questions and answers
pictures
If you could duet with anyone dead or alive who would it be?
So many …
Female: In my dreams … Tina Turner, Cher, Dolly Parton, Gretchen Wilson, Carrie Underwood, Jann Arden, Sheryl Crow, Tanya Tucker, Trisha Yearwood, Tammy Wynette, etc. Realistically though, I would be thrilled to duet at every possible chance with Paula Tessaro who shared lead vocals on one song with me on my debut album, as well as with many of my peers who I have had the pleasure of meeting and listening to via the internet - singers such as Ash Ferry, Charlene Sharp, Gina French and so many others.
Male: Again, in my dreams … Johnny Cash, Ricky Nelson, Don Gibson, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, George Strait, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Jimmy Buffet, Big & Rich, etc. And again, realistically speaking, many of my peers who I have met here via the internet such as Rockabilly Hall of Fame member Bobby Lawson, Jimmy Howen, Roy Muniz, Bruce Posey, Les Boyko, Chuckie Ray Harrelson and many more.
Performing duets adds such a wonderful, fulfilling and enriching reward to one’s singing and musical experience.
Who are your musical influences?
Johnny Cash, Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, etc., etc…….
How do you write your songs? Do you start with the music or the lyrics.
It can be either or … sometimes it will start with a melody, next time it might be a couple of words or lines … it can strike anytime anywhere …
Can you play any instruments if so which ones and do you have a favourite.
Guitar (favorite), harmonica, some keyboard
How did you get into music, was it from an early age?
I began writing songs and playing guitar as a teenager living and loving my way through the legendary 1950’s Country Rockabilly era and the dawning of Rock ‘n Roll … then for quite a few years for various and mixed reasons I was unable to devote much time to my love for music, although I continued writing songs and playing guitar on the sidelines.
About two years ago I came to that proverbial fork in the road and in my life that fortunately took me back to my country roots and to my music ... and now I am living and loving my life-long dream!!
Do you have any musical training,
Some … mostly self-taught though …
Which of your songs are you most proud of?
This is a hard question to answer, and quite frankly, it's hard to choose because I'm actually quite proud of them all. Having said that, and after having just recently received the IAIA GOLDEN KAYAK AWARD FOR BEST COUNTRY SONG - 2007 for 'THE COWBOY SONG", I am going to say that at the moment I am the most proud of that song.
Where were you born, and do you still live there?
I was born in Brantford Ontario Canada. I currently live nearby there in Paris, known as “the prettiest little town in Ontario”
Where would you like to see yourself in five years time?
On tour across Canada … the USA … with a stop or two at the Grand Old Opry … touring Europe … touring the world … hmmm … where else could I go??? So many places, so little time!!
Six words that best describe you..
Resolute, steadfast, dedicated, ardent, a gentleman, and a survivor
What’s your favourite of all of your songs?
Again, this is another difficult, if not impossible question to answer fairly. My songs are all like my own children to me so to speak, and as such in a way precludes my picking favourites. I have a reason for each of my songs to be a favourite in its own right and for what it means to me, or reflects from my creativity.
How long did it take to write and record the Music for the ‘’No Looking Back’ album?
Interesting question with a very long answer since two of the songs I wrote when I was still in high school many years ago, while some others I wrote during later years and several I wrote in the last two years. To write those last few songs for the album and to record the album took about 14 months
What’s the best Live / recording moment you’ve ever had?
Every time I walk on stage I consider it the best live time I’ve ever had and want to impart that feeling and experience to every audience …
Where was your first public performance?
Hamilton Ontario
cd tracklisting
No Looking Back
1. The Restless Wind
2. Got Nothin' To Lose
3. The Cowboy Song - Radio Mix
4. All Through The Night
5. I Got My Ragtop Down
6. Ride
7. There's Just The One And Only You
8. You Just Turned My Life Around
9. No Looking Back
10. The Cowboy Song - Album Mix
11. Hello, I'm Johnny Cash
featured track
I guess I will have to go with the answer to the song that I am most proud of and that is my favourite:
My first # 1 song and what has now become my signature song wherever I perform, and for whichI recently received the IAIA (International Academy of Independent Artists) Golden Kayak Award for BEST COUNTRY SONG - 2007 THE COWBOY SONG......Neil w Young
Biography
“One morning a couple of summers ago," Neil says reflectively, "I found myself at that place characterized by the great New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra: ‘If you come to a fork in the road, take it.’
“I did ... and I took it,” he says, matter-of-factly.
“It was obviously my lucky day,” he adds. “In a round-about way it led me back to my country roots, back to the sweet memories of my teen years, and thankfully, back to my music.”
He is now following his heart and living his dream with the release in July of 2007 of his debut CD album, ’No Looking Back’, as well as performing in local venues in Southern Ontario.
He attributes this life-changing event to being in the right place at the right time that led to the propitious opportunity in the summer of 2005 to meet Ray Lyell, an accomplished musician, recording artist and vocal instructor in Hamilton Ontario.
"I honestly can’t begin to sing Ray’s praises high enough," Neil says. "In addition to his noted many professional accomplishments, Ray is nothing short of a consummate dream-weaver. He certainly was a major contributing factor in making mine come true!"
Neil’s roots are deep country, proudly reflecting his early years growing up on the family farm in part of the now slowly disappearing tobacco heartland of southwestern Ontario, Canada. Strengthening his country roots was time spent during his pre and early teen years working on weekends and during summer months in the family owned John Deere Farm Equipment Dealership, Neil Young & Sons, near the town of Simcoe. Years later he operated and managed the business with his father.
“Farming and John Deere’s,” he says pensively, “You don’t get much more country than that.”
After the implement business was sold, Neil continued farming for several more years as well as serving in various management positions with the Ponderosa Steak House Chain of Restaurants while he continued to lay the groundwork for the beginning of his entrepreneurial career in real estate development with projects in Ontario, Alberta and Las Vegas Nevada. Locally, Neil developed the ’Royal Highland Estates’ subdivision just a few miles south of where he now lives in Paris.
This period in his life led to wanderings and ponderings around San Bernardino, Palm Springs and Palm Desert, and up as far as Mendocino in California, in the mountains in Colorado and into the desert in Arizona - all part of what he fondly calls "Paradise Country".
He reminisces often of the spell, mystery and solitude of his times in the Arizona desert. "It is an inspirational place," he muses fondly. "I know that in a way it silently spurred my return to songwriting after a prolonged absence.
“There is just something about the desert,” Neil says wistfully, “that inspires the mind. It has this magical, mystical quality - a way of reaching into the heart, of touching the soul - that somehow produces feelings and emotions that become words that become lyrics that become a melody and then a song.”
Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, in 1985 Neil founded ’Rhapsody On Ice’ - an International Ice Skating Show. He took the show around the world for seven years under the banner of the motto that he trademarked for the troupe of young Ontario based figure skating stars and the world professional championship skaters, ’… hold on tight to your dream ...’.
The troupe performed in places such as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, England, Spain and Denmark, and in Florida, Arizona, California and Hawaii in the U.S., as well as at shows here in Ontario and Alberta Canada – with stops along the way in South Korea, China, Macau, France and the Fiji Islands.
Following the sale of his real estate interests, Neil considers it another stroke of good luck that he was asked to become involved in an administrative capacity in the production of the documentary film, ’Piaf … Her Story, Her Songs’, about the life of the fabled wartime French songstress, Edith Piaf.
That involvement took him to the Lucas Film Studio at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in California. Neil was given a credit in the film as ’Special Consultant’. The film is now available on DVD at Amazon.com.
Neil considers himself to be one of the “lucky ones” having lived and loved his teen years through the legendary 1950’s Country Rockabilly era and the dawning of Rock ’n Roll when Elvis took the stage and the world by storm with his ’Heartbreak Hotel’. It should come as no great surprise then that Neil’s music and lyrics are colored and shaped by those wonderfully free and inspiring times and experiences.
“Perhaps in a way through my music,” he muses longingly, “I’m going back to the ’Fifties’. Then again, maybe I never really left.
"Yes!" he reminisces nostalgically after a brief silence. "Those really were the days!"
“It was absolutely wonderful to be a part of that time and those days,” Neil adds with a warm glow of nostalgia in his eyes.
That early rock, gospel, blues and country rockabilly mystique was driven to simmering levels during sultry summer evenings on lake-blown breezes in places like the fondly remembered Summer Gardens dance pavilion in Port Dover on the northern shore of Lake Erie.
The Arkansas rockabilly sounds of the then newly relocated Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins, richly flavored and seasoned almost overnight by the unique musical style and sound brought to his band by new members from the nearby area in and around tobacco fields in southern Ontario, still echo fondly in the memories of many who recall those electric charged performances at the Summer Gardens by ’Mr. Dynamo’ and his band, The Hawks.
The fusion of those unique musical sounds greatly influenced Neil’s own musical tastes and appetite.
They were shaped even further by his years working in sun-baked tobacco fields mingling with the traditions of Dixie and sounds of the deep South that were brought into his life by fellow workers from the Carolina’s and Georgia.
The confluence of those early experiences eventually gave life to Neil’s own hybrid sound and mixed musical genre – Country, Rockabilly & Southern Rock with a touch of the blues.
How, or why, he kept it all buried and tucked away neatly in the background of his life for so long remains a mystery, even to him, although it may be partly symptomatic of his somewhat private and complex nature and character.
Ask him now where the words and feelings for his music comes from and Neil will tell you quite philosophically:
“Many of the words and feelings for the lyrics that I wrote in my late teens and early twenties came from a combination of the music I was listening to at that time and from some of my own experiences during those impressionable years.
In later years and now, they come mostly from what I call my well of life - my inner self - from memories of those young emotions … romance, love, hopes and dreams … and from other times and roads that I have traveled along the way.
Those memories and roads weave an endless tapestry of images and melody of sounds through the quiet, deep corners of my mind. I’ve had lots of time to reminisce over the depth and contents of that well, and have drawn words and feelings from it for my debut album, ’No Looking Back’.
In addition to writing all the lyrics and music to the songs on his debut CD album, Neil is also currently writing a novel – a project that had its beginning many years ago during his years at university. It sat waiting patiently on one of the many shelves in his life for the time to arrive to begin to put its words to paper. Neil tries to set aside one to two hours a day at his home in Paris Ontario for writing the novel – a regimen, he says, that is important and helps to keep him focused on the objective.
Neil attributes his decision to finally begin writing the novel - the seed of which had been sown by a friend during his last year of university and which had burned inside of him for so many years - to the special friendship that he developed with Rosie Hamlin of Rosie And The Originals, who had topped the charts in 1961 with the hit single, "Angel Baby".
"Rosie’s encouragment and confidence that I had a book in me just waiting to be written was the spark that finally set the novel in motion," Neil says appreciatively.
One can tell from the sound of fulfillment in Neil’s voice as he speaks about the enjoyment that flows from the creative process of both writing the novel and songwriting that he loves what he is doing now.
"Having the opportunity to perform my music and songs on stage and to have so many people enjoy my songs and music is truly the icing on the cake for me," Neil says with an obvious glow of satisfaction and appreciation for the many fans that have found him and his music.
He is extremely happy with the way his debut CD album has turned out, with special thanks, he is quick to add, to the talented musicians who worked and performed on it with him - Ray Lyell on acoustic, electric and bass guitar, keyboard and harmonica, Gary Borden on lead guitar, Ken Baird on piano and Steve Petrie on pedal steel guitar and fiddle.
"These guys are some of the finest musicians in Canada," Neil says proudly. "I’m so lucky to have had them working with me on the album."
Sharing vocals with Neil on one of the tracks is Paula Tessaro.
"Paula brings that special touch and charm that I was hoping for right from the very first session in the recording studio," Neil adds. "I am fortunate to have Paula’s talent and professional experience grace my debut album with her beautiful voice."
Also known as Skip to his family and close friends, Neil is a Western Ontario Secondary School Honour Athlete and graduate of Burford District High School and of Waterloo Lutheran University - now known as Wilfred Laurier University. He also holds what he considers to be a hard earned Masters Degree from the University of Life!!!
Neil is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International and is also a member of the Independent Artist Company - IACMUSIC.COM - the home of Indie Music.
He began singing as a young boy in the choir in the small rural church that he attended with his family. Now, after many years and much water under the bridge so to speak, Neil is very happy to let his debut CD, ’No Looking Back’, begin to finally carve out his own niche and place in the world of music and to have others get enjoyment from it while he continues living his dream.
“What more could I ask,” he says, “than to have others enjoy my music. Music is for the soul … my wish is that somehow mine touches others."
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