Our Zuman and Rustie sister Sharry Wilson has been getting a lot of publicity as her new book “Young Neil, the Sugar Mountain Years,” makes the rounds.
In the latest interview by Winnipeg Free Press, book reviewer Cheryl Girard writes:
“In Young Neil, first-time author Sharry Wilson attempts to have us do just that, taking us back to Neil Young’s early years, his childhood in and around Toronto and his teen years in Winnipeg.
The subtitle The Sugar Mountain Years is taken from one of Young’s songs written, Wilson tells us, on his 19th birthday. He had left home and was looking nostalgically back at his childhood.
A lifelong fan and a professional proofreader, Wilson, who lives just north of Toronto, interviewed many of Young’s old school chums and fellow band members from Ontario and Winnipeg. She offers many previously unseen photos and includes material gathered from letters, documents, biographies and other memorabilia.”
Rolling Stone wrote: “A supremely compelling chronicle of Young’s first 20 years. Wilson, who painstakingly tracked down childhood friends and early band mates, recounts Young’s often difficult upbringing — from his parents’ divorce to the challenges he faced changing schools as he moved from town to town with his mother – as he relentlessly pursues his musical dreams and develops his songwriting voice.”
She was also interviewed by Thornhill Liberal reporter Simone Joseph a few weeks ago. Her article about “Young Neil: The Sugar Mountain Years” appeared in the New Year’s Day edition of the Thornhill Liberal.
Freelance writer and former editor of Toronto Star Wheels Mark Richardson writes about Neil Young being named Toronto Star Wheels’ Newsmaker of the year.
“For playing concerts in January, writing a book and spreading his message through the year, and for actively promoting alternative fuel — while never forgetting that cars are really cool — Neil Young is Wheels’ Newsmaker of 2014,” Richardson writes.
He quotes Young:
“I’ve had a lot of cars and I bought cars as rewards for projects that I did . . . They were all old cars so they already had a history. And the designs reflected the culture of the time,” Young told the Star’s Ben Rayner in an interview this year.
Richardson writes about Special Deluxe: A Memoir of Life & Cars and the stories about the cars Young has owned, “all of them bought used and all of them interesting.”
“His new book is a chronicle of his experiences as told by the memories his cars invoke, everything from a Mini and a Citroen 2CV to a Corvette and a Hummer H1. Throughout it, he details the fuel consumption and the exhaust emissions of the vehicles. His family’s 1951 road trip to Florida in their new Monarch sedan, for example, spewed about 1,296 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere each way; that Route 66 drive to L.A. in the hearse would have emitted 4,900 pounds of CO2.”
Eventually, in 2003, a friend of his daughter’s called him a hypocrite for being an environmentalist who drove such gas-guzzlers, and the accusation stuck. He resolved to find alternatives to gasoline for his cars and diesel for his tour buses.
Richardson writes: “His message is not against cars, which he loves passionately, but against the fuel that powers them. ‘We can have as many cars as we want, as long as the highways can hold them,’ he told the Star, “but we have to think smart about how they run.”
We wish you all a great fest and thanks for being here. Also many thanks to the BNB team that makes all this possible.
It’s been a Neil Young year of change — many awards, a European tour finished up with Rick Rosas,(unfortunately Rick’s sudden passing this year), two new albums “A Letter Home” and “Storytone,” a solo acoustic tour, a new book “Special Deluxe,” Neil’s activism, and numerous guest appearances, a new girlfriend and pending divorce from his wife of 36 years….so many Zumans and Neil fans meeting around the world.
Personally there has been the loss of The Baron, our leader on BNB and HH, and the resurrection of all he created by his dear friend Albert, the Lighthouse, with a little help from friends.
Have a peaceful outcome of this year and a colorful outlook for next year, 2015.
Joe Cocker and Neil Young both played at Woodstock in 1969.
Singer Joe Cocker, 70, best known for his cover of The Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends, died on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014.
The Sheffield-born singer had a career lasting more than 40 years, with hits including You Are So Beautiful and Up Where We Belong, according to a nice tribute write-up by the BBC News.
His agent Barrie Marshall said Cocker, who died after battling lung cancer, was “simply unique”.
Sir Paul McCartney said he was a lovely guy who “brought so much to the world”.
Cocker’s friend Rick Wakeman, keyboard player for the rock band Yes, called his rendition of With a Little Help From My Friends “sensational” and said: “He had a voice that was just unique.”
Wakeman told BBC Radio 2: “The great thing is with someone like Joe is what they leave behind, and that will be with us for years and years.”
Musician friends say Cocker will remain “Etched in our memories.”
The end of the year issue of Uncut contains Michael Bonner’s long-version interview with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro.
Bonner writes: “I thought it might be nice to share the full transcript – it’s over 6,000 words long, and covers a lot of ground. We started off talking about the current state of Billy Talbot’s health, the Crazy Horse bassist who’d suffered a minor stroke earlier in the year. For the record, our interview took place on November 3, 2014; a few days before the death of bassist Rick Rosas, who’d deputised for Talbot during the band’s 2014 tour dates.”
Poncho’s favorite memory of Neil from this year?
“That’s hard to think of right at this moment. I could tell you a couple from the year before if I had time to think about it. When we played the Bridge School the last time, we were doing the encore where everybody comes out and sings, we were playing “Rockin’ In The Free World” all acoustic. For some reason, Neil took off his guitar and gave it to Lukas Nelson. He was having a great time playing it. And Neil was trying to give us hand signals of where to go and I was just laughing, “What the hell is going on?” But anyway, months and months after that, we were on the road, we were just getting ready and I said to Neil, “I have a question, it’s really been bothering me, I want to ask you.” He said, “Go ahead.” I said, “Why did you give Lukas your guitar? Did he ask for it, or something?” Neil said, “No, we were just up there playing and singing and he was playing air guitar and I kept looking at him, I thought, ‘Wow, he needs a guitar.’ So I just gave him mine.” I think that’s really cool. It was just like this thing that happened. That was a great moment with Neil. On this last tour, when he started giving away the t-shirts, ‘Protect The Earth’ and everything, he was just so overly sincere about the whole thing. It did bring a good feeling to me. And at the same time, it stresses me out because I just don’t know how to reach everybody and hw to make a change in this world. It’s really frustrating.”
“Sittin\' in the quiet slipstream
In the thunder. ” by -- Neil Young
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
Our Zuman and Rustie sister Sharry Wilson has been getting a lot of publicity as her new book “Young Neil, the Sugar Mountain Years,” makes the rounds.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
