Honor the Treaties Benefits (with Neil Young), January 2014

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http://www.jambase.com/Articles/120164/ ... s-Benefits

Neil Young: Honor The Treaties Benefits

Canadian product Neil Young has just announced a series of four shows in Canada with Diana Krall aboard as support. The shows are benefits for Honor The Treaties to raise money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN)Legal Defense Fund.

The run kicks off in Toronto on January 12 and continues with performances in Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary. Tickets for all four shows go on sale tomorrow, December 10. As per the statement announcing the shows, "The ACFN refer to themselves as K'ai Taile Dene, meaning 'people of the land of the willow.' A Legal Defense fund was set up to support the ACFN's legal challenges against oil companies and government that are obstructing their traditional lands and rights."

Young had already announced a four-show run at NYC's Carnegie Hall for early January.

Neil Young Tour Dates:

1/6, 7, 9 and 10 @ Carnegie Hall - New York, NY
1/12 @ Massey Hall - Toronto, ON
1/16 @ Centennial Concert Hall - Winnipeg, MB
1/17 @ Conexus Arts Centre - Regina, SK
1/19 @ Jack Singer Concert Hall - Calgary, AB

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The official website lists Diana as "Very Special Guest": http://www.dianakrall.com/news_d.aspx?nid=2557

[mapache61]

Here's an article from Rolling Stone (mostly covering Neil):
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... 4-20131209

These should be some great shows. Wish I was going.

[Bud]

Neil Young-Diana Krall To Help Bankroll First Nation’s Tar Sands Battle

http://richardhughes.ca/politics/neil-y ... ds-battle/

[Bud]

Why I'm On Tour With Neil Young and Diana Krall by Chief Allan Adam,Chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/chief-alla ... a-politics

The immediacy of the crisis demands attention, which is why I am so honoured to be on tour with Neil Young and Diana Krall as we travel across Canada to raise awareness and resources to defend ourselves from wanton development and interests that don't seem to care about our rights or our community.

[mapache61]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/13 ... 87203.html

Opening for Young was jazz singer Diana Krall who ditched the jazz standards for an extremely playful, off-the-cuff set. Stating how honorued she was to be playing with Young and also playing his piano, Krall opened with Bob Dylan's “Every Grain Of Sand” before touching on songs by Warren Zevon (“Hasten Down The Wind”), Chantal Kreviazuk (“Feels Like Home”) and Tom Waits (“Clap Hands.”)

Nice. Hope someone out there recorded DK's set.

Last week I saw some youtube clips of Neil's set at Carnegie Hall. Great stuff. I'm extremely jealous of everyone seeing this tour.

[mapache61]

A couple of Neil fans comment on DK's set in this thread:
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org ... 9587417927

[Bud]

Thanks mapache61! Great to see the comments on the Neil Young board...

[Bud]

It's too late to donate and become eligible to win tickets, but it's not too late to donate:

http://www.honourtheacfn.ca/

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http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertai ... story.html

REVIEW: Neil Young mesmerizes with once-in-a lifetime show

It was somewhat fortuitous timing.

Earlier Sunday morning, one of the Canadian stations carried locally was playing The Simpsons Movie, a film that is, at its very core, under the guise of road trips to Alaska, subplots about the need for family, second chances and redemption, and hidden beneath spider songs about pigs named Plopper, an environmental film.

They make the statement from the outset about the direction they’re headed and the route they’ll travel when a cartoon version of punk band Green Day (redundant, possibly) is shown performing the show’s theme on a barge/stage floating on a lake in front of the enthusiastic citizens of Springfield.

“We’ve been playing for three and a half hours,” says the animated version of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. “Now we’d like just a minute of your time to say something about the environment.”

The band are, of course, booed and bottled and met with angry calls to just shut up and sing.

Which brings us to Neil Young’s sold-out show Sunday night at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.

It follows a complete, sometimes divisive week of interviews, press conferences, pro and con op-eds, attacks, counterattacks and rhetoric as Young and his Honor the Treaties benefit tour made their way across the country to raise money and awareness for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Legal Defense Fund as they get set to battle oilsands development in northern Alberta.

After a somewhat feisty press conference earlier in the day, in the petroleum-stoked belly of the beast, the evening concert, the final one of the jaunt, was, for the most part, the opportunity for the legendary artist to shut up and sing. And us to shut up and listen.

Or, to quote lines from the opening song from his performance, From Hank to Hendrix, “Here I am with this old guitar, doin’ what I do.” What he does best.

And, oh, how magically he did it for those lucky enough to find themselves among the few to make their way into the intimate, once-in-a-lifetime, solo acoustic gig.

Young was in remarkable form, in exquisite voice, in a warm, comfortable and giving mood as he sat on the Singer stage, amid a handful of guitars, pianos and other well-worn instruments, plucking from the collection, talking to them, telling some of their stories and histories, and picking tunes from his timeless, well-worn catalogue that still has all of its power intact. In fact, perhaps even more so thanks to the passage of time and effects they’ve had on the man from whence they’ve come.

For proof, all you had to hear were the opening words of Helpless or the dreamy chorus of Only Love Can Break Your Heart — both sending shivers, walking the line between beaten and beatific, haunted and heavenly, sad and sanguine.

The rest of the evening, the bottomless offering of classics saw Young walking those lines with a skill and ease which were disarming and frankly awe-inspiring.

Be it at a piano for Love In Mind, on both banjo and harmonica for Mellow My Mind, playing a pump organ for a dirty and steamy Mr. Soul or the tour-appropriate Pocahontas (which he gave an appropriate lyrical reworking), seated front and centre for Harvest, an unforgettable version of Old Man, the stark and devastating Ohio and a howling take on Southern Man, or standing for the area appropriate cover of Ian Tyson’s Four Strong Winds, it was as if he was crafting the songs for the very first time, in the moment, on this night, in this building, and in our presence.

And if you didn’t feel that, you weren’t listening.

Perhaps the only criticism of the evening could be that while Young kept his part of the bargain, there were some in the audience who had a hard time doing the same. He, for the most part, shut up and played — and when he spoke, did so about the music and his past without agenda — but there were a handful of idiots who refused to keep quiet and listen, yelling out inanities at inopportune moments, hooting and whooping, and at times killing the mood that he had so skilfully set.

But still, that’s on them, not on him. Young had done his talking and was willing to let his music say so, so much more on this night.

And when all was said and done, it was one of the best shows this city has been blessed with in recent memory.

Of this, there can be no sides, no arguments, no debates.

As for opener, Canadian contemporary jazz chanteuse Diana Krall, she, too, was aware of why she and us were gathered together, also acknowledging it during a brief introduction to Let It Rain halfway through her almost hour-long, solo set.

“This song’s all about love,” she said, sitting at one of Young’s keyboards. “So I’ll just shut up and sing.”

She did, again, with a sense of familiarity and looseness that were infused her few originals and many covers — Bob Dylan’s Simple Twist of Fate, Cole Porter’s Don’t Fence Me In, Joni Mitchell’s Black Crow, a couple of Tom Waits’s tunes including Take It With Me, and a gorgeous version of The Band’s Ophelia — and made the night something special.

Or that much more special.

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http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... ?id=479757

Diana Krall Solo
Centennial Concert Hall
Honour The Treaties Benefit
Winnipeg Manitoba Canada
January 16 2014

Source: CA-14(cards) > CA9100 > ZoomH4n 24/48
Transfer: SD > iZotopeRx (gain,ozone,resample, dither) >
CDWave(tracks) > Frontend (FLAC8) >TLH (ffp) > MD5sum

A Concert To Aid The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Legal Defense.

Diana Krall opened for Neil Young

Set List:

01. Every Grain Of Sand (Bob Dylan)
02. talk
03. Don't Fence Me In (Cole Porter)
04. talk
05. How Deep Is The Ocean (Irving Berlin)
06. talk
07. Amelia (Joni Mitchell)
08. There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears (Fred Fisher)
09. talk
10. If You're A Viper (Fats Waller)
11. Jockey Full Of Bourbon (Tom Waits)
12. If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
13. Wide River To Cross (Buddy & Julie Miller)
14. Clap Hands (Tom Waits)
15. Wallflower (Bob Dylan)
16. Departure Bay
17. It Don't Cost Very Much (Mahalia Jackson)
18. Ophelia (Robbie Robertson)

Length: 57 Minutes

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http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/2014/0 ... 0-for-acfn

Neil Young tour raises $500,000 for ACFN

Neil Young finished his Honour the Treaties tour in the backyard of Alberta’s major oilsands companies on Sunday, bringing in $500,000 in support of the ACFN’s legal defense fund and a letter of support from 20 Canadian actors, authors, musicians and scientists.

“Neil Young is doing what poets do — forcing us to examine ourselves,” states the letter, whose signatories include writers Joseph Boyden and Wade Davis, as well as Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip and human rights activist Stephen Lewis.

“This is hard enough on a personal level and it can be even more difficult when we are being asked to examine the direction in which our country is headed.” it said. “The time has come for Canada to decide if we want a future where First Nations rights and title are honoured, agreements with other countries to protect the climate are honoured, and our laws are not written by powerful oil companies. Or not.”

Young’s tour was sharply criticized by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Prime Minister’s Office.

CAPP was invited by tour representatives to join them on stage at its Calgary press conference, shortly before Young performed in front of a sold out crowd with jazz pianist Diana Krall.

However, representatives from CAPP declined when a request for a neutral moderator was turned down, after learning David Suzuki would be moderator.

“Oilsands producers said we’d be willing to sit down on Neil Young’s stage with a neutral moderator and balanced representation, and we’re disappointed these reasonable terms could not be met,” said Dave Collyer, CAPP’s president said in a statement. Collyer added that the invitation to meet with a neutral moderator remains open.

After previously comparing Fort McMurray to Hiroshima, Young said he regretted the way his language was interpreted, arguing that he was not criticizing the city, but criticizing the oilsands.

“This is a metaphor — Fort Mac stands for the entire oilsands area,” he said. “I’m not talking about your house on the street in Fort Mac, and it’s unfortunate people have taken advantage of the fact that I used the name Fort Mac.”

During a Q&A session, Young, who lives in California but calls himself a proud Canadian, admitted to flying on private jets.

He said though he hopes to reverse the damage he has done with his carbon footprint.

“By spreading the word and doing what I’m doing now I may possibly be able to reverse the damage by the change I can make in other people,” he said.

The ACFN’s legal defense fund —which will receive 100% of proceeds raised from the concert tour — will go towards fights against several projects and legal challenges.

The biggest project they are opposed to is Shell’s expansion of its Jackpine Mine, located north of Fort McMurray. The expansion will bring the mine’s output to 300,000 barrels per day.

The ACFN and the Métis Nation of Alberta argue the project will harm lands deemed culturally and historically significant, and that they have not been adequately consulted by Shell Canada.

[Coda]

Diana played "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot! Oh, I'd love to have heard that! Maybe she could also play "Beautiful". GL is one of my favorites!