Neil Young in the 'Peg (& RIP Ben Keith)

[Kanada Kev]

from the G&M:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/neil-lands-in-winnipeg-with-a-few-new-tricks/article1653411/

“Welcome home,†screamed several loudmouths in the audience towards the seated figure in the white blazer and panama hat. Neil Young ignored them. In body, he was home. In spirit, he was off circling Jupiter, as usual.

Playing an intimate solo show for the first time in decades before the city that shaped his enigmatic musical identity, a morbid Young draped the audience in melancholy, nostalgia and straight-up awe for much of his 90-minute set. One day before, he’d lost his long-time steel guitar player, Ben Keith, the man responsible for the distinctive country twang on Neil Young albums from Harvest in 1972 on up to last year’s Fork in the Road.

“This is for Ben Keith,†he announced prior to his first encore number, Old Man, in what would be his longest utterance of the night. “His spirit will live on. The Earth has taken him.â€

It all seemed painfully thematic; the 64-year-old folk-rock legend debuted six songs and a completely new guitar style from a forthcoming Daniel Lanois-produced album full of laments for lost friends and dirges for a dying planet. The sentimental Young of albums past – the one who longed for the blonde waitress in Unknown Legend or for a Heart of Gold – has clearly seen too many friends die to bother with cloying lyrics any more.

That turn in his songwriting sensibility was on full display Monday, as Young flitted between 11 rhythmic past hits and harsh new material. Thundering through the 1970 hit After the Gold Rush on pump organ, he dreamily imagined humanity would avoid environmental apocalypse by “flying Mother Nature’s silver seed to a new home in the sun.â€

By contrast, his new environmental anthem, Rumblin’, is comparatively frank and unvarnished: “I can feel the weather changing, all around, all around/ Don’t you feel that new wind blowing/ Don’t you recognize that sound?†If he were an entertainer who gave a damn about popular approval, these clumsy new lines might be the cause for embarrassment. But true fans, or Rusties, at the Winnipeg show realized they were witnessing the latest iteration of their favourite alien artist, a guy oblivious to popular approval. “I’m not really here,†he responded to one man who felt compelled to yell “NEIL!†a million times.

He eased them onto this latest stage of his twisted musical road with My My, Hey Hey, Tell Me Why and Helpless – all pitch-perfect renditions of 30-plus-year-old songs (his voice actually sounds better, less warbly, than it has in years) before hauling out a diabolical new guitar setup that can simulate a bass guitar and flamenco treble with a single strum. Mr. Lanois’s inventive influence is clearly at work here, transforming the distinctive Neil sound just as he did on Time Out of Mind in 1997, the album that returned Bob Dylan to critical and commercial success.

You Never Call, the first new number of the night, is a lighthearted eulogy for L.A. Johnson, the long-time film collaborator of Young’s alter ego, Bernard Shakey: “You’re in heaven with nothing to do/ the ultimate vacation with no back pain.â€

He then moved to Peaceful Valley, a spaghetti-western-tinged epic that tracks the progress of the West from cowboys to peak oil.

The third unveiling, Love and War, seemed to apologize for recent off-the-cuff albums that were long on political timeliness but short on magic: “I sang for justice but I hit a bad chord/ I still try to sing about love and war.â€

And then came some restyled old treats. He ripped through Down by the River and Ohio on his trusty black Les Paul, songs usually backed by thumping rhythm sections. Just four months from pensioner’s age, Young proved that he may be the most talented and energetic one-man band in the business, adorning each hit with his trademark raw guitar solos and stomping right leg.

That revved things up for numbers on two pianos and his beloved pump organ, as well as a complete seven-minute version of Cortez the Killer and a scrappy Cinnamon Girl to end the set.

His encore seemed too brief, with his tear-jerking rendition of Old Man and Walk with Me, another exemplar of the spooky new Lanois sound he’s adopted, complete with vocal loops, digital delay, muffled reverb and God knows what else – stuff from other planets.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Guest

[skelter]

Damn ... I didn't know about Ben Keith (I read another review that didn't mention it!)

http://www.spinner.ca/2010/07/27/ben-keith-dead/

[DevO]

RIP Ben Keith (1937-2010)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/07/ben-keith-neil-youngs-steel-guitarist-19352010.html

Ben Keith, the veteran steel guitarist who played on Patsy Cline’s 1961 hit “I Fall to Pieces†before befriending Neil Young and going on to play on more than a dozen of the Canadian rocker's albums, has died. He was 73.

He died of a heart attack, director Jonathan Demme said Tuesday. Demme, who directed Young’s concert films “Neil Young Trunk Show†from earlier this year and 2006’s “Heart of Gold,†said Keith had been staying at Young’s ranch in Northern California, working on new projects with his longtime collaborator.

Keith was featured prominently in both. In “Neil Young Trunk Show,†shot in Pennsylvania at a stop on Young’s 2007-2008 concert tour, Young said a key reason he chose to tour with Keith, bassist Rick Rosas and Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina, rather than convening the full, hard-rocking Crazy Horse trio, was that “I can do more variety this way, because Ben plays so many instruments.â€

Demme called Keith “an elegant, beautiful dude, and obviously a genius. He could play every instrument. He was literally the bandleader on any of that stuff… Neil has all the confidence in the world, but with Ben on board, there were no limits. Neil has a fair measure of the greatness of his music, but he knew he was even better when Ben was there.â€

Most recently, Keith had been touring with Young’s wife, Pegi, in support of her second solo album, “Foul Deeds,†for a handful of West Coast performances in June. He also had played earlier this year with Neil Young on his first totally acoustic tour in several years.

Keith met Young in 1971 in Nashville, where the rocker was working on what would become his commercial breakthrough album, “Harvest.†Keith came to the recording studio at the invitation of drummer Tim Drummond, whom Young had asked to find a steel player for the sessions. When Keith arrived, “I didn’t know who anyone was, so I asked, ‘Who’s that guy over there?’ †and was told “That’s Neil Young.â€

“I came in and quietly set up my guitar -- they had already started playing -- and started playing,†Keith recalled in a 2006 interview. “We did five songs that were on the 'Harvest' record, just one right after the other, before I even said hello to him."

Young, in a 2005 interview, remembered that "When we did ‘Old Man’ and talked about what he could play, I said, 'Try to play those single notes and make it sound doubled. Just ride those babies all the way through there, that's a great sound.' " That sound Keith came up with became a signature of Young’s folk and country-slanted material.

Their association continued through Young’s albums “Tonight’s the Night,†“Comes a Time,†“Harvest Moon,†“Greendale†and “Chrome Dreams II,†among others. He also was featured as an actor, in the role of Grandpa Green, in Young’s film of the stage production of the “Greendale†concept album.

Keith, who was born in 1937, became a popular session player in Nashville for years, both before and after connecting with Young. He also played live or in the studio with artists including Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Ringo Starr and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Keith also produced singer-songwriter Jewel’s 1995 debut album, “Pieces of You,†which has sold more than 12 million copies in the U.S., according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

Among his own recordings, Keith released “Seven Gates†in 1994, a holiday collection in which he accompanied such high-profile friends as Johnny Cash, songwriter J.J. Cale and Neil and Pegi Young.

Information on Keith’s survivors and funeral services were not immediately available. A full obituary will appear in Wednesday’s paper.

-- Randy Lewis

[deranger]

sad news. I always really liked Ben Keith's style, laid back, not overly complicated but very well connected to whatever the hell the song was. Tasteful, just plain tasteful.

thanks for the sounds and the soul Ben.

[boiler]

RIP Ben, one of my favorite musicians. He brought the psychedelic to a lot of Neils songs and to the lap steel in general.