Saturday, June 23rd, I was lucky to be in the audience for a sold out Neil Young Tribute show at the Trinity House Theater in Livonia. If the organizers, Billy Brandt and David Nefesh, ever repeat this show... run... don't walk to the nearest outlet to purchase tickets. I make the opportunity to see a lot of concerts, it's not quite July and even before Saturday night's concert, I've seen over 30 live performances this year. But Saturday night's performance rates as the most fun I've had at any show this year and was just a joy to experience as many of Michigan's top artists played homage to one of the greatest songwriters of this baby boomer’s era, Neil Young. Jan Krist, Billy Brandt, Jill Jack, David Nefesh, The Humming Birds, Marilyn, Jim Bizer, John Latini, Jere Stormer, and Brigitte Knudson, sang, strummed, and just plain rocked the house so hard I was afraid we were going to move it off the foundation.

There were many musical highlights by this fine group of musicians who possess many, many Detroit Music Awards between them. I'll try to single out a few. Billy Brandt's (Grievous Angel), Stephen Grant Wood's  (The Hummingbirds) and David Nefesh just plain smoking guitar work on several tunes. Jill Jack whirling about the stage as she accompanied John "Jonesey" Latini on "Cinnamon Girl " with the stage lights illuminating her hair as if the song was written for her.  John Latini's beautiful steel guitar work on numerous tunes.  Stephen Grant Wood and Rachel Lynn from the Hummingbirds provided an excellent rendition of  "Like a Hurricane."  There were too many other fine performance to note them all. An excellent, excellent evening.

Billy Brandt http://www.drumdancerrecords.com/grievousangel/index.php
David Nefesh http://www.davidnefesh.com/
Jill Jack http://www.jilljack.com/
John Latini   http://www.myspace.com/johnlatini 
Jan Krist http://www.jankrist.net/
Jim Bizer http://www.jimbizer.com/
Marilyn   http://www.myspace.com/momair
Jere Stormer http://www.myspace.com/jerestormer 
Brigitte Knudson

Steven Johnson
Publisher, MichiganFolkLive