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These days he hardly ever plays new material after its initial release.  One of the reasons why I've lost interest in his new stuff.  If there isn't a single decent song that can remain in the setlist a year later, why bother?

i think we are all thankful he followed that procedure for Fork In The Road.

 

 

but honestly, if he's gonna carryover just a single song from each of the records, his setlist would be huge. 

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i think we are all thankful he followed that procedure for Fork In The Road.

 

 

but honestly, if he's gonna carryover just a single song from each of the records, his setlist would be huge. 

A concert of about 35 songs. Pretty cool idea, though - he picks one song from each album to play each night. That would be a 2.5 hour show or so, maybe longer. Downside: he plays a song from Greendale, Fork in the Road, and Living With War. Upside: figuring out/predicting what he will play off of Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, Harvest, Ragged Glory, etc.

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it is too bad these artists, like neil pretty much abandon new efforts to play the hits.  there are a lot of great songs on his albums since 1989.  and, as a huge fan, i'd much rather hear a career spanning set rather than Old Man and Heart of Gold.  I'm sure he'd mix it up a bit if the tour was longer.

 

I'm just happy he's back in acoustic mode.  i'd love to see him to a totally acoustic album of originals.  i'm sure he's got it in him.  i guess the next release will be this rumored covers album.

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maybe Neil took the lesson he learned from Greendale to heart...seems like he pissed off a ton of people by playing the entire record and then an encore of a couple of hits. with the ticket prices he's set, he might be pandering a bit.

 

 

that said, i have never had less than a stellar time at any Neil show i've been to. and i've never been comped a ticket either.

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Unfortunately, the LP the did together sucked.  Would've loved to seen that show.  Glad to have seen Crazy Horse on the Ragged Glory tour with Sonic Youth opening and some other 90s alt act (Social Distortion?) opening.  Loved the baby boomers' reactions to SY.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have to say I am not generally not a fan when artists or bands put out cover song albums. It really seems odd to me that Neil Young would do such a thing considering how many unreleased albums and/or songs he has in the vault.

 

Found on Relix.com:

 

 

Last week we reported that Neil Young and Jack White had collaborated on a forthcoming album. While Young went on to deny that the album featured duets between the two performers, White has now confirmed that the new LP, titled A Letter Home, was released via his own Third Man Records label. According to a post on Third Man’s website, the new record will feature “an unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever.”

 

Earlier reports suggested that release would likely include covers of Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Phil Ochs’ “Changes” and Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby”—all songs that Young covered at the 2013 Farm Aid concert.

 

Additionally, Young recently told Rolling Stone that recording the album was, “one of the lowest-tech experience I’ve ever had,” leading the publication to speculate that the acclaimed singer-songwriter may have recorded the LP on the Voice-o-Graph at Third Man’s Nashville headquarters. The machine, originally built in 1947, is the only public vinyl recording booth of its kind still in existence.

 

Young has confirmed that A Letter Home will be available in March, though no specific release date has been announced.

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  • 1 month later...

I guess these things are going to cost upwards of 400 bucks.

 

This is the first time I have heard of the FLAC file connection:

 

 

In Ballroom D of the Austin Convention Center, the legendary Neil Young presented his final thesis -- an oddly altruistic sales pitch may be more accurate -- on a long-simmering project: the Pono music player.

 

Young's presentation centered on the loss of the recording industry after the success of MP3s, attributing the collapse of the studio system and its attendant businesses -- everything from engineers to delivery persons shuttling equipment around Los Angeles -- to the sonically inferior format.

 

"When all the artists and engineers, all the arrangers and musicians that played on giant tracks by people like Phil Spector, with twelve tambourines and two pianos, those people were still in the studios in Los Angeles, playing," Young explained at the festival. "But all of [that] started to die -- it was the most amazing thing -- this vibrant creative culture started to go away. And it was because of the MP3 and the cheapening of the quality to the point where it was practically unrecognizable."

 

"We were selling shit," he continued, referring to MP3s. "They were buying wallpaper."

 

Young made much of '192 kHz,' a kHz sampling rate with which recordings can be created at in the studio and the upper limit of Pono's output. By way of comparison, 44.1 kHz/16 bit is the standard sampling rate that is used for CDs.

 

Young also addressed the effect that general MP3 quality recordings have had on the music creation process. "It became beat heavy, it became right for what the media was for, what was selling it," he explained. "Clever, tricky, a lot of impressive things. For people like me it was like 'Whoa... I don't wanna do that.'"

 

Young then presented a video of a long list of musicians raving after being played a demo of the player. Afterward, Pono CEO John Hamm took the stage for a Q&A session with Young and USA Today technology reporter Mike Snider.

And then things got awkward.

 

After addressing questions about Pono's ability to play existing digital music libraries (it can), its file system (it uses FLAC) and its somewhat awkward triangle design ("We wanted something iconic," Hamm said), the last question brought to them by the audience shifted the tone of the entire presentation.

 

Taking the microphone, a young man asked: "What's your cut?" -- referring, of course, to Apple's now-famous 30% cut of sales on the iTunes Store.

 

Hamm, after a flustered moment, responded that, "It surprises most people that everyone who buys music from the record labels pays exactly the same amount." At this, several audience members shouted, "What?!"

"That's a delicate question, isn't it?" asked Young.

 

Shortly thereafter, Hamm turned to the moderator, slightly flushed at this point, and said "We can end it." "You can answer the question if you like," Snider said. Hamm shook his head slightly before Snider closed the discussion.

 

It was an unfortunate end for Hamm, Young and Pono after what was, on the whole, a fairly benign talk, one during which Young had expressed little worry about the company failing because, he said, even if it was put down by a large tech company accomplishing the same thing, music lovers would still win in the end by hearing audio as it was intended.

 

The fact that a very simple question derailed it so thoroughly is, at the very least, proof positive that the record business is not one for the faint of heart -- and perhaps that even the most seemingly benevolent entrepreneurs may have something to hide.

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RE: Pono

 

the only way this will be anything new is if the download (stream?) service provides actual new remasters that have dynamic range and not the brickwalled shit that keeps coming out.  that being said, there is no need for any other player.  there are already high end audiophile players and one can hack an ipod to play and format imaginable.  not to mention the debacle this is already becoming with it's initial thrust coming from a kickstarter campaign.

 

i wish neil would just write and write and pick his best 10 songs and make an acoustic album and tour acoustic for the rest of his time with us.  

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My buddies in the Giving Tree Band saw Neil give that speech and met him afterwards. They also met Jerry Garcia's daughter Trixie yesterday. Lucky bastards.

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A bunch of musicians talking about how great Pono is. . .

 

I thought it was interesting to see T. Bone Burnett in the video. As I recall - he and John Mellancamp tried something like this a few years ago.

 

Looks like he got the bucks:

 

 

Neil Young launched the PONO audio system yesterday at the SXSW Conference in Austin, TX.

In less than a single day, the Pono Kickstarter campaign has already exceeded its goal of $800,000 and is currently tracking at over $1.7 million. The two signed versions of the Pono are sold out. Even all 30 invitations of $5,000 pledges for a VIP dinner invitation & PonoMusic listening party hosted by Neil Young are already gone.

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  • 5 weeks later...

 

Neil Young’s Covers Album Is Now On Sale
 

It looks like Neil Young’s highly anticipated covers album, A Letter Home, is now available as part of Record Store Day. JamBase has reported that Jack White’s Third Man Records quietly put the LP up for sale this afternoon. The album, which was recorded in the 1947 Voice-o-Graph recording booth at Third Man’s studio, features renditions of tunes by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Gordon Lightfoot and more. Jack White is reportedly featured on release as well.

 

A Letter Home can now be ordered on 12” vinyl via the Third Man Store.

A Letter Home tracklist:

A Letter Home Intro

Changes (Phil Ochs)

Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan)

Needle Of Death (Bert Jansch)

Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)

Crazy (Willie Nelson)

Reason To Believe (Tim Hardin)

On The Road Again (Willie Nelson)

If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)

Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter)

My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)

I Wonder If I Care (Everly Brothers)

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