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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
Always good to see the "brothers" having a good time.
And since you asked, FWIW, we understand from unreliable sources that around Neil's neck is a sack with dried peach powder which helps keep the bad vibes away and ensures future harmony amongst fellow travelers.
Thrasher's Wheat Radio
Tune in on WBKM.org, Saturdays @ 9P EST
Tonight, Saturday, Jan 18 at 9:00 PM EST, (~15 minutes from now) the Thrashers Wheat Radio Hour from WBKM.org will be streaming.
Tonight's edition will feature the latest Neil Young music and news.
Bear with us as we attempt to justify the posting of the "crowd sourced" YouTube video above of Neil Young at Carnegie Hall, on 1/7/14.
First, from the video description:
Thanks to all those who contributed to the making of this video... ESPECIALLY, of course, NEIL YOUNG! Please continue to purchase from Neil's amazingly diverse and expansive catalogue of music (http://www.NeilYoung.com)
This video is a testament to my lifelong love of Neil's music and I strongly encourage you all to explore and purchase ALL of his officially published music ... but for the next 1hr 52min and 54sec, please enjoy this heavenly acoustic solo performance at Carnegie Hall...
Video recording & editing by http://www.ReelifeProductions.com
additional video: Jersey Nola, Tino Bekkering & Jefftgvid
Audio recording location: DFC 4th mezz ledge, mics split 12" placed inside small openings at foot level.
Thanks to the online communities of:
Rusties on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/RustP...)
Rusties (https://www.facebook.com/groups/rusted/)
Thrasher's Wheat (https://www.facebook.com/ThrashersWhe...)
also check out this radio show that I produced called "A Palace in The Gravy- The Best & Worst of Neil Young": http://youtu.be/QT5lE2eJgeU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neil Young Carnegie Hall, January 7, 2014 - FULL SHOW - a crowd sourced concert film
Set 1:
01 crowd
02 From Hank to Hendrix
03 talking
04 On the Way Home
05 Only Love Can Break Your Heart
06 Love in Mind (piano)
07 talking
08 Mellow My Mind (banjo)
09 Are You Ready for the Country (piano)
10 Someday (piano)
11 talking
12 Changes
13 Harvest
14 talking
15 Old Man
Set 2:
16 crowd
17 Goin' Back
18 A Man Needs a Maid (piano)
19 Ohio
20 Southern Man
21 Mr. Soul (pump organ)
22 talking
23 Needle of Death
24 talking
25 The Needle and the Damage Done
26 talking
27 Harvest Moon
28 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (piano)
29 talking
30 After the Gold Rush (piano)
31 talking
32 Heart of Gold
33 - encore break -
34 Comes a Time
35 talking
36 Long May You Run
Now, we admit that we struggled with what to do about this situation, but after a bit of reflection we realized that we simply could not ignore the video and the associated controversy. Hopefully, out of all of this, maybe some good will prevail.
First, you'll note above that our website is listed as credit. 2nd, the video was posted to our Facebook page last week and it created quite a stir. Third, the Wall Street Journal picked this up and interviewed not only the video editor Tom Adams, but Neil Young's manager Elliot Roberts, as well.
Backtracking just a bit, recently we wrote about Etiquette At A Neil Young Concert after there was all sorts of complaints about social media behavior at the Carnegie Hall concerts. Over the years, we've blogged on numerous occasions about etiquette at a Neil Young concert, here, here, and here.
A couple days ago a so-called "crowd-sourced" Neil Young Carnegie Hall video made its way to YouTube…and went viral, or close to it. In less than 48 hours, the video, which captures the complete 1.7.14 show, generated an impressive 16,000+ views (and counting), but that's nothing compared to what's about to happen to it.
You see, the video, expertly created by my Facebook friend Tom Adams, not only caught the eye of rabid Neil Young aficionados, but the powerful and mighty Wall Street Journal also somehow stumbled upon it. And the WSJ deemed the video so noteworthy they opted to publish a story about it (which I've posted below).
In a nutshell, Neil's camp ain't too thrilled with Tom's amazing work: "We find this sort of practice to be incredibly rude toward both the audience and the artist," says Elliot Roberts, who was quoted in the article (which I've posted below).
These days, the practice of people snapping photos and video at any event, not just concerts, is as common as a yellow taxi in NYC, as turkey and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving, as Neil Young wearing a plaid shirt. *Snap!* People have a want, desire to make a digital copy of their life, their entire life - we record EVERYTHING now. *Snap!* Ironically, Neil made a now-famous "Selfie Rant" at the 1.9.14 show. But, hey, Neil this is the world we live in today, rightly or wrongly. *Snap!*
So what's the harm in recording some video at a show, as long as you do so in a respectful, unobtrusive manner…and don't sell it for profit? And think of all the amazing amounts of wonderfulness this video has brought to peoples' lives worldwide? Carnegie Hall seats roughly 2800 people, so over four nights that's 11,200 paying customers. So, consider all the people who wanted to be there, but couldn't, for various reasons. Tom's video allowed my friend in Singapore to see Neil work his magic at an incredibly anticipated show that was near-impossible to get tickets to.
I think that's GREAT!
But, hey, i'm just a fan……Elliot's a music mogul businessman protecting his client. I get it, I get it. There are two sides to this coin, and both sides can be argued fervently until you're blue in the face. But I know where I stand:
GREAT work Tom Adams! I hope you win an Oscar for Best Musical Score!!
*Snap!*
You can read the full story here:
***
A Historic Neil Young Concert, Captured by a Crowd
Cobbling together a Carnegie Hall show for online–with some help
On Jan. 7, Tom Adams went to see a Neil Young concert at Carnegie Hall by himself. It wasn't until days later that he made a connection with a group of other fans who attended. Like him, they had all secretly videotaped the solo acoustic performance, part of a four-night stand by Mr. Young, in his first return to the famed New York venue since 1973.
On Tuesday, Mr. Adams uploaded to YouTube a video of the entire two-hour show, which he had stitched together from footage captured by fellow concertgoers seated around the theater. Most of the video was shot by Mr. Adams, a video producer from Williamsburg, Mass., on a compact Canon camera perched on the railing in front of his $150 mezzanine seat (102, Row AA). All the videos were edited to match a single audio recording made at the concert, which Mr. Adams downloaded from an anonymous source on an online-sharing site.
With most everyone who goes to a concert now packing at least a camera phone, more fans are taking the next step to pool their shots and produce so-called crowdsourced concert videos. Though the legality of most of these projects is murky, some emerge with at least tacit approval from the bands. In 2006, the Beastie Boys helped popularize the concept by handing out cameras to audience members, with the resulting concert film released in theaters. A few years later, Radiohead fans cobbled together their scenes of a show in Prague, which was enhanced by a high-quality audio recording supplied by the band. And Nine Inch Nails devotees have slavishly produced multiple collaborative videos of their own.
Mr. Young views video recording as a scourge of the concert experience. "We find this sort of practice to be incredibly rude toward both the audience and the artist," says Elliot Roberts, the singer's longtime manager. Mr. Adams says he's sensitive to how disruptive hoisted phones and glowing screens can be, and that he's careful not to annoy other fans with his camerawork.
The main reason Mr. Adams sought out other people's footage was that there were holes in his own. During Mr. Young's delicate cover of the Phil Ochs song "Changes," he recalls, "I got a little too adventurous with the camera and one of the ushers came over and told me to put it away." After that, he positioned the camera more discretely on the floor, aimed through railing slats.
At home, he found fan-made videos of songs he was missing or wanted to supplement, then sent the users messages through YouTube asking their permission to borrow them. Then he wove the various clips into his own with editing software, making do with some glitches. During an anecdote by Mr. Young about a guitar with a bullet hole in it, the image is blurry and an on-screen message reads, "Stay tuned...video will return shortly."
Mr. Adams, 44 years old, says sharing the video with fans who couldn't attend the sold-out concerts (which some critics predicted will go down as a landmark in Mr. Young's career), takes him back to his pre-Internet days of trading cassette tapes of the singer's concerts by mail with like-minded fans.
To avoid raising the ire of Mr. Young's camp or coming across as "a creep doing this for financial gain," Mr. Adams prefaced the video with a note encouraging viewers to purchase the singer's official releases. He said he has already declined several email offers from people seeking to buy the video for bootleg concert DVDs.
Michael Ma: There are thousands of fans that didn't get tickets to the Carnegie show but would have paid decent money to be able to watch a HD stream of the show. I don't think that it would reduce ticket sales either. I couldn't afford to buy a ticket and then fly to NYC but I would have paid $20-30 dollars to watch one of them. Embrace the technology, don't fight it.
Kevin J: it's a double edged sword. if you're holding up a camera in front of me at the concert, fuck you. if i'm at home watching the concert on youtube, thank you.
Paul K: Spent an entire day on the phone and computer trying to get a ticket. No luck! Thought I might have a ticket through a friend and then that fell through. then tried to get a ticket for the balcony throught the secondary market for the final night show. $1,000 for a balcony seat? uh, no thanks! Thanks to Tom for posting this incredible show.
Scooter V: In his book he goes on quite a bit about youtube. I wouldn't film him based on that and I sure wouldn't release an entire concert. Part of this is about the cost of going to see him, he's priced some fans out of attendance. My attitude is it would be cheaper to buy every recording he's ever made than to go see him. It's expensive for him to tour but that's his business. It's interesting but I won't watch it.
Since then, there have been a lot of rumors speculating on what occurred back in July 2013 and what we might eventually hear once released.
The title of Neil Young's new album is called A Letter Home to be released in March, per a quote from Neil in Rolling Stone.
Over on NY Times (Neil Young's official webpage), this item has been posted
A LETTER HOME
January 22, 2014
Third Man Records unearths Neil Young's "A Letter Home."
An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever...... Homer Grosvenor
Ahh, yes, the elusive Homer Grosvenor. Hmmm.
Rustie Ralf Böllhoff posts: "Homer Grosvenor" could be an allusion to Neil Young's home in Winnipeg. He lived there at 1123 Grosvenor Avenue. So maybe the songs of "A Letter Home" are referring to Neil Young's home in Canada in the 1960s. Neil's own songs on that album might be rediscovered and not yet recorded songs written far back in Winnipeg like his legandary first song "No" or pre-Squires songs or something like that."
While that fact is not in dispute, it seems Jack White's contributions are unclear despite what is being reported.
False Rumours: Neil Young and Jack White are not doing a record of duets as has been erroneously posted on various outlets. We are certain those rumours have no basis in truth.
It seems likely that Young recorded the album on a 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine located at Third Man's Nashville headquarters.
Originally made in 1947, the Voice-o-Graph is the only public vinyl record recording booth of its kind left in the world. After refurbishing it, Third Man opened the booth on Record Store Day 2013 and now anyone can come in and record up to two minutes of audio that's cut onto a six-inch phonograph disc. Young stopped by Third Man last year where he recorded a cover of Bert Jansch's "The Needle of Death" on the Voice-o-Graph last year for a special tribute to the acoustic guitar master.
After Neil Young's Farm Aid 2013 setlist of covers, the thinking was that many of these songs had been recorded in Nashville earlier, including:
Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot song)
Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter song)
Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin song)
Changes (Phil Ochs song)
Phil Ochs' song "Changes" was featured prominently in the recent concerts at Carnegie Hall and Honor the Treaties. Also, Bert Jansch's "Needle Of Death" would also be a possibility for the new album, as well.
Neil Young Honored by Grammy Producers Engineers Wing
Dave Matthews, Neil Young and Pegi Young
The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing GRAMMY Event
Village Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California - January 21st, 2014
Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Image
(Click photo to enlarge)
Last night, Neil Young accepted the President's Merit Award from the Producers & Engineers Wing of The Recording Academy/GRAMMYs.
In Young's acceptance speech, he covered a lot of ground discussing the recording process relative to producers and artists.
Dave Matthews performed a three-song acoustic set: "Rye Whiskey," "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)," and "The Needle and the Damage Done." Matthews said: "I hope that I am half the inspiration to people that you have been to me."
So all I'm trying to say is I'm one of you. You honor me, you're honoring yourself. It's not me: it's you.
It's what we do. Thank you so much. Digital. Digital is not bad. But Xerox is not good. I always like to say Picasso was really happy to see original Picassos everywhere, but when he went into some places and saw Xeroxes of Picassos, it didn't make him as happy, because he thought people thought that we was making those things. The thing we do is, we make great stuff in the studio and then we kiss its ass goodbye, because nobody's ever going to hear it. That's unfortunate, and it didn't use to be that way. That's something that happened to us – that's an injury we sustained, and it deeply hurt us.
So the time has come for us to recover and to bring music back to the people in a way that they can recognize it in their souls – through the window of their souls, their ears. So they can feel and vibrate and so that they can get goosebumps. We cherish those fucking goosebumps. We really need those.
I saw Neil Young in Calgary tonight and it was as good as I expected.
This is about the eighth or ninth time I have seen him over the last 23 years and the first time solo acoustic. (I’ve been a big NY fan for about 25 years.) I had followed the reviews from the recent shows back to Carnegie Hall and knew what to expect. The notable set list surprises (to me) were Four Strong Winds (Ian Tyson is from Alberta, so there is that connection), Blowin’ in the Wind, and Mother Earth. I had thought Mother Earth was a natural for the Treaties tour and was surprised that he had not been playing it. It’s one of the few pipe organ songs I really like, so it was a very pleasant surprise for me. I did not record an exact set list, but the one on Sugar Mountain looks right to me.
I’ve never heard Neil talk so much before. He probably spoke for ten times longer tonight than in all the previous shows I’ve seen combined. He seemed to be enjoying himself. The venue was where the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performs, so the sound quality was excellent. Unfortunately the great acoustics seemed to encourage certain people in the audience to shout their special messages and words of encouragement to Neil in-between songs. Thankfully they mostly kept quiet during his songs. I expect this must have been annoying to Neil, but he didn’t say so. In fact he did respond to a couple of the comments, which probably encouraged some of the shouters a little.
There was no film about the oilsands or even any discussion about it (from the stage at least), which surprised me a little. I thought there might be someone giving a small speech at the beginning, and I thought I had read that there would be a short film but there wasn’t. Near the end of the show, Neil thanked people for their support and noted that they had raised about $500,000. He also said, "Even if you don’t agree with me, we can still be friends" (I think I got that right), which I thought were wise words given some of the nasty comments that people have made towards him recently (in the mainstream media).
Neil seemed very strong vocally, to my untrained ear. While he presumably does not have the same vocal range that he had when he was younger, he still sounded great to me. In some cases changed the tone of his singing somewhat, becoming more expressive in some ways than the original recording. It’s hard for me to describe in words, but I was liked it. An example of this was his version of Mr. Soul, which was unlike any of the versions I had heard before (original, Unplugged, with Crazy Horse, etc). He did Mr. Soul on the pipe organ and it was really interesting vocally (his expressiveness). Unfortunately, I was not that keen on the pipe organ. Had he done it at the piano or on guitar, it would have been the highlight of the night for me.
Anyway, the show was great. I never really expected to have a chance to seen Neil solo acoustic in a great venue, so I’m really glad he jumped on this cause and came to Calgary. Despite being a fairly large city (1,000,000+), he has bypassed us on several tours. And thanks to Thrasher for this great blog – I’ve been reading it (intermittently) for years, but don’t think I’ve commented before.
Thanks Derek! Great report. Stop back by this way again next time.
Sounds like Calgary ended on a high note, especially with the encore songs.
More than 20 notable Canadians have penned a letter to support musician Neil Young following his concert tour to raise money for a First Nation fighting oilsands expansion in northern Alberta.
The group includes creative and performing artists, authors, scientists, a lawyer, and Order of Canada recipients.
Actor Neve Campbell, Booker-prize-winning author and Officer of the Order of Canada Michael Ondaatje and musician Gord Downie of the rock group The Tragically Hip are among those who have signed the letter.
It says that Young's tour raised more than $500,000 to help the Athabasca Chipewyan band pay for legal fees to protect its traditional land north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
The letter also says that Canada must decide if it wants to support First Nations rights and protect the environment.
"The time has come for Canada to decide if we want a future where First Nations rights and title are honoured, agreements with other countries to protect the climate are honoured, and our laws are not written by powerful oil companies. Or not."
"Instead of focusing on Neil Young's celebrity, Prime Minister Harper should inform Canadians how he plans to honour the treaties with First Nations," the letter said.
Campbell said in a written statement that while she has always been proud to call Canada her home, "now as a Canadian I feel deeply ashamed to see that our government has allowed the selfish profiteering of powerful oil companies, and blatantly ignored the health, well-being, and lives of our country's First Nations, as well as of the well-being of our world’s climate."
Downie of The Tragically Hip said, "I stand in support of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and all Canadians who find themselves with no voice in our present version of democracy, who are trying to come up with the entry fee that gets them a seat at the table where their pollution future is being discussed."
Full text of the open letter:
On his Honour the Treaties tour, Neil Young is doing what poets do - forcing us to examine ourselves. This is hard enough on a personal level and it can be even more difficult when we are being asked to examine the direction in which our country is headed.
The time has come for Canada to decide if we want a future where First Nations rights and title are honoured, agreements with other countries to protect the climate are honoured, and our laws are not written by powerful oil companies. Or not.
Neil’s tour has triggered the Prime Minister’s Office and oil company executives. They have come out swinging because they know that this is a hard conversation and they might lose. But that should not stop the conversation from happening.
Instead of focusing on Neil Young's celebrity, Prime Minister Harper should inform Canadians how he plans to honour the treaties with First Nations. This means ensuring the water, land, air, and climate are protected so the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and other First Nations communities be able to hunt, fish, gather plants and live off the land. Canada signed at reaty with them 114 years ago, and this must be honoured.
The world is watching as we decide who we will become. Will we disregard the treaties we have with First Nations? Will we continue to allow oil companies to persuade our government to gut laws, silence scientists, and disassemble civil society in order to allow reckless expansion of the oil sands?
We are proud to stand with Neil Young as he challenges us all to think about these larger, more profound and humane questions.
Now is the time for leadership and to honour promises that we have made, not personal attacks.
Michael Ondaatje, author, Officer of the Order of Canada
Margi Gillis, dancer,
Member of the Order of Canada
Clayton Ruby, lawyer, Member of the Order of Canada
Dr. David Suzuki, scientist,
Companion of the Order of Canada
Dr. David Schindler, scientist, Officer of the Order of Canada
Stephen Lewis, Companion of the Order of Canada
Joseph Boyden, author
Gord Downie, musician
Sarah Harmer, musician
Naomi Klein, author
Dr. John Stone, scientist
Tzeporah Berman, author
Amanda Boyden, author
Neve Campbell, actor
Wade Davis, author
Dr. Danny Harvey, climate scientist
J.B. MacKinnon, author
Dan Managan, musician
Sid Marty, author
Andrew Nikiforuk, author
Rick Smith, author
John Valliant, author
Ronald Wright, author
>> Pre-Order on Amazon.com << 
Human Highway
Concert Review of the Moment
This Land is My Land
FREEDOM In A New Year
*Thanks Neil!*
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.thrasherswheat.org/gifs/free-speech.gif)
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"We're The Ones 
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