CONTEST: Win a Neil Young & Crazy Horse Print

"Along For the Ride"
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Kingston Ontario, Canada, on Oct 5 2012
Art by Lindsay Walker
(Click photo to enlarge)

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you hearts of gold out there!

And in the spirit of love and all that is good about Neil Young & Crazy Horse and their rustie fans, we're pleased to be able to offer a free print of the art above to a Thrasher's Wheat reader. Details follow below.

Thanks to the artist Lindsay Walker, the lucky winner will receive a Limited Edition Artist's proof signed/numbered print measuring 27" X 42".

Lindsay tells us this about the print:

The original photo reference is from the first time I saw the Alchemy Tour in Kingston Ontario, Canada, on Oct 5 2012. The finished oil on hemp painting is from a compilation of dozens of reference photos.

The "Poncho Hop" and the crowd is how they look when I see them in my head. I tried to recreate that feeling of overwhelming joy that a Crazy Horse concert brings to everyone that I have ever seen or met at a show. Where everyone is just so happy, and alive. Where the air is filled with Peace, and Love. That place where you lose yourself in the music, and nothing else matters but that very moment. Anyone who has been lucky enough to attend a Crazy Horse with Neil concert surely remembers how incredible riding with The Horse live actually is. You never forget that magical feeling of being there, and you just can't wait until the next time when you are there again.

Until that next time when you are "Along For the Ride". And what a ride it is.

Lindsay is a painter living on Prince Edward Island, Canada who has been creating art about humanity living harmoniously with nature. Prince Edward Island, with such rich culture, surrounded by the beauty of pristine red sandy beaches and rolling green hills has been the inspiration for his work. He has found beauty in the unexpected...rusty vintage trucks sitting abandoned in the woods with trees and life growing wild through it’s patina only time can create. His paintings depict quiet simple moments of rural life past and present.

After deep introspection and concern over the welfare of humanity and grace he is feeling compelled to begin a new body of work about our past actions and habits that have effected our present day and will effect our future world. He hopes to inspire conversation, debate about our responsibility and hopefully our enlightenment. The increasing damage we inflict upon each other and Mother Earth is a subject we can no longer ignore. Lindsay plans to begin a new adventure on canvas in 2015, pushing beyond his usual comfort zone, beyond the nostalgia of the good ole' days. He has been thinking about and wanting to start this new work for years and was waiting for something to happen before starting...what that was he's not sure. But now he feels a driving passion to conquer his fears with love in his heart, and speak his truth.

Lindsay lives out in the country with his dogs, and shares Walker Studios in the City, a fine art and jewellery gallery with his wife Jeanette.

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HOW TO WIN A COPY OF "Neil Young & Crazy Horse Print"

Lucky Thrasher's Wheat supporters will be eligible to win a free copy of the Neil Young & Crazy Horse Print. We truly appreciate being able to what we do here at TW, and we love being able to give something back in return.

To enter the contest, follow these steps:

#1) Subscribe (or be already subscribed) to one of our blogfeed channels either via Facebook (LIKE us), Twitter (FOLLOW us) and/or subscribe to our email list.

2) Then just email us (thrasher@thrasherswheat.org) with your name, postal mailing address with *country*, and which blogfeed channel you signed up for (Facebook, Twitter, email list options noted above in Step #1). *Be sure to identify your complete Facebook ID, Twitter handle, or email address.*

Entries must be emailed with SUBJECT line: Contest - "Neil Young & Crazy Horse Print"

Include name, postal mailing address with *country*.

Deadline: February 21, 2015

We'll then randomly select Thrasher's Wheat readers as winners.

Don't Be Denied!

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Stephen Stills Says Neil Young Will Play His Annual Autism Benefit

Stephen Stills
(Click photo to enlarge)
Some good news to look forward to from Stephen Stills (via ABCNewsRadio):

Stephen Stills has revealed that the third annual Light Up the Blues benefit concert will be held on April 25 at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The folk-rock great will perform at the event along with his old Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young band mate Neil Young, alt-country artist Steve Earle and singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin.
...

Stills noted that many of his contemporaries have children on the autism spectrum, and maintained that playing the benefit is “a wonderful experience.” The Autism Speaks organization funds research and supports advocacy efforts for people affected by the disorder and their families. You can find out more information at AutismSpeaks.org.

Meanwhile, Stills also told reporters that he’s just completed the second album by his blues-rock supergroup The Rides, which also features guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and former Electric Flag keyboardist Barry Goldberg.

“It’s bad to the bone, and it’ll be out in May,” Stephen reported, adding, “I don’t know what we’re gonna call it yet.”

Stills said the band worked with veteran studio engineer Ed Cherney, whose credits include albums by The Rolling Stones and many other famous artists. Stephen explained that in listening to The Rides’ new material being played back, he expected to hear Mick Jagger‘s voice come blasting out of the speakers.

Stills also pointed out that the band completed work on the record very quickly. “It was really a shock,” he said. “It just was easy as pie.”

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Comment of the Moment: Dallas Taylor ... Gone, Forgotten, and ... Remembered

Dallas Taylor: 1948 - 2015
Music Scene - 1970
Photo by Jeff Allen

The Comment of the Moment is from "Dallas Taylor: 1948 - 2015" by Moonmaid:

Dallas' sound was so unique - it really was at the heart of that band's rhythm. He partnered with Stills at the creation of CSN and apparently was opposed to Neil Young joining the band, believing (correctly as it turned out) that given Stills and Young's past acrimonious history, egos would flare and overtake the music, which up to then had been sort of a hippie feel-good lovefest. Young and Stills again battled, and apparently Young wanted to quit the band mid-tour in 1970, but the record company execs convinced him to stay. However, Neil insisted that Stills fire Dallas Taylor (although Stills rehired him for Manassas shortly afterward)and he did.

Dallas went on to play very well for a few years with Manassas and Bill Wyman and even Van Morrison at Montreaux 1974 (check out the YouTube video of song "Bulbs" to see some amazing drumming and a great song), but his addiction spiraled out of control, and he became a total mess for several years, culminating in a 1985 suicide attempt, which triggered his sobriety and new career as an addiction counselor and interventionist.

CSNY rallied to Dallas' benefit in 1990 when he needed an expensive liver transplant, and they played together at a benefit concert in Santa Monica, and talked like they all had rediscovered their deep friendship. But then Dallas wrote a brutal memoir in 1994, pulling no punches in describing not only his own behavior, but the depravity of the late 60s and early 70s rock scene, including the whole CSNY tale from his point of view. It apparently so pissed off CSNY that he became persona non grata, and they even erased his back screen door image from the box set CSN album photo.

As a longtime fan, it's a shame that none of the CSNY members have seen fit to comment on Dallas' passing. That band had such an amazing chemistry when he was drumming; he and Stills really sparked each other. It was not the same music afterward. I saw how David Crosby referred to Dallas a few years back as "a drummer who played on some early albums", which seems nearly criminal, considering that those two albums are what makes the band important in rock history. Addicts in recovery usually pull no punches in talking about their past behavior, and after reading that book, I understand why CSNY were pissed off (he talks about them sharing girlfriends and doing boatloads of drugs and the whole dissolute LA 1970s rock star lifestyle), but to try to erase this bandmember's accomplishments and not even mention him upon his passing seems wrong to me.

Thanks Moonmaid! Sadly, it does seem that Dallas' passing will fade away quickly... gone and forgotten.

In loving memory of Dallas Woodrow Taylor Jr. 

(Session Drummer; Associated Acts: Clear Light, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young, Steven Stills, Manassas) 

April 07, 1948 – January 18, 2015 RIP

More on Dallas Taylor: 1948 - 2015.

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TRANSCRIPT: Bob Dylan's Comments at MusiCares 2015

Bob Dylan, Jimmy Carter, Neil PortnowThis past weekend, Bob Dylan was honored at MusiCares as the Person of the Year by the Recording Academy in Los Angeles.

From transcript of Bob Dylan's comments at MusiCares 2015:

These songs didn't come out of thin air. I didn't just make them up out of whole cloth. Contrary to what Lou Levy said, there was a precedent. It all came out of traditional music: traditional folk music, traditional rock 'n' roll and traditional big band swing orchestra music.

I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them, back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that's fair game, that everything belongs to everyone. For three or four years all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I'd heard it just once.

If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me --

"John Henry was a steel-­‐driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand."

If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too.

...
All these songs are connected. Don't be fooled. I just opened up a different door in a different kind of way. It's just different, saying the same thing. I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. Well you know, I just thought I was doing something natural, but right from the start, my songs were divisive for some reason. They divided people. I never knew why. Some got angered, others loved them. Didn't know why my songs had detractors and supporters. A strange environment to have to throw your songs into, but I did it anyway.

Last thing I thought of was who cared about what song I was writing. I was just writing them. I didn't think I was doing anything different. I thought I was just extending the line. Maybe a little bit unruly, but I was just elaborating on situations. Maybe hard to pin down, but so what? A lot of people are hard to pin down and you’ve just got to bear it.

In a sense everything evened itself out.

Also, Dylan thanked musicians who influenced him:

1. PETER, PAUL AND MARY

“I didn’t usually think of myself as writing songs for others to sing, but it was starting to happen. And it couldn’t have happened with a better group. They took a song of mine that I’d recorded before that was buried on one of my early records (Blowin’ in the Wind), and they turned it into a hit song. Not the way I would have done it — they straightened it out. But since then hundreds of people have recorded it. I don’t think that would have happened if it wasn’t for them. They definitely started something for me.”

2-4. THE BYRDS, THE TURTLES, SONNY AND CHER

“They made some of my songs top-10 hits. But I wasn’t a pop songwriter. I never even wanted to be that. But it was good that it happened. Their versions of songs were like commercials. I didn’t really mind that. Because 50 years later my songs would be used for commercials. So that was good, too. I was glad it happened.”

5. PERVIS STAPLES AND THE STAPLE SINGERS

“Before they were on Stax, they were on Epic. They were one of my favorite groups of all time. I met them all in ’62 or ’63. They heard my songs live. Pervis wanted to record three or four of them, and he did, with the Staple Singers. They were the type of artists I wanted recording my songs.”

6. NINA SIMONE

“I used to cross paths with her in New York City at the Village Gate nightclub. These were the artists I looked up to. She recorded some of my songs that she learned directly from me. She was an overwhelming artist. Piano player and singer. Very strong woman, very outspoken and dynamite to see perform. That she was recording my songs validated for me everything I was about.”

7. JIMI HENDRIX

“We can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi perform when he was with a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Something like that. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player. He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere. Turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.”

8. JOHNNY CASH

“Johnny Cash recorded some of my songs early on, too. I met him about ’63, when he was all skin and bones. He traveled long, he traveled hard, but he was a hero of mine. I heard many of his songs growing up. I knew them better than I knew my own. Big River, I Walk the Line. ‘How high’s the water, mama?’ I wrote It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) with that song reverberating inside my head. I still ask, ‘How high’s the water, mama?’

“Johnny was an intense character, and he saw that people were putting me down. Playing electric music. And he posted letters to magazines, scolding people, telling them to shut up and let him sing. In Johnny Cash’s world of hardcore Southern drama, that kind of thing didn’t exist. Nobody told anybody what to sing or what not to sing. Critics didn’t do that kind of thing.

“I’ve always got to thank him for doing that. Johnny Cash was a giant of a man. The Man in Black. And I’ll always cherish the friendship we had until the day there is no more days.”

9. JOAN BAEZ

“Oh, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Joan Baez. She was the queen of folk music then and now. She took a liking to my songs and brought me with her to play concerts where she had crowds of thousands of people enthralled with her beauty and voice. People say, ‘What are you doing with that ragtag, scrubby looking waif?’ And she’d tell the audience in no uncertain terms, ‘Now, you’d better be quiet and listen to your songs.’ We even played a few of them together.

“Joan Baez is a tough-minded as they come. … A free, independent spirit. Nobody can tell her what to do if she doesn’t want to do it. I learned a lot of things from her. A woman of devastating honesty. For her kind of love and devotion, I could never repay that back.”

Full transcript of Bob Dylan's comments at MusiCares 2015.

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