-do can afford, you may not have the best audience mix. It's an art, not a science, but I've been to almost 1000 concerts in my young life (36) and I've seen what those gold circle front rows give back to the artist. Sometimes they're amazing, often times they aren't.

That's why bands like Pearl Jam make ticket prices the same for the whole venue and allow the fan club to have prime access to those seats. They could raise the prices and I'm sure a lot of the fans would go along with it. I'm hopeful that instituting the mobile ticket system will discourage if not completely eliminate scalpers, thereby getting the tickets into the right people's hands. I was just at a Radiohead show where a bunch of banker types showed up late and talked throughout the show. These people can't get priced out, but the fans that contribute to a show's 'magical' quality can. I think that's at the heart of some people's gripes. Personally, it's Neil's call. The truth is, if he were a younger artist, I wouldn't have bought the tickets (Ween, Jason Isbell, etc).

I just don't know how many more opportunities I'll have to see the man, so if it means driving 7 hours roundtrip to Saratoga Springs..or taking a bus on a work night to Philly...or a train to Port Chester, I'm going to do it. But I feel for people with kids and mortgages and other necessities whose 'fun money' jars isn't big enough to make it happen.

@ dd - thanks for all of the context and background in your comment.

Wow, not bad to see 1,000 concerts in 20 years or so. That's pretty cool. And we weren't busting on you specifically and agree with a lot of what you're saying. These links below echo much of what you and others are saying.

The point is that no matter what Neil does, folks always seem to think they know best what should have been done differently. We'll also add that a couple of these shows will be live streamed which is extremely cool. The west coast streams recently were quite awesome.

Like with everything, there is no one magical solution to the problem.

We would argue that the cheaper GA upfront, more expensive reserved in the back is an innovation that we here @ TW championed for years. See:

• An Open Letter To Neil Young On Ticket Prices For The Turnstiles (130+ Comments)
• Comment of the Moment: An Open Letter To Neil Young On Ticket Prices For The Turnstiles (50+ Comments)
• For The Turnstiles Again (30+ Comments)
• For The Turnstiles Yet Again(50+ Comments)
• Free Neil Young Warmup Concerts Cancelled(30+ Comments)
• The Price of Neil: When Art and Commerce Collide (60+ Comments)
• Comment of the Moment: The High Price of Neil (20+ Comments)
• It's Only Money (20+ Comments)
• New Neil Young Video: Cough Up The Buck$ (40+ Comments)

Cough Up The Buck$ Crew
HarryO, Volume Drinkers: Brand New Guy, Paul D.
Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY - 12/15/2008

just might have to re-visit that "Cough Up The Buck$" video ...

For the Turnstiles

"All the sailors with their seasick mamas
Hear the sirens on the shore,
Singin' songs for pimps with tailors
Who charge ten dollars at the door.

You can really learn a lot that way
It will change you in the middle of the day.
Though your confidence may be shattered,
It doesn't matter.

All the great explorers
Are now in Granite Lake
Under white sheets for the great unveiling
At the big parade.

You can really learn a lot that way
It will change you in the middle of the day.
Though your confidence may be shattered,
It doesn't matter.

All the bushleague batters
Are left to die on the diamond.
In the stands the home crowd scatters
For the turnstiles,
For the turnstiles,
For the turnstiles."

deja vu over and over again, our friends

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