Jay About Neil Young

So my special lady and I team up w/ LB Squared and the JBs for an evening w/ Neil Young. We started over at one of my legal council's place for some fun, conversation and a really nice meal. It was then onto the venue. We had to navigate at least one drunk driver and a couple other ya-yos as well as crazy traffic but LB's traffic app got us to our destination. I must admit I was not going in w/ high high expectations. While I really like Neil's music and he has never played in VT before... I have seen a few of the old guard play past their prime and it is generally not pretty. The voices are usually strained and hollow, and the musicianship is haggard at best. When you look at Neil Young he certainly looks like he will fill that bill.

Happily this was not the case. Hey, Neil Young has never had a beautiful voice but it is unique. What came through Sunday night was strong and sounded just like he has always sounded (more or less). I am not getting into the opener Nora Jones, she was fine. Neil opened on piano and banged out a couple classics solo on acoustic guitar and harmonica. He then moved to the first Monsanto tune on the pipe organ? He busted out the band and played a few more semi acoustic before breaking out the big stick to really rip. The backup band Promise of the New is apparently made up of some of Willy Nelson's kids and they were a nice accompaniment. One kid busted out Moonlight in Vermont and sounded just like Willy. Neil was fierce. His guitar ripped and he was bopping around invading other musicians space all over the place. He was great. They are touring for a new album and it kind of sucks but they mixed in a bunch of the old tunes that were great and they jammed out on the new stuff enough to keep you engaged. They played one long set trying to evade the weather that managed to remain at bay.

Overall 2 thumbs up. I was very pleasantly surprised at how hard a 70 year old rocks out. And apparently he dates the Mermaid...