Neil Young's Influence on the Organic Music Scene

Neil Young has had quite an influence on a number of music scenes throughout his career stretching from Canada to Southern California and back up to San Fraqncisco to Seattle.

An interesting essay on growing organic music communities in a corporate world from Seattle Post-Intelligencer by GLEN BOYD that vectors in on Neil Young's musical influences:

In reacquainting myself with Neil's amazing story, one thing has struck me above all else:

Perhaps it is because of just who he is, or maybe just because he was in the right place at the right time, but as he was working his way up to become an iconic/legendary artist, Neil Young managed to find himself planted dead center in the middle of not one, but several locally based "scenes" that would go on to alter the course of popular music.

He was there in Canada — in Fort William and in Toronto, Ontario — when folk music and rock and roll began to coalesce itself into the hybrid sound that would eventually produce such influential artists as Joni Mitchell on the one hand and the Band on the other (not to mention Young himself).

He was there once again when the American West Coast began to similarly merge these sounds in the mid-sixties to produce the folk-rock boom which gave birth to the Byrds and to Young's own band with Stephen Stills, the Buffalo Springfield.

Neil Young was also there when this same sound evolved into the beautiful, trademark four-part harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — the country/folk-rock supergroup who provided the eventual blueprint for every West Coast country-rock band which would follow in their wake, from the Eagles and Poco on down through latter-day mid-west acolytes like the Jayhawks and Wilco.

More on Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Also, see Neil Young's influence on other musicians.

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