Neil Young & The Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa
Neil Young & The Stray Gators
Tuscaloosa
(Silver Bow Productions, Inc)
Dipping back into his history, as he has been wont to do lately (as plenty of classic artists have been doing now with the ease of online releases) Neil Young presents an 11-song live document from highlights of a concert he played at the University Of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1971. Played with his band, The Stray Gators, at the time (Ben Keith on pedal steel and vocals, Jack Nitzsche on keyboards, Tim Drummond on bass, and Kenny Buttrey on drums) this was recorded during Youngâs releases, the hit Harvest and iconic but scary, Tonightâs the Night.
Opener âHere We Are in the Years,â and then âAfter The Gold Rush,â features just Neil on guitar and piano respectively, his high reed voice falling just short of hitting the higher notes. âOut on the Weekend,â has the band playing ragtag behind Young, Keithâs steel especially placed behind Neilâs pleading of a normal day.
âOld Man,â is needle-drop perfect, Youngâs voice possibly warmed-up by this point as he hits all the high notes. A heavy-handed âHeart of Gold,â follows, with Buttreyâs high snap hits pumping Youngâs acoustic along. Things get raggedy electric near the end on âTime Fades Awayâ and âLookout Joe,â and really loud, slightly discordant, but desperately perfect on the plodding âNew Mama.â Here, Young is off-key with his vocals, but the whole mess works.
âDonât Be Denied,â not great vocals and really plodding, is too loud and it does meander, itâs kind of a weak way to end what is a pretty good live account of a place in time for Neil Young.