when the now famous roxy nightclub in west hollywood decided to open its doors in september of 1973, they invited neil young to be their inaugural act. graham nash and cheech and chong were the openers. neil brought his band at the time – the santa monica flyers – and they were basically auditioning songs they had just recorded for the album that would eventually be released in 1975 as ‘tonight’s the night’.

let me interject right here: of all the things neil has done in his long career, my two favorite releases are ‘tonight’s the night’ and ‘on the beach’. written and recorded during a dark period in his life and career, they are not happy folky top forty material. if you want that, check out ‘comes a time’. this material gets much closer to what i consider to be the true genius of neil. one of the pioneers in fusing rock, country, and folk into a new genre, it was a sound that would launch a thousand alt country and americana acts for decades to come. listen to these two albums and then go listen to some early wilco, son volt, jayhawks, etc.

it’s all there.                                

this was a period when neil was rebelling against the fame he had recently experienced due to the tremendous commercial success of his ‘harvest’ album, and the saccharine offerings from crosby stills nash and young. he and the band had also been dealing with the double loss of guitarist danny whitten and their roadie (bruce berry) to drug overdoses. neil had actually kicked danny out of the studio because he was so strung out on heroin that he couldn’t play. just a few hours later he got the call from the coroner’s office that he was dead. neil took responsibility for both deaths, and much of the material in both of these works – especially ‘tonight’ – is a bit of a cathartic exercise in dealing with the loss.

of all the bands that neil put together over the years, this is also one of my favorites. nils lofgren on guitars and keyboards, ben keith on pedal steel, and his crazy horse rhythm section of billy talbot and ralph molina. they had been working on these numbers all summer in a studio just up the road in hollywood. the performance captured here, and recently released from neil’s archives, is a jaunty trip through most of the songs that would be heard two years later. keep in mind that the crowd has not previously heard any of the material, and still was very supportive (and drunk). they also throw in ‘walk on’, which would later appear on the ‘on the beach’ album. there is some hilarious stage banter from neil, which is almost worth the price of admission itself. as i alluded to above, this is not for everyone. but if you are a fan of this period of neil’s work, or if you are a student of roots americana and are looking for some of the source material, look no further.

 

it has been four long years since the minnesota based trampled by turtles have released a studio album.  the band had taken a long hiatus, mostly due to road weariness and personal struggles. lead singer and founder dave simonett even quit the band for a while. founded in 2004 in duluth, all the members of the band had previously been in rock and punk bands and had zero experience in anything bluegrass. but at some point they started experimenting with adding acoustic instruments to their repertoire, and then they started realizing that they had some success with hybridizing their sound. by 2008 they had their first top ten record with ‘duluth’.

when confronted with traditionalists who claim that they are not a real bluegrass band, they proudly agree with them. as their fiddle player ryan young says, ‘we are a rock and roll band that plays bluegrass instruments. we’re closer to neil young than bill monroe in terms of the structure of the songs and how they are written or played’. that being said, i would categorize them in the bluegrass genre, albeit with a bit of octane added. if you are not familiar with them, i would put them in the same category of avett brothers, turnpike troubadors, and maybe old crow medicine show.

when they got back together in a cabin in the northwoods of minnesota after not seeing each other for over a year, they weren’t planning on putting together material for a new album. but within hours of reuniting, they learned of tom petty’s death, and somehow this prompted a burst of creativity that put them in the studio two months later. they decided to go back to how they started recording, all of them seated in a circle and running through each song a few times before hitting the ‘record’ button. the result is a well balanced ensemble of ballads and fast paced ditties. the first cut and single is ‘kelly’s bar’, and is a good introduction to the overall theme of the 12 song offering. like the troubadors and old crow, they are all accomplished musicians, and put on a helluva show (‘live at first avenue’ is a good example of their live performance). i have been waiting for this one for a long time. it is worth the wait.