Neil Young covered in charity recording
“More Barn: A Tribute to Neil Young”
– Slothtrop Music, slothtrop.com

By Jim Lundstrom

The story goes like this. Neil Young rowed Graham Nash out on a lake to hear some music on an outdoor stereo system in which his home served as one speaker and the barn as the other. When engineer Elliot Mazer called out to ask how it sounded, Young yelled back, “More Barn!”

Not just a great Neil Young story, “More Barn” is also an 18-song tribute CD from Slothtrop Music of Madison, created as a fund raiser for the Bridge School (bridgeschool.org), which Neil Young helped found in 1986 for children with mental and physical handicaps. The lineup on the project includes a mix of Wisconsin musicians and national touring artists such as Howe Gelb, Steve Wynn, Rick Rizzo and The Silos.

“Most of the people who made it on the record were contacted by Blaine Schultz (Aimless Blades), Chris DeMay (West of Rome) and Jason Mohr (Juniper Tar),” said Eric Hester of Slothtrop. He served as executive producer of “More Barn.”

“We just sent out e-mails to people who we thought would do it. That was the initial contact. Then people started contacting us. Suddenly we were getting e-mails from other people like Phil Lee. Phil used to sit on the board for the Bridge School. We’re super excited to have him on the record.”

What song from Young’s rich discography would you choose if asked to contribute to a Neil Young tribute album? There’s a lot to choose from. After all, next year Young celebrates his 40th year as a solo artist.

For the most part, the folks on “More Barn” have gone for the obscure. “Heart of Gold,” a major hit in the early ’70s for the not always radio-friendly Young, is there but so is “Cocaine Eyes” from an EP released in Japan 20 years ago.

The CD booklet includes a short Neil Young tribute written by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, which first appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

“I had contacted Rolling Stone and then was able to get in touch with Flea,” Hester said. “He was really excited that we were going to use it.”

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“RARA AVIS,” The Aimless Blades, Boat Recordings,
www.aimlessblades.com

This fourth recording by Milwaukee’s Aimless Blades is a rare thing indeed.

Raw electricity is the first sound you hear before a clarion guitar charges in on “Looking for Sleep,” the opener on this latest installation from a band that appears it will never stop growing.

It’s a fitting way to begin an album that is so electrically redeeming, and you’d have to hear the record to know what I mean. Listening to this CD is sort of the aural equivalent of an erotic shiver down the middle of your back. It’s just so great to hear sophisticated, modern, literate rock from a band in your own back yard.

The Blades are based in Milwaukee, but two members grew up in Menasha – guitarist/vocalist/key songwriter Blaine Schultz and bass player Angela V-Elles. Schultz also shows his true-blue music interests in Postcard from Milwaukee for The Scene, but I would love the Blades even if I weren’t indebted to Blaine for his monthly contributions (don’t miss his tribute this month to New Frontier Records, the recently defunct independent record store that served as a musical training ground for many in the Valley).

The three-piece 3-D Horns chime in on the Creedence-like “DP at the Piano Player,” and tenor player Rip Tenor accentuates the killer “Mekong Delta Blues.”

Yes, a rare thing, indeed – a rock record in 2008 that matters.

Catch the CD release 8 p.m. March 8 at Zad's Roadhouse in Milwaukee. The show includes the Snowbirds, the Poem Tones, the Carolinas, Chris DeMay and the Threshers, Peder Hedman Quartet and Juniper Tar.