New Music Lockdown 4: Neil Young, Roger & Brian Eno and a trip to Nashville

Midway through another week of lockdown, here's a cross section of small good things to keep the eyes and ears entertained. There's some lively stuff here for the old grey matter to chew on. Take a look. Dive in!

Neil Young Fireside Sessions

Neil Young’s website, neilyoungarchives.com, is densely populated, counter-intuitively designed and fiddly, but, for fans and others willing to persist, the great American singers-songwriter and proto-grunge rocker offers up a plethora of material in his two online “Hearse Theater” screening spaces (set up to look like cinemas).  Screen 2 offers a welter of different material daily, from throughout his long career, but of most immediate interest are the three Fireside Sessions, half hour films recorded in lockdown amid the indoor and outdoor rustic Americana of his Colorado home. The latest are on Screen 1 (here) and the past two are “support features” on Screen 2. Shot and edited by his wife, film star Darryl Hannah, they feature decades-old classics such as “Words (Between the Lines of Age)”, alongside rarities and other snippets, as well as multiple guest appearances by their dogs. While no definitive date is given, a fourth session is imminent...

Roger & Brian Eno Mixing Colours Film

Who would like to work on a film with ambient musical explorers Roger and Brian Eno? Lockdown may just give you that chance. The pair are looking for video material to accompany music from their recent, 15-years-in-the-making, first album as a duo, Mixing Colours (on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label). Fans are invited to submit three-to-five minute videos, preferably in slow-motion, “of their post-lockdown world” to the website mixing-colours.com. As they put it, “We want to ask people in the next few weeks to take a single shot of a quiet scene, at home, or out the window, or in their garden. Clouds passing, rustling tree leaves, a bird nesting, people conducting activities in the house: quiet moments that we are all enjoying, together, in isolation.” The pick of these short films will be used to accompany the duo’s contemplative music.

Visit Nashville

The Nashville Tourist Board has responded with impressive vigour to the current crisis, cheerfully offering alternatives to visiting the self-styled Music City at visitmusiccity.com. There’s a weeks-long click-through schedule of their curated daily livestreams, ranging from rising local talent to the likes of Lukas Nelson, Ben Folds Luke Combs and even country superstar Garth Brooks, albeit the times are six hours behind so the opening 11.00 AM acts are 5.00 PM in the UK. The site also links to the Country Music Hall of Fame’s extensive selection of podcasts, interviews and videos, a welter of vibrant material for any fan of Americana. Beyond music there are hosts of “experiences” and activities on offer, ranging from designing an adventure park for kids to a virtual trip to the Jack Daniels Distillery. It’s all one giant advert, of course, but it’s done with such imagination, interest and panache that it offers plenty to interest.

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