“Everybody you talk to usually will say (Neil Young’s music) is an acquired taste, and I think it is, but boy, I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of people who have acquired that taste,” said Laes, who got hooked when a high school buddy lent him his copy of “Rust Never Sleeps” in 1979.Īttendance for Neil Fest has grown, from 175 the first year to upward of 500 last year. But if you love Young like he does, there’s no such thing as too much. See Young live and you’re lucky if you get 18 songs, Laes said. Still, it will be a marathon dose of Young, as 28 musicians performing solo and in bands take turns putting their own spin on everything from “Ride My Llama” and “Motorcycle Mama” to “Harvest Moon” and “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black).” Throw in epic jams like “Powderfinger” and “Down by the River,” and no wonder last year’s Neil Fest clocked in at a whopping 6 hours and 10 minutes.Īnd to think Laes, who has seen Young in concert 13 times and owns every one of his albums (sans a few of “the imports and weird stuff”), questioned his sanity that first year when he selected 36 songs. But as Laes points out, the 70-year-old Canadian rock 'n’ roll legend has written more than 1,000 songs, so this weekend’s showcase is really but a sliver of a career that spans more than a half-century and such bands as Crazy Horse, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. If that sounds like an ambitious undertaking, well, it is. “Or 64,” said Laes, who founded the annual celebration of Young’s music in 2013. So instead of turning an impressive roster of local and regional musicians loose on his original goal of 50 of Young’s songs Friday night at the Riverside Ballroom, there could be as many as 63. Carl Laes did his best to keep this year’s Neil Fest IV setlist under control, and then, as typically happens when it comes to Neil Young, he just couldn’t say no.
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