Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968
I am blown away by this cd. Neil's songs are always so deeply personal and this recording is no different. It's just Neil and a guitar singing from the heart and playing so soulfully. This is so well engineered and produced that I can imagine myself there in the audience in an intimate setting with Neil and a few friends.
The recording was made after the breakup of The Buffalo Springfield. There is some Springfield stuff here as well as some songs that would make it on to his first solo album like Last trip to Tulsa. The last trip to Tulsa is every bit as good live here as the studio recording. The acoustic Mr. Soul has a very different feel here. Expecting to fly is also every bit as beautiful and pleasing to listen to as the Buffalo Springfield studio version.
There is some funny and interesting banter between the songs along with Neil making some anecdotal comments about the songs. At one point he takes requests from the audience. With the CD you get to hear the entire show from beginning to end.
The DVD is only so-so. It does contain the entire audio track of the CD but other then that It's mostly just short clips and an advertisement for his upcoming anthology (archives). I too wish the DVD concert footage, that was part of my expectation when I bought the CD\DVD but the reality is that this concert probably wasn't video taped.
The sound is very good for 1968. While it is a live recording there is very little crowd noise. There is also a little hiss but it doesn't distract from the listening pleasure.
The time is a little more then 70 minutes........... but it's easy to lose track of time while listening to the CD because it totally immerses the listener in the beauty of Neil's voice, song writing and performance. Find the one you love, put on the cd, turn the lights down low and have an introspective, romantic evening courtesy of Neil Young.
No comments:
Post a Comment