The Light in a Harvest Moon: A Review of Harvest Moon: A Neil Young Tribute Band at Napoleon’s 9-19-21 and Madlife, 9-24-21

Tribute bands come in two varieties – imitators and messengers. One is about form, and the other is about substance.

Imitators emphasize the outer characteristics of the band members and the songs, trying to look like and sound like people they aren’t. They are like a poster reproduction of an original painting -and about as soulful.

The rarer messenger-type tribute bands, on the other hand, are more focused on what it all meant. This type of band knows they can’t be the original, and that isn’t their mission. A Neil Young messenger band, such as Harvest Moon, for example, wouldn’t feel the need to wear flannel shirts or have shaggy hair, or even to be all men. Those things don’t matter, because that’s not what it’s all about. What it is about is who the artist was and what made his music art.

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With messenger bands, the setlist is more carefully curated and designed to highlight the influence of the artist. HM leaned heavily toward Neil’s earlier work, which is instantly identifiable, amplified more so than most of those who had come before, and diverse in influences. In my opinion, this early work begins construction on the bridge from rock to the grunge movement decades later. It is immensely important.

The unique sound, energy, and intensity of 1969’s Everybody Knows This is Nowhere put this album in a class by itself. Down by the River has that simple, gritty, back-and-forth guitar and odd minor/major chord juxtaposition. It swings you like the blues before catapulting you into an acidy groove that perfectly portrays the crazed emotion of its heart-broken narrator.

In Cinnamon Girl, Neil’s emotions are true and raw and intense, an odd mixture of sensitivity of spirit and aggressiveness of tone-a theme that recurs again and again in his music: BAM BAM BAM, bam, bam, bam bam, I WANT TO LIVE WITH A CINNAMON GIRL!!! Good Lord! Someone, anyone, please get Neil a Cinnamon Girl!!

But he needs her, because that’s who he is, too: a dreamer of pictures.

And, like a picture by Salvador Dali, Cowgirl in the Sand begins softly before waking you up with musical and lyrical distortion, pushing you back and forth into psychedelic dreamland. It’s my favorite Neil song, and I had hoped, but never expected, to hear a cover or tribute band attempt it: It’s not as well known, not a happy sing-along, the multiple guitar solos go on way past the normal time, and the repetitive two-note back-and-forth might keep some people from recognizing its genius.

These three songs, however, firmly placed Neil in the musical artist category and set up that signature tone and style that found its way, more or less, into his later work.

HM played the first two, which I had expected, and they played them very well. But the fact that they played Cowgirl told me three things: a) they cared about covering the best of Neil, not just pleasing an audience with recognizable tunes, b) they could execute Neil’s more complex music, and c) they could convey the surreality that the song demands.

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Neil lent his signature sound to CSN & Y, but if Graham Nash wrote the song, he had to hold himself back a little. I feel for Neil in having to participate in the La-la, la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la of the insipid Our House.  It just wasn’t him. He was probably okay with the lyrics of Teach Your Children, but I’m sure he had to stifle the urge not to crunch up that happy little melody, which might have changed the wimpy imploring into a stronger imperative.

HM avoided Our House (thank you), but they did play Teach Your Children, and, while they did not crunch it up, the harmonies were lovely, and the audience seemed to like it.

Stephen Stills wrote Suite Judy Blue Eyes, another one of my not-favorite-Neil-involved songs, but there is no denying that it is unique and the harmonies throughout are impressive. I imagine it is not an easy one to learn or perform, but HM did it flawlessly. Again, the audience went wild. 

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Harvest came out in 1972, and shows a side of Neil not seen since his self-titled and sleepy first album. These songs are more lyric- oriented, and what’s special about Neil’s lyrics is that they catch the essence of an emotion or idea more the original thing itself. Think of Needle and Damage Done that compares addiction to seduction and the pain of losing someone to needle marks. Consider the layers of metaphor in Old Man: Love lost, such a cost/Give me things that don't get lost/Like a coin that won't get tossed/Rolling home to you. 

Both songs are deeply emotional and the attention to detail in the vocals indicated that it was important for HM to get them just right in order to convey the feelings as much as possible.

Their version of Hey, Hey, My, My later on solidified my opinion- it wasn’t played note for note, but there seemed a reason for the increased volume and repetition that went past the original:  It's better to burn out than fade away. We, the audience, couldn’t help but get the point.

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HM also covered the better CSN & Y songs, the ones on 1974’s So Far. Neil could take folk song protests, crank them up a notch, and capture the truth, anger, and urgency that not even Dylan could quite manage. His songwriting defined the 60’s: Ohio’s tempo captured the drone-like march of America to Vietnam and the lyrics and musical distortion communicated the tragic irony inherent in the horrific sacrifice of young people asking only for peace,

After the Goldrush tackled environmental issues, and Southern Man tackled racism. Carry On and Woodstock told us to keep believing in love and peace and to continue to move forward (I have to say that it was a beautiful thing to see the audience singing along to the chorus of Woodstock in Woodstock).

HM played all of these, and the perfect harmonies and varied configurations of the group carried the collective message of peace and love beneath the protest. It would have made me upset to hear a band play these as archaic little hippie songs, because the messages are as timely as they ever were, give or take a few lyrics.HM got this, and I knew that they did, because a) they played them with the hard vigor and emotion that Neil would have, and b) they threw in Buffalo Springfield’s For What it’s Worth, just to emphasize the timeliness of songs nearly 50 years later.

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Although they mostly skipped over a few decades, HM had to do their namesake song, and it was so sweet watching an elderly couple dance to it. It made me think that they’d gotten through all the crazy stuff outside the world and inside themselves, had made peace with the pain, and had figured out the answer: just to love each other under a harvest moon. I think that’s what Neil had figured out as well as he grew older and why he mellowed out so much as time went by.

But whatever his style, Neil was and is the real thing. He was never “show-biz,” never a sell-out. He was intense, raw, and insistent that you listen to the truth he had to tell.

We need truth-tellers like Neil and truth-tellers who carry his musical legacy with serious conviction. Harvest Moon was one of the best-rehearsed, most polished, and most professional tribute bands I have ever seen. It was clear that every one of them cared about the artist, the music, and the message and were dedicated to getting it right.  Like a harvest moon, HM shined Neil’s light brightly. As long as messenger-tribute bands like them are around, rock and roll will never die, and neither will its message.

Harvest Moon: is made up of Rod Gunther on guitar, Henry Davis on keyboards, Brad Berry on drums/vocals. Wade Carreker on bass/vocals, Meg Scalise on vocals, and Grant Reynolds, as guitarist, vocalist, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist.