Artist: Various Artists
Album: Everybody’s Talkin’ (A Tribute To Fred Neil )
Label: Y&T Music
Release Date: 9.15.18
He was an ornery, enigmatic, reclusive, talented tunesmith with an outstanding voice and 12-string-guitar style (heavily influenced by Bob Gibson) to fit his creations.
In the ’60s, the native Floridian was all over the map where adventurous music was being played: The Village, Woodstock, Toronto and of course in South Florida, but never in one place for very long. Many of his musical compatriots never knew where he was at any given time, especially when he was a no show at an important gig or recording session. If he was a band, a good name for him would have been The Moody Blues. He was Fred Neil and that was the bag he was in.
Better late than never, here is a tribute to the guy who gave us tunes like “Everybody’s Talkin’,” (one many mistakenly think Harry Nilsson wrote ), “Candyman” (one Fred always got credit for, but his Brill Building co-writer, Beverly Ross didn’t ), “Blues On The Ceiling,” which is oddly missing in action here, like Freddie often was. A gathering of a few survivors of his time like Eric Anderson, John Sebastian, and Vince Martin (who was often a duo partner) get to do a few. They are helped with folks he inspired, like Rodney Crowell, Tim Krekel, Keith Sykes and—quite impressively—by a larger contingent of fine singers, players and kindred spirits located around his home base of Coconut Grove: I collectively call them The Miami Dolphins.
And so we have a mixed bag of a baker’s dozen Neil tunes. Dolphins (the mammals, not the team) were very important to Fred and so it seems fitting that “Dolphins” opens and closes this CD. One thing for certain is, I’ll be checking out offerings from the voices that were new to me here, like Bob and Bryn Ingram, Diane Ward and Matthew Sabotella, who all do great jobs on channeling Neil. One spin of “A Little Bit Of Rain” or the curtain-falling “Dolphins” and you’ll know what I mean.
—Ken Spooner
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