vintage

On January 19, 1971, Canada’s legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young gave a solo concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall. Audiences there heard for the first time several of the iconic songs that would later appear on his albums, including his best-selling LP Harvest - yet the live concert recording itself wasn’t released until 2007.

Now, as part of the Festival-wide Guitar Festival, a new generation of musicians, led by Juno Award winning music director Kevin Breit, will recreate that landmark concert, performing their own distinctive arrangements of the album’s eighteen classic songs.

That’s the description from the website for Luminato, the “festival of arts and creativity” that’s currently taking over Toronto. It sure sounds like a good idea in theory: paying tribute to one of the greatest musicians Canada has ever produced, and one of the greatest live albums ever, at the place that the album was recorded. And Kevin Breit would know a thing or two about the subject at hand, having won a Juno Award for Run Neil Run, an instrumental album of Young covers. Things are starting off promisingly.

Many of the performances were amazing: Jason Collett’s version of “See The Sky About To Rain” was a major highlight, including the audience participation moment (rubbing palms, snapping fingers, stomping feet, etc) where it truly sounded like it had begun to rain inside Massey Hall, and the trio of Emilie-Claire Barlow, Melanie Doane and Kathryn Rose did an absolutely shimmering rendition of “Cowgirl in the Sand” to close the first half.

Equally noteworthy were the Cowboy Junkies, who did both “Love in Mind” and “Don’t Let it Bring You Down”, both of them ethereal and haunting — it felt like we were in a church at three in the morning, a few half-broken floodlights on the stage carpets, dust in the rafters, making music because we wanted to. I’m sure Neil Young would have been all right with their treatment of his work.

However.

Holly Cole, Steven Page, and Issa should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Cole’s butchery of “Old Man” was painful (I was wincing): her heavy-handed inflections were misplaced and distracting, and she sang it about as delicately as a construction worker tiptoeing in steel-toed boots. Page, for his part, turned “Journey Through The Past” into some kind of pseudo-Latin-flavoured hunk of junk, completely bypassing the entire emotional content of the song. Someone should have reminded them that it was a tribute to Neil Young, not a “look at me” contest; it’s not about you, it’s about the guy whose song you’re singing. Pay him a little respect!

Issa. Oh, boy. Most of you will remember her under her former moniker, Jane Siberry; she changed her name sometime in 2006, I think. Her version of “There’s a World” was unremarkable, but the problem lay in the post-performance conversation with MC Matt Wells (of MuchMoreMusic). Wells basically paid her a great compliment: he commented that Neil Young had stayed relevant throughout forty years of music history because he had stayed true to himself and had done what he wanted to do, and asked if Issa related to him because he thought she had done the same.

There was a long pause, and Issa shot back “Oh, is that how you stay relevant?”

It didn’t get much better after that. Wells stumbled in surprise and tried to explain that Neil hadn’t just followed every trend, but had created his own; Issa continued to be completely impossible and stonewalled everything Wells tried to say. It was a relief when that part was over. I’m not sure what she felt she needed to accomplish with that outburst, but it was unpleasant.

Roxanne Potvin, who followed that wreck of an interlude, picked the night back up magnificently with “Bad Fog of Loneliness” — she even borrowed Young’s bit of banter from the album, reminding us that they’d treat it like the Tennessee Three, which they promptly did.

Full list of performers and songs (from what I remember; I’ll pick up the program tonight and correct them if necessary) after the jump. The Luminato festival will continue through June 14. The Canadian Songbook Tribute to Neil Young was recorded for CBC Radio; more info to come about the air or post date when I find it.

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Tags: bill frisell, bill frisell trio, carole pope, chocolate genius inc, colin james, colin linden, cowboy junkies, danny michel, emilie-claire barlow, harry manx, holly cole, issa, jane siberry, jason collett, kathryn rose, kevin breit, luminato, massey hall, matt wells, melanie doane, neil young, roxanne potvin, sarah slean, sisters euclid, steven page, stevie jackson