Meryl Streep Gets Guitar Lesson from Neil Young at Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC )

Meryl Streep Gets Guitar Lesson from Neil Young at the Jacob Burns Film Center.

Be sure to listen to final image and comment from Meryl Streep. Classic Neil.

Meryl Streep got a guitar lesson from Neil Young for Jonathan Demme film ‘Ricki and the Flash’.


Young told Streep: "You see all the amplifiers and all the wires and you go 'what is all this s-t? Crank it up to 11' ".

More on Neil Young connections to film connections to film ‘Ricki and the Flash’.

More on Meryl Streep's Guitar Lesson from Neil Young | Tonight Show .

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"Down By The River" Cover by Dave Matthews Band w/ Warren Haynes - 6/26/15 - Camden - [Multicam/HQ-Audio]

6 voices, 3 horns, 2 electric guitars, fiddle, acoustic guitar, bass, and drummer.

Warren Haynes joins Dave Matthews Band to cover "Down By The River" by Neil Young in Camden, New Jersey on 6/26/15. Backing vocalists the Lovely Ladies also joined the Dave Matthews Band and Haynes for the cover. Multicam / Taper Audio / Fan Media. Matt Cappy also guests on trumpet.

This was the first time DMB has covered the song "Down By The River" since May 2007.

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A Re-Appraisal of "The Monsanto Years" by Neil Young and Promise of the Real

The Monsanto Years - Neil Young + Promise Of The Real

There's been quite a bit of back and forth, up and down, and over and over on Neil Young's latest album The Monsanto Years with Promise of the Real.

FWIW, the Metacritic index score currently stands at 61, ranging from a high of a perfect "100" from The Guardian (by critic Jon Dennis) and a low of 20 from New York Daily News (by critic Jim Faber).

But as a PopMatters review by Lee Zimmerman states: "While the message often appears to overpower the music, the album is nowhere near the unlistenable mess some critics have claimed."

From PopMatters:

Both an unapologetic rabble-rouser and an unrepentant rocker, Neil Young has never been one to deny his muse. From his earliest output under the auspices of the Buffalo Springfield through a fifty year career marked by continuous starts and shifts, he’s proven himself a chameleon of multiple hues, continually shifting his stance with each new turn in the road. Few artists could absorb such inconsistency, one that ranges from the rage and resolve of his work with Crazy Horse to the sensitive singer/songwriter fare constructed around a single guitar and a howl of despair. And when Young’s on a tear, be it through the confounding techno circuitry of Trans, the daunting experimentation of Arc, the haphazard happenstance of Psychedelic Pill or the unrepressed anger of Living with War, commercial considerations be damned, because Young’s continually determined to express his emphatic sentiments.

Like Living with War, The Monsanto Years is an unblemished social statement that aims both barrels at multiple targets of scorn. In this case it happens to be a company that Young has accused of fouling the environment and contributing to the greed and overreach of corporate America. Yet while the message often appears to overpower the music, the album is nowhere near the unlistenable mess some critics have claimed. In fact, many of the songs are extremely accessible, even when compared to much of the earlier music that can be gleaned from Young’s catalog. Few will be destined to become classics, but many may reach a second tier. Granted, there’s no “Harvest Moon”, or “Cinnamon Girl”, or “A Child’s Came to Fame”, or in fact, anything of that ilk whatsoever. But given the low-cast hue of “Wolf Moon”—a song that might actually have found a good fit on Harvest Moon—the terse anthemic stance of “A New Day for Love” or the whistling refrain that embellishes “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop”, the worries that this is an overbearing, inconsistent and excruciating encounter prove mainly to be for naught.

Granted, the lyrics are somewhat cumbersome and heavy-handed, further detracting from the possibility of ensuring these songs will ever be considered of the hummable variety. “It’s a bad day to do nuthin’ / While so many people need our help / To keep their lands from the greedy / Who only plunder for themselves”, Young wails on “A New Day for Love”. Be forewarned: any suggestion that this will encourage the masses to sing along in combined protest is merely wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, Young has an able crew in tow in the form of Promise of the Real, which, under the direction of Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Michah, comes like a sufficiently untamed Crazy Horse. Their rampaging audio assault on “Working Man” and “Big Box” not only adds to the album veracity, but ensures its overall impact as well.

There will be those who will be understandably disappointed that Young has opted to voice his frustrations in such an overt and aggressive way. Nevertheless, it’s hard to fault the man for being true to his passion and purpose. The Monsanto Years may not be an album for the ages, but there’s never a moment of doubt that the conviction is clear.

As for us here at Thrasher's Wheat? As always with Neil, "Live Music Is Better". Songs like "Big Box", while on the album seem a bit tame, in concert totally rock out.

Seriously -- if you've been following the Rebel Content tour (like we have here and here) -- you know what we mean.

See you on the rail this fall!

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VIDEO: "Cortez The Killer" - Neil Young + Promise of the Real, Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY - July 21, 2015

A real killer of a version of "Cortez The Killer" by Neil Young + Promise of the Real at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY - July 21, 2015.

This one clocks in at over 17 minutes. Crank it up and enjoy.

More on Neil Young + Promise of the Real 2015 Rebel Content Tour.

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JUNG NEIL: Love and Only Love from the Baghavad Gita (It’s All One Song)

"Battle of Kurukshetra of the Mahabharata Epic"
On the left the Pandava hero Arjuna sits behind Krishna, his charioteer. On the right is Karna, commander of the Kaurava army.
(Click photo to enlarge)
And now for something completely different in Neil Young News... wheat of a different variety, yet still organic, GMO-free, without herbicides or pesticides from our Tour Manager, Hounds That Howell.

Please note, this a heavy wheat posting that takes a bit of concentration and focus and is NOT meant for idle scrolling through while stuck in traffic.

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JUNG NEIL: Love and Only Love from the Baghavad Gita (It’s All One Song)

What characteristics create some of Neil’s most emotionally evocative and loved music?

Sure in his most resonant songs Neil taps into the great musical vibrations of the universe that create the sound we love. Reflecting on the lyrics, he sings about classic psychological archetypes, a recurring musical motif. In Love and Only Love Neil teaches the lessons of two of our strongest emotions – Love and Hate. His description of their power and importance to our living a happy life is so elemental he has tapped into the root message of one of the greatest religious writings in history, the Bahgavad Gita. Neil is singing about the Bible of India. Take a walk down this Spirit Road to see these parallels…

"Long ago in the book of old,
Before the chapter where dreams unfold
A battle raged on the open page,
Love was a winner there overcoming hate
Like a little girl who couldn't wait."

The Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god Vivasvan.

Well, it certainly is old. Krishna sang the Gita (song in Sanskrit) to Vivasvan the sun god 120 million years ago, so just a couple of years before Neil was born.

Part of an ancient Hindu epic poem, the 700 verse Bahgavad Gita takes place on a battlefield, where CIVIL war for the possession of a North Indian kingdom is about to ensue between two noble families related by blood. The epic’s hero, young Prince Arjuna is torn between his duty as a warrior and his revulsion at the thought of his brothers and cousins killing each other over control of the realm.

Ultimately this song illustrates the battlefields each of uses faces in the outer world and in our inner world – the debates that occupy our minds over ethical and moral choices. The Gita explains how to wage the battle between love and hate. How must we act when action is right or wrong. It says we must act to resolve these struggles and it explains how we must act to fight them. This is the lesson of the Gita.

Krishna and arjuna on chariot during kurukshetra war.

"Love and only love will endure
Hate is everything you think it is
Love and only love will break it down
Love and only love, will break it down”

Frozen by this ethical dilemma Arjuna debates the big questions of life and death with the supreme Hindu Deity Krishna who is cleverly disguised as his charioteer. Eastern beliefs about morality and reincarnation, the vision and practice of yoga, the Indian social order and its responsibilities, family loyalty, spiritual knowledge and the loftiest pursuits of the human heart (love) are explored in depth.

It explains the very purpose of life and existence culminating in the ultimate state of yoga, in which souls unite in the heart of God. Innarestingly, YOGA is Sanskrit for yoke, join. So in this case it means “to join with God, create a unity with God.”

Tomorrow is a long longtime if you're a memory
Trying to find peace of mind
Spirit come back to me,
Give me strength and set me free
Let me hear the magic in my heart.

Krishna and Love and Only Love

The word Bahgavad means “the Beloved Lord,” referring to Krishna - the Spirit being called forth in the song. So this work is, on its deepest level is a song issuing forth from the Heart of God for all souls to love him, to take the journey with him to be blissfully united with him. Why does he want you to join with him? Join, unite, yoke to the divine and you will have the knowledge - the strength - to be set free from your struggles. The struggles to resolve confusion on how to act to transform your precarious painful world into a meaningful one. Here's the magic in your heart is awareness. Awareness of the solution to the existential questions so you can meet the challenges of the outer and inner world with strength and resolve. Peace and love now you decide.

Love and only love will endure
Hate is everything you think it is
Love and only love will break it down
Love and only love, will break it down
Break it down, break it down.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

We are often caught between love and hate. We vacillate between thoughts and actions that elevate the spirit, the love, helping us to rise above the destructive forces surrounding us and within us, and those that degrade the spirit - the hate - and further embroil us in the perils of worldly existence. This hate is everything you think it is. You know how it causes pain to you and all of those around you.

"Long ago in the book of old,
Before the chapter where dreams unfold
A battle raged on the open page,
Love was a winner there overcoming hate
Like a little girl who couldn't wait.

Love and only love will endure
Hate is everything you think it is
Love and only love will break it down
Love and only love"

Krishna is issuing a love call to all souls. He is singing Love and only love will break it, the confusion keeping you from true happiness, down so you can unite with him, in his heart. It is a call which says to all souls, the heart of God passionately desires to connect with the hearts of humans. Here you - humans - have an opportunity to live a life of Dharma a godly life promoting true happiness in relation to your worldly responsibilities and ultimate spiritual goals. So it is true. Hate is everything you think it is a dead end of misery, suffering, pain and disappointment. Only Love Will Endure and give you true happiness. Neil has written a Rock and Roll translation of a classic work of religious literature and that’s what makes this song a classic.

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With my deepest thanks and appreciation to Graham Schweig and his Bhagavad Gita: The Beloved Lord's Secret Love Song - Harper Collins Publishers 2007. Most of the explanation about the Gita is directly quoted from the book. It was an honor spending the evening with you sir and John Schumacher at his Unity Woods Yoga Studio in Bethesda, Maryland discussing your book. Yes, the journey holds many secrets.

Scholar and Yogi - Graham Schweig

A leading Yoga Instructors and rock and roll drummer John Schumacher

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Thanks so much Hounds That Howell! Definitely making that universal connection to the spirit of all that is Neil and love and peace. The illusion continues to crumble... namaste



"Love and Only Love" - Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Lucca Summer Festival, Piazza Napoleone, 25.07.2013

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Micah Nelson Interview on Rebel Content Tour | Rolling Stone

Neil Young & Micah Nelson

Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY - July 21, 2015

Photo by Hounds That Howell

(Click photo to enlarge)

A great interview with Micah Nelson on the recently completed Neil Young + Promise of the Real 2015 Rebel Content Tour.

From Rolling Stone by Andy Greene:

Micah Nelson: "We were playing 'Big Box' at the Nebraska show and suddenly I was floating above my body. I thought to myself, 'I'm playing a show now, and I need to keep moving my hands and get back down because otherwise I'm going to fuck up.' It was very bizarre and euphoric."

"One of the best moments was when we did 'Cortez the Killer' for 20 minutes as the encore at Jones Beach," Nelson says. "At the end, Neil played that three note riff for what seemed like 10 minutes straight while we all danced around the stage, waving our guitars like we were having a lightsaber battle. He hit the whammy bar so hard, all the strings just ripped out of the guitar. It wasn't just one of my favorite moments of the tour, but of my entire life."

"One night, as the sun was setting, Neil played 'After the Gold Rush' on the piano," says Nelson. "I said, 'Wouldn't it be great to open the show like that?' He said, 'Yeah.' Then we all just kind of came up with the set list together, though I think Neil had been conceiving it in his mind for quite some time. The basic idea was that we'd progress from acoustic to mellow to heavy and electric, but filling in the blanks was a collaborative effort."

"Every night was like climbing a mountain," says Nelson. "You start down in the Shire, and by the end, you're in the crater of Mount Doom. He never really wanted us to rehearse anything too much, just have the essence and vibe of any song. Sometimes the first time we ever did a song, we were in front of 50,000 people."

"He's a nuclear reactor," says Nelson. "He was pushing us as much as we were pushing him, honestly. One of the greatest things about the whole thing was that he was just as fired up and energized as we were. It was just peaking constantly. The whole show was this big eruption, and just when you thought it couldn't get any heavier, we just kept pushing each other."

"I'm running on fumes," he says. "But they're powerful fumes. I'm so inspired to record new material now. I learned so much from playing with Neil. It's like apprenticing with a Jedi master. Now I get to come back and apply the lessons to my own projects. I hope it never ends."

"The rumor at the end of this run was that we'd start at Farm Aid [on September 18th]," he says, "and then tour with Neil up the West Coast leading to the Bridge School Benefit [on October 24th.] I think it's gonna happen. I hope it's gonna happen. It sounds like it's gonna happen, but I honestly have no idea. It's an interesting process of getting information in the Neil world. His management will hear things after my brother and I hear them, or I won't know that something is happening until I read about it in the press. There's no system of communication. It just happens."

"This could be all over for us tomorrow," says Nelson. "Right now, he's riding the wave with us, but tomorrow he might call and say, 'OK, I wanna make a polka record with this German band.' Neil does whatever he wants whenever the muse calls him, but it seems like right now the muse is Promise of the Real, and Neil is our muse. It's a beautiful collaboration. It sounds like we're going to push it until it can't go any further."

Full interview at "Inside Neil Young's Epic Summer Tour With Promise of the Real" | Rolling Stone by Andy Greene.

Also, more reviews of Neil Young + Promise of the Real 2015 Rebel Content Tour.

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CONTEST: Neil Young + Promise of the Real Photo

"Love and Only Love"
Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY - July 21, 2015
Photo by Hounds That Howell
(Click photo to enlarge)
In the spirit of love and all that is good and real about Neil Young and their rustie fans, we're pleased to be able to offer a free print of the photo above to a lucky Thrasher's Wheat reader. Details follow below.

Thanks to the photographer Hounds That Howell, the winner will receive a high resolution print measuring 11" X 14" from the Rebel Content Tour. For more details, see Memories From the Rail: Neil Young + Promise of the Real - Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY - July 21, 2015

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HOW TO WIN A COPY OF "Neil Young + Promise of the Real Photo"

Lucky Thrasher's Wheat supporters will be eligible to win a free copy of the Neil Young + Promise of the Real print. We truly appreciate being able to do 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 + Promise of the Real Photo"

Include name, postal mailing address with *country*.

Deadline: August 28, 2015

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

Don't Be Denied!

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