NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE AT CARNEGIE HALL

So, tonight I went to the Neil Young tribute concert at Carnegie Hall. This is part of a series of annual tribute concerts organized by promoter Michael Dorf, they are fundraisers for a number of great organizations that you can read about here.

The show was pretty good, not great. Admittedly, it's tough to get momentum for a show when every artist plays just one song. The source material was great, obviously, and most of the artists selected songs that really worked well.  But it was a bit like live band karoke night.

Not to say there weren't highlights, the easy #1 being The Roots' performance of "Down By The River." Supposedly, they stole the show a few years ago when the concert paid tribute to Bob Dylan with "Masters Of War," and tonight was their amazing return. Black Thought wasn't with them, guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas sang lead, with the ladies from Dirty Projectors (who guested on The Roots' How I Got Over) singing backup vocals. They also went into "Hey Joe," (another song about "taking out" your woman).  Incredible.

The other highlights for me was the Cowboy Junkies' performance of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" and Bettye Lavette's "Heart Of Gold," which she actually recorded in the '70s. Other cool moments came courtesy of Joan Osborne ("Old Man"), Aaron Neville ("Helpless") and Pete Yorn (the acoustic "Rockin' In The Free World").

A lot of the performances were very polite and reverent, but didn't really stand out. Throughout the show I was thinking that it would be so much cooler to see Neil performing these songs. To be fair, most of the performers would probably agree with me on that one.

I wonder when I'll get to see Neil perform these songs.  But the good news is that Neil's next tour is rumored to be a Buffalo Springfield reunion. Neil, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay performed as the Springfield at the Bridge School Benefit concert a few months back, and now word is they're going to tour next fall, which is awesome news: they broke up before I was born!

STILLS, YOUNG AND FURAY COMMENT ON DEWEY MARTIN

Buffalo Springfield's Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay finally released a joint statement about the death of drummer Dewey Martin. You can read it, and read a lot of stuff and see some cool Springfield videos at Thrasher's Wheat. 

DEWEY MARTIN 1940 - 2009

Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin was recently found dead in his apartment by his roomate. He died of natural causes. The Springfield were a great band, which of course launched the careers of Neil Young and Stephen Stills, as well as Richie Furay (who joined country soft rock band Poco) and Jim Messina (who went on to a big pop career with Kenny Loggins).

Martin, who played with legends including Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Faron Young, The Everly Brothers and Charlie Rich, among others before founding The Springfield, never really got his career off of the ground afterwards. He formed different bands here and there, but mainly tried to revive Springfield, often with bassist Bruce Palmer, leading to legal battles with Stills and Young, who didn't want them using the band's name. But it must have hurt to see those guys with such stellar careers. There were often rumors of a full-on Springfield reunion, but it never happened. Even in 1997, when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there was talk of a performance, but Neil ducked out at the last minute, when he found out that the show was going to be televised (which shouldn't have come as a surprise: when he was inducted a few years earlier as a solo artist, the show was broadcast on MTV).

I don't know too much about the guy, but the Springfield made great music. If you want to check it out, pick up Retrospective, a single CD compilation. They only had three albums, all of which were great (I like the first one best): 1966's Buffalo Springfield, 1967's Buffalo Springfield Again and 1968's Last Time Around.