The Neil Young Story

When I was young, I used to do house video for Robert Warren Mobile Television Production at what is now Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre.  It was a great gig — I got to see every show I wanted to all summer, I picked up some extra cash, and I had some cool experiences like being onstage with Aerosmith.

The night that Neil Young was playing, his tour manager pulled us aside before the show and told us:

You have to put the cameras where Neil can’t see them.  If he sees a camera while he’s playing, he’ll fly into a rage.

Was this true?  Was the tour manager pulling our leg?  I have no idea but I know that we pulled all of our cameras back and Neil Young fans got house video that wasn’t nearly as good as we usually provided.

I think of this from time to time.  If I haven’t talked to a band beforehand, I don’t like to show up with cameras unless it’s an event that you’d expect to see photographers at anyway.  Most artists might not care but I’d rather not distract the one who does.

The Journey

I spent some time talking to David Childers this weekend for an upcoming feature here and he put something in words that’s driving what I want to do here:

If you want to talk about the Americana scene, there’s an interesting story to be told around here. Like, the Rank Outsiders, that was a very interesting thing. They opened up this showcase in the mid 90’s. Doubting Thomas, Lenny Federal, Lou Ford, Michael Reno Harrell, it’s just interesting to me what all these people have done. There are a lot of trails that go off from there.

You follow it, I think you’ll find an interesting story.

It’s not limited to Americana, either.  There’s a lot of trails leading me all over Charlotte and I think it’ll be an interesting story.