Randomly Blogged: Ben Keith, Bert Jansch, Crowded House, Jim Jarmusch, Greendale

Ben Keith

From What Makes a Legend: Ben Keith | Crawdaddy! by Denise Sullivan:

It’s hard to imagine “Out on the Weekend”, “Are You Ready for the Country”, “Heart of Gold”, “Alabama”, “Words (Between the Lines of Age)”, and the album’s title song without Keith’s graceful guitar echoing Young’s own crying tones. Keith left a giant footprint not only on Harvest but on Tonight’s the Night, Comes a Time, On the Beach, and Young’s mid-life masterpiece Harvest Moon as well. In later years he was involved in literally all of Young’s recording and touring projects, from Silver & Gold to Chrome Dreams II.

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'Old Man' with Liam Finn & Lawrence Arabia @ Ruth Eckerd Hall from Crowded House on Vimeo.

Crowded House and Liam Finn cover Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’ (In Tribute to Ben Keith) in Clearwater, Fla., 7/28/10

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Bert Jansch
Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

From Bert Jansch's cancer comeback | Music | The Guardian by Will Hodgkinson:

"Neil and I had dinner," says Jansch. "He told me I should be playing to a lot more people. Half of me was saying no to that, because it was terrifying to go from my normal gigs of 400 people in a concert hall to auditoriums of 4,000, but actually it was a godsend. From the end of last year to the beginning of this one, it was nothing but hospitals. I got the call from Neil's manager just after the chemotherapy and it gave me something positive to focus on."

Young has been a fan ever since he heard Bert Jansch, as his 1965 debut LP was called. "That first record is epic," says Young, of the album that was recorded for £100 in a kitchen. "I was especially taken with Needle of Death, such a beautiful and angry song."

Jansch isn't famous in America. How did fans react to him co-headlining with Young? "The people who knew Bert were overjoyed to see him play with such passion," says Elliot Roberts, Young's manager. "And young people who hadn't heard him before all said the same thing: 'This is the real shit.'"

More on Bert Jansch and Neil Young.

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Jim Jarmusch on working with Neil Young

More on Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young.

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-- From t r u t h o u t | Vampire Blues: Suckin' Blood From the Earth by Chris Genovali:

When Neil Young recorded the anti-Big Oil "Vampire Blues" for his brilliant album On the Beach in the mid-1970s, who could have known that the song would end up even more relevant a quarter century later? Speculation abounds on fan sites that Neil, who is currently on tour, believes the time is right to perform "Vampire Blues" once again, particularly given the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

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-- From Comic Riffs - The 'Riffs Interview: Comic artist CLIFF CHIANG offers an insider's tour of Neil Young's 'Greendale':

CLIFF CHIANG: First, it's hard to take a very heartfelt story about coming of age and [about] finding your voice and finding the strength to have confidence in your beliefs. It's also a trickier thing with the politics. With Neil's politics, you can't dillute them. But we didn't want the story to focus so much on that that it would be strident and brash. We wanted to keep the appeal broad enough. ... If some [readers] didn't share the political views, we wanted them to appreciate the real humanity of the characters. And the message: No matter what you believe, you can't remain quiet.

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-- Greendale News of the Moment:

From Arctic sea ice volume heads toward record low as Northwest Passage melts free fourth year in a row « Climate Progress:

The Northwest and Northeast Passages are open
The Northwest Passage–the legendary shipping route through ice-choked Canadian waters at the top of the world–melted free of ice last week, and is now open for navigation, according to satellite mosaics available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and The University of Illinois Cryosphere Today. This summer marks the fourth consecutive year–and fourth time in recorded history–that the fabled passage has opened for navigation. Over the past four days, warm temperatures and southerly winds over Siberia have also led to intermittent opening of the Northeast Passage, the shipping route along the north coast of Russia through the Arctic Ocean. It is now possible to completely circumnavigate the Arctic Ocean in ice-free waters, and this will probably be the case for at least a month. This year marks the third consecutive year–and the third time in recorded history–that both the Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage have melted free, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Northeast Passage opened for the first time in recorded history in 2005, and the Northwest Passage in 2007. It now appears that the opening of one or both of these northern passages is the new norm, and business interests are taking note–commercial shipping in the Arctic is on the increase, and there is increasing interest in oil drilling. The great polar explorers of past centuries would be astounded at how the Arctic has changed in the 21st century.

Neil Young's Le Noise: "Just a man on a stool"

Le Noise by Neil Young
(Click to Zoom Cover)
Release Date: September 28, 2010

Anticipation continues to mount as the buzz on Neil Young News: Neil Young's New Album 'Le Noise' builds to the September 28 release.

From a press release today a few choice quotes and new details:

Recorded in Lanois' home in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, Le Noise features Young on acoustic and electric guitars with Lanois adding his trademark sonic textures, creating one of the most sonically arresting albums Young has ever recorded. No band, no overdubs, just "a man on a stool and me doing a nice job on the recording," as Lanois puts it.

"Neil was so appreciative of the sonics that we presented to him," Lanois says. "He walked in the door and I put an acoustic guitar into his hands -- one that I had been working on to build a new sound. That's the multi-layered acoustic sound that you hear on the songs 'Love and War' and 'Peaceful Valley Boulevard.' I wanted him to understand that I've spent years dedicated to the sonics in my home and that I wanted to give him something he'd never heard before.

He picked up that instrument, which had everything -- an acoustic sound, electronica, bass sounds -- and he knew as soon as he played it that we had taken the acoustic guitar to a new level. It's hard to come up with a new sound at the back end of 50 years of rock and roll, but I think we did it."

Le Noise will be released in several formats, including standard CD, vinyl, digital download, and as a deluxe CD/DVD. The DVD portion, shot by cinematographer Adam Vollick, will feature eight black and white films of Young performing each song solo on acoustic and electric guitar live in the studio. In November, Reprise will also release a Blu-Ray edition, featuring Lanois and Vollick's beautifully shot films of Young.

More on Neil Young's New Album 'Le Noise'.

Pre-order Le Noise by Neil Young on Amazon.com. (Thanks! You'll be supporting Thrasher's Wheat. NOTE: International readers, use country "flagged" Amazon links in right sidebar to ensure credit to TW.)

Comment of the Moment: "The beauty of silence at a Neil Young Concert"

Neil Young @ Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI - July 30, 2010
Photo Gallery by CJ Foeckler | Facebook

There's been a bit of commentary during the past tour legs regarding Neil Young's interaction with the audience. Or -- more to the point - the lack thereof aside from the music itself. Which, of course, is perfectly OK by many.

Which brings us to the Comment of the Moment from a review "The beauty of silence” - Neil Young in Minneapolis where the blogger just marveled at how wonderous it all truly was. Whereupon Mr Henry responded:

During the Greendale tour, Neil had a lot to say between songs...at least when he first started this tour. It was great to just sit back and listen to him set the table for each song, then listen to the songs and watch the show.

By the time the Greendale tour was winding down, he pretty much just let the songs and the performances speak for themselves. The last time I saw Greendale, Neil's introduction was 'These songs used to be new, and now they're not'. Start to finish, lasted only about 90 minutes; first time I saw Greendale, was around 2 1/2 hours. So we must have had about an hour of hearing Neil describe his songs and what they meant. That's probably as much as I've heard in all of the other shows I've seen combined...which is what made it so incredibly unique and beautiful.

The tradeoff was in the encore set, which was brief for the longer Greendale performances and really a whole other set for the shorter ones. So again here, I think that Neil was rewarding his fans, those who were willing to be patient and walk with him through something new. And of course, maybe he felt like he's already said what he needed to and was feeling to urge to move on.

I do know that when he is talkative before a song (on those rare occasions), it is very meaningful and poignant (e.g. intro to Daddy Went Walking at Farm Aid '99; Old King intro during '92 solo tour; dedicating Old Man to Ben....). And when he hardly says a word, well he's communicating all he needs to with his voice, guitar and band. And also just with the silences and with his presence and calm.

I saw Steve Earle and Hot Tuna this past Saturday night. Both performances were wonderful, and both had just the right amount of intro and audience talk and interaction. Steve opened with Christmas in Washington and got the audience singing along w/in thirty seconds. He told us about his new son, his nephew's return from Irag, how he hates what's happened in the Gulf...all heartfelt and not a word was extraneous. I had an eye lock with him for about 30 seconds during My Old Friend The Blues...that was some pretty heavy communication too!! During the Hot Tuna set, Jorma mostly did the talking between songs (his voice is still amazing!) and that was kept pretty short and sweet. But the communication between him and Jack Cassidy when they played really said it all, and there were sometimes two other guitars as well (including G.E. Smith) or another guitar and electric mandolin, so they were saying all they needed to there. Jorma did say this was the last show of the tour and he was really psyched to get back to Athens for the Demolition Derby. Oh, and they brought Steve out for the encore...Steve said 'this was a total gas and I would love to do it again' (meaning the tour) to which Jorma replied 'Any time, brother!'.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some shows in the upcoming third leg of Twisted Road where Neil does talk more. When the time is right, he'll probably talk some about LA and Ben, what they meant to his music and still mean to him. But if he doesn't, then really he's already telling us so much with what he plays and what he doesn't say.

"If you ask me 'Where is the moon?', look where I am pointing, don't look at my finger."
~~Zen Proverb

Thanks Mr. Henry!

More on "The beauty of silence” at a Neil Young concert.

Anatomy of Neil Young’s ‘Old Black’ Guitar

Neil Young’s ‘Old Black’ Guitar

Universally amongst fans, Neil Young's guitar ‘Old Black’ is the stuff of legends.

From the crunchingly brutal Crazy Horse feedback fests to this year's solo electric, the Gibson Les Paul guitar has played witness to the full range of Neil's ragged glory. So if you're interested in the anatomy of Neil Young’s ‘Old Black’, check out Gibson News - Neil Young’s ‘Old Black’ Magic by Ted Drozdowski.

Here's a clip on the “wheat stack” that caught our eye in particular:

There is speculation about the year of “Old Black”’s neck. It has a partially painted-over pearloid inlay on its headstock that appears to be a “wheat stack” rather than split trapezoid style. The “wheat stack” inlay was applied to Gibson necks made between 1961 and ’68, well past “Old Black”’s vintage. Of course, most of the paint is off the back of the guitar’s mahogany neck after decades of brutal and beautiful playing, and the binding is equally frayed. Also, there’s another aluminum plate in the rear, just under the bridge to access the bridge screws from behind.

All of which reminds us of an incredible story posted awhile ago by Geoff:

I feel compelled to offer some history on this instrument.

I saw (and met) Neil the last Sunday of his opening week with Crazy horse at the Troubadour in LA, April 1969 with a friend named Jennifer Starkey... back when Old Black was Young!

The guitar was traded from Jim Messina in 1968 for a Gretsch and used on Neil's first solo album and the 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere' LP. I have vivid memories on how the guitar was decked out that night and can verify most of it with a photo from an old poster.

The details are as follows:

*The instrument was a beautiful gloss black with an old punch-print tape strip above the pickups that read: 'It ain't easy bein' a fuckin' indian!'
*The bigsby was a B-3 model (like a B-7 without the under-strung tension bar)
*The stop-bridge holes and bushings were open, and still are.
*The bridge coil was an old black face Rowe DeArmond M5A single coil as found on 50's Gretsches and Guilds. (This coil was left for repairs at a shop that folded and the coil disappreard. For a short time the LP was fitted with a Gretsch Filtertron but was replced in '72/'73 with a Firebird coil and the current B-7 Bigsby.)
*At that time the headstock was indeed nicely bound with creme binding and, even then, sported the Gibson crown inlay.
*The tuning machines were Grover N-102 roto-matics.

He played the first set with Crazy Horse (Danny Whitten using Neil's Gretsch 6120 and both of them using Fender Bandmasters reworked for overdrive by a guy named Randal!) But the second set Stephen Stills showed up and the two of them drank champagne, played their Martins, and sang just about every Buffalo Springfield song ever written.

All that was missing was Richie!

Quite an evening...

Geoff

Good memory Geoff! You don't see that much accuracy coming back from '69.


Guitar Tech Larry Cragg with ‘Old Black’

More photos and articles on Neil Young's guitars.

"ITS ALL ONE SONG": A Neil Young Tribute in Utopia (Ontario)

The Neil Young Tribute "ITS ALL ONE SONG" will be on September 10 at the Utopia Community Hall, Utopia Ontario, Canada.

For more info, see "ITS ALL ONE SONG" A NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE solo/acoustic | Facebook.

Thanks Larry!

Origin of Song: “Out on the Weekend” | Crawdaddy!

Quite a fascinating rundown on Neil Young's song “Out on the Weekend” from Crawdaddy!'s Origin of Song series by Denise Sullivan.

Neil Young's “Out on the Weekend” seems to be seeing a resurgence with the hipster crowd these days. Last year, we even blogged on the phenomenon when Lady GaGa covered it (before we even really realized that she was MEGA HUGE with the kids).

So what's cool about the Crawdaddy! article is how many folks are covering one of Harvest's stellar tracks making it the "most-covered among the contemporary indie-folk and rock set".

Those covering “Out on the Weekend” besides Lady Gaga include Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes/Monsters of Folk, Iron and Wine's Sam Beam, Broken Social Scene, Pete Doherty, Elliott Smith and Citizen Cope, among others in a long list of musicians influenced by Neil Young.


Out on the Weekend / Pipey Magraw - Peter Doherty @ Mass, 17th June 2008

More on musicians influenced by Neil Young.

(Thanks Angie & cosplusisin/The Martingales!)

Contest: Hard Rock Live T-Shirts

Neil Young will be performing at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Hotel & Casino on September 23rd.

And thanks to the folks at Hard Rock, Thrasher's Wheat is able to giveaway several Hard Rock t-shirts. Details below.

Concert event details on Hard Rock Live. Tickets range from $59 - $189 and can be picked up at the Hard Rock Live box office or at ticketmaster.com or charge by phone: 1-800-745-3000.

Contest Details:

T-Shirt winners will be selected randomly. To enter the contest email: thrasher@thrasherswheat.org with SUBJECT line: Contest - Hard Rock T-Shirts

Include name, postal mailing address with country and t-shirt size. Sorry, but contest winners limited to U.S.A. only.

Deadline: Friday, Sept 3, 2010.

Thanks Mike!

Jeff Tweedy & Avi Buffalo Cover Neil Young's "Look Out For My Love" on YouTube

Jeff Tweedy & Avi Buffalo cover Neil Young's "Look Out For My Love" on YouTube.

From Solid Sound Music Festival curated by Wilco in North Adams, Mass., Jeff Tweedy performed "Look Out For My Love" with Avi Buffalo near the end of his solo show on Sunday, August 15, 2010.

Thanks Walt!

More on Wilco and Neil Young.

Neil Young's New Album 'Le Noise'

Le Noise by Neil Young
(Click to Zoom Cover)
Release Date: September 28, 2010

Neil Young's new album Le Noise is scheduled to be released on September 28, 2010.

In keeping with his recent social networking activities, the announcement was made using Neil Young's official Facebook page:

“Le Noise” is complete. It is a solo record. Playbacks are happening now. Release date is September 28th. It will be available in Vinyl, CD and I tunes in the first edition, followed by Blu-Ray, and an APP for I-Phone and I-Pad a month or so later. The app will be free. It gives you an interactive album cover. Forgive my use of the word “album”. I am old school. When you buy the songs/movies from I- tunes they show up in your APP.
Peace ny

The album has been produced by Daniel Lanois (who, earlier this year was involved in a serious motorcycle accident) and was recorded in Los Angeles over the course of four full moons. "We cut a couple of solo acoustic songs, but the rest is very electric," Lanois told Rolling Stone last month. "There's no band, but I got in there with my sonics. There's nothing else out there like it."


Producer Daniel Lanois

The album was previewed by a select group last week and early reports indicate there's much to anticipate. From Los Angeles Times by Randy Lewis:

What’s striking about “Le Noise” is the way it both summarizes and distills Young’s singular approach to music, predominantly just Neil and a guitar: his big, white hollow-body Gretsch electric slashing and burning for most of the tracks, a couple built around picked and strummed acoustic instruments. Both are recorded and amplified -- literally and metaphorically -- by Lanois’ signature soundscapes that loop vocals, and enhance the guitars’ bass notes through distortion boxes, synthesizers and other electronics.

The eight songs travel a path from the electrified reverie of “Walk With Me,” through the nakedly autobiographical “Love and War,” to the combative “Angry World” and into the epic journey through the American frontier that’s always fascinated Young with the acoustic guitar-driven “Peaceful Valley.”

The songs bristle with energy -- anger, passion, love, self-doubt, regret, hope -- emotions that seem all the more pure expressed without percussion, keyboards, strings or other instruments, just by Young’s voice and guitars.

Lanois said the project started out as an all acoustic album, but that idea didn’t last long once the producer began prodding Young to really get at what was on his mind and in his heart. “He has the ability to really reach down deep inside,” Lanois said during a break before the album was played a second time, this time accompanied by gritty film footage of Young singing the vocals.

From another preview review on Buzzbands.LA by Kevin:

“Le Noise” is audacious and loud and trippy and layered and blunt and, unless you arbitrarily discriminate against the AARP generation, the best 38 minutes you will have spent in quite some time.

Over on Blogcritics fall music preview "Dylan, Springsteen And Neil Young: The Coming Fall Trifecta From Rock's Holy Trinity" by Glen Boyd comes this verdict:

This won't be a huge commercial hit, but should do solid business with Neil Young's core fanbase. It should also do much better than 2009's Fork In The Road did with the critics, and will very likely make a few year-end "Best Of 2010" lists. This could be one of this years bigger sleepers.

Track Listing:

01. "Walk With Me"
02. "Sign Of Love"
03. "Someone's Gonna Rescue You"
04. "Love And War"
05. "Angry World"
06. "Hitchhiker"
07. "Peaceful Valley Boulevard"
08. "Rumblin'"

Interestingly, the track list omits some new songs recently debuted on the Twisted Road tour like "You Never Call", while adding several unperformed songs like "Angry World" and "Someone's Gonna Rescue You".

Pre-order Le Noise by Neil Young on Amazon.com. (Thanks! You'll be supporting Thrasher's Wheat.)