2B - Thursday, September 25, 2008
CA LENDA R
The Daily Arts guide to
upcoming events in Ann Arbor
and the surrounding area.
Today 9.25.08'
Trunk-a-Palooza: Garage
Sale in Kerrytown
5 p.m.
At the Farmer's Market
Free
"Out of Our Minds: Learn-
ing to be Creative" Penny
Stamps Lecture with Sir Ken
Robinson
5:10 p.m.
At the Michigan Theater
Free
Tomorrow 9.26.08
"The Art of Movement:
Parkour and Freerunning"
Featuring Levi Meeuwen-
berg, Former "Ninja War-
rior" Contestant
7 p.m.
At the Ann Arbor District Library
Free
Jamie Lee Curtis
7 p.m.
At Borders (612 E. Liberty)
Free
Saturday 9.27.08
Harvest.of the Arts
Oktoberfest: Juried Art Fair
with Beer Tent and Chili
Cookoff
9 a.m.
In Downtown Saline
Free
Wayne Shorter Quartet
8 p.m.
At Hill Auditorium
$10-$42
Sunday 9.28.08
The Food Historian in the
Kitchen: New England Food
Historian Sandy Oliver
2 p.m.
At the Ann Arbor District Library
Free

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

mi

NEIL YOUNG 'AMERICAN STARS 'N BARS'
(1977)

A slight diversion
from an epic decade

0

By DAVID WATNICK
Daily Music Editor
By the time Neil Young released
American Stars 'n Bars in the spring of
1977, he'd already dismantled all the
commefcial goodwill he earned with
1972's Harvest with his brutally non-
commercial mid-decade "Ditch Trilo-
gy." After 1975's milder Zuma, it seemed
high time for him to refocus and find a
new artistic track with Stars 'n Bars.
But brilliantly, he managed to shirk
his responsibility to move in any par-
ticular direction and instead he used
the record to embrace his own eclectic
song-writing tendencies. After default-
ing on the still-unreleased albums
Homegrown and Chrome Dreams, the
mid-'70s left Young with an extensive
and diverse cache of unused songs, and
Stars 'n Bars was a clearing house for
many of them.
From its onset, side one (featuring
five songs from one '77 session) seems
poised to match the unsophisticated,
sweaty disarray of Stars 'n Bars's whis-
key bottle, up-skirt, crushed-face-Neil
cover art. With a 3/4 swing, sleazy
violin, spot-on harmony vocals from
Nicolette Larson and Linda Rondstadt
and lonely blue-collar weeknight lyrics
("When I knock down tequila and salt
... In this empty bar"), opener "The Old
Country Waltz" is an unashamed, unre-
fined, headfirst-drunken-nosedive into
authentic country. Adding cowbell and
amateurish riffing, follow-up "Saddle
Up The Palamino" picks up the tempo
while preserving the decidedly un-
classy mood.
A welcomed softening arrives with
"Hey Babe," a restrained, confessional
serenade sung by a Young immeasur-
ably more sincere than the inebriated
barstool romantic he portrayed on the
first two tracks. But any .emotional
affection it earns is erased by the two
regressive numbers rounding out the
more-country-than-country side one.
Side two, home to the jumbled sam-
pling of orphan songs dating back as far
as three years, begins in earnest with
the gentle acoustic "Star of Bethlehem."
But just as Stars 'n Bars looks destined
to seal its fate as an undistinguished
collection of weightless, above-average

country rock, it drifts off into "Will to
Love." A seven-minute, meditation in
which Young paints himself asa migrat-
ing salmon to convey the determination
of his love, it emanates from a world
light years beyond the grounded songs
it succeeds. "When the water grew less
deep / my fins were aching from the
strain / I'm swimming in my sleep / I
know I can't go back again," Young's
double-tracked vocal spills onto a
bumpy to-fi canvas touched unevenly
with vibraphone, cabaret piano and
other transient auxiliary noises.
As "Will to Love" fades into oblivion,
Young's distinctive Les Paul scream
breaks in and propels him even further
into the cosmos on "Like a Hurricane."
Exploring the limits of his guitar above
a Crazy Horse groove augmented by a
shimmering organ, Young cleverly man-
ages to boost the hypnotic pull left over
from "Will to Love" by turning up the
Even Neil Young
had a little fun in
the mid- '70s
volume and intensity. 'When he sings
"You are just a dreamer/ and I am just a
dream," it stands as a reality check that
is only confirmed when Young's dive-
bombing solo concludes the intoxicating
eight-minute epic. After the 15-minute
shock wave of the two tracks - perhaps
the greatest back-to-back pairing on
any Young album - "Homegrown" is an
underwhelming closer.
For Neil Young, the 1970s marked a
period of artistic achievement that few
musicians will ever match. But Ameri-
can Stars 'n Bars is merely a pleasant
diversion that pads two immortal tracks
with seven others that amount to just
plain fun. In Young's celebrated cata-
logue, American Stars 'n Bars probably
isn't among his ten best albums. But its
most valuable asset is that it's the only
album that effectively communicates
the mid-'70s malaise Neil Young found
himself in as he became his generation's
least compromising artist.

Please send all press releases
and event information to
arts@michigandaily.com.

SYMPOSIUM
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
Held at the Michigan Union from 1:00 to 5:15

i

Featuring

Presentations Include:

. The Failure of the War on Poverty
. Conservative Answers to Environmental Questions
. Why More Government Is Not the Answer
. Saving America's Principles from Modern Liberalism
" In Defense of Liberty:The Relationship Between
Security and Freedom
FREE ADMISSION.
RSVP by Friday, September 26,
at MyHeritage. org/Michigan.

0
0m

Victor Davis Hanson
is author of A War Like
No Other and a syndicated
columnist who writes
regularly for National
Review Online.

Larry P. Arnn
is the President of
Hillsdale College.

0

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