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!

MORE "HELP" FOR ROLLING STONE'S 500 GREATEST

So, once I was done paring down Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs," it was down to 486.  I tried to add 14 more, but I ended up adding almost 100 more songs.  This isn't my definitive list, but it's my job to share important stuff like this with all of you. Ha ha.  In no order at all, here's the rest of the songs on my "remix" which is now at 570 songs and counting.

• A Tribe Called Quest - "Award Tour"
• de la soul - "Ego Trippin' (part 2)"
• Alicia Keys - "No One"
• Fiona Apple - "O' Sailor"
• Ben Harper - "With My Own Two Hands"
• The Wallflowers - "One Headlight" (although the best version of this is the one from the MTV VMA's where they were joined by Bruce Springsteen)
• John Hiatt - "Have A Little Faith In Me"
• Cowboy Junkies - "Miles From Our Home"
• Jamey Johnson - "High Cost Of Living"
• Everclear - "Strawberry"
• Buddy & Julie Miller - "Gasoline & Matches"
• The Replacements - "Bastards Of Young"
• Gaslight Anthem - "The '59 Sound"
• Steve Earle - "The Devil's Right Hand"
• X - "Los Angeles"
• The MC5 - "Kick Out The Jams" (how'd they miss this one?)
• Pearl Jam - "Corduroy"
• Rancid - "East Bay Nights"
• Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
• Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song"
• Nine Inch Nails - "Wish"
• Fugazi - "Repeater"
• Black Flag - "Rise Above"
• Dropkick Murphys - "The State Of Massachusetts"
• Rage Against The Machine - "Sleep Now In The Fire"
• Faith No More - "Midlife Crisis"
• Soundgarden - "Superunknown"
• Primus  -"Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers"
• Iron Maiden - "Iron Maiden"
• Alice In Chains - "Angry Chair"
• KISS - "Deuce (live)"
• The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"
• Matthew Sweet - "Dinosaur Act"
• The Jessica Fletchers - "Summer Holiday & Me"
• Cocktail Slippers - "Sentenced To Love"
• The Drive-By Truckers - "This Fucking Job"
• Loretta Lynn - "Rated 'X'"
• Lucinda Williams - "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road"
• Emmylou Harris - "I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now"
• Patty Griffin - "Mary"
• Sade - "By Your Side"
• John Legend - "Used To Love U"
• EPMD - "Crossover"
• Gang Starr - "You Know My Steez"
• LL Cool J - "Rock The Bells"
• Nas - "Made You Look"
• Peter Tosh - "You Can't Blame The Youth"
• Fishbone - "Ghetto Soundwave"
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Can't Stop"
• The Afghan Whigs - "Going To Town"
• PJ Harvey - "Long Snake Moan"
• Florence + The Machine - "You've Got The Love"
• The Avett Brothers - "I And Love And You"
• Crowded House - "Distant Sun"
• Living Colour - "Bless Those (Little Annie's Prayer)"
• The Yardbirds - "Heart Full Of Soul"
• Van Halen - "Mean Street"
• Muse - "Uprising"
• Peter Gabriel - "Solisbury Hill"
• Wilco- "Jesus Etc."
• Pete Yorn - "Don't Wanna Cry"
• Kathleen Edwards - "In State"
• Norah Jones - "What Am I To You?"
• David Gray - "The One I Love"
• Rilo Kiley - "Silver Lining"
• Ben Folds - "Landed"
• Duffy - "Stepping Stone"
• Adele - "Chasing Pavements"
• James Hunter - "No Smoke Without A Fire"
• Levon Helm - "When I Go Away"
• Ray LaMontagne - "Three More Days"
• The Black Keys - "I Got Mine"
• My Morning Jacket - "I'm Amazed"
• Wyclef Jean featuring Norah Jones - "Any Other Day"
• Raphael Saadiq - "100 Yard Dash"
• Michael Franti & Spearhead - "Say Hey (I Love You)"
• Mark Ronson featuring Daniel Merriweather - "Stop Me"
• KRS-One, Kanye West, Nas and Rakim - "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)" (produced by DJ Premier)
• Common featuring DJ Premier - "The Game"
• N.A.S.A. featuring Kanye West, Santigold and Lykke Li - "Gifted"
• Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You"
• Black Star - "Definition"
• Mos Def featuring Q-Tip and Tash - "Body Rock"
• Talib Kweli - "Going Hard"

THE COWBOY JUNKIES RETURN TO (THE) CHURCH

One of the greatest albums ever is Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Sessions.  The band recorded it in Trinity Church in Toronto twenty years ago. With one microphone.  You read that right: they just crowded around one microphone and recorded the album like that. I guess sometimes the magic is just there. The magic was there that day in that church.  

The group have done a lot of great albums since then (Miles From Our Home is one of my favorites) but The Trinity Sessions remains their landmark. 

So, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, they returned to Trinity Church to perform the album for an audience, with some friends, including Natalie Merchant (who was fronting 10,000 Maniacs when Trinity came out) and Ryan Adams, who was probably a teenager, if that. The performance was recorded for a live album and DVD called Trinity Revisited. Of course they used more than one microphone this time. I've not yet watched the DVD, but I am enjoying the recording. Of course, you can never top the original, but this project is certainly one to be proud of. 

The period that yielded the original album, twenty years ago, was a cool one. It seemed to be an era where lots of women were releasing great albums, and it didn't matter what they looked like. Not just the Junkies and 10,000 Maniacs, but Tracy Chapman, Aimee Mann was starting her solo career, Lucinda Williams was just getting semi-popular, Victoria Williams, it was a good time for music. Before things started too crass. Trinity Revisited sort of reminds me of that time. Of course, the album is completely timeless, in a way that most rock or pop groups can't begin to approach. 

It's inspiring that the group has been able to keep touring and releasing albums and DVDs outside of the major label system.  I know I've probably mentioned that about a few other groups, but there's something to be said about a group that just needs to notify its fans that a new album is out, or that they're coming to your town, without having to rely on marketing. That's a No Expiration band for you.