#corey mccormick

Neil Young and Promise of the Real Star in Daryl Hannah-directed “Paradox;” Record Film Soundtrack

Neil Young and Promise of the Real bandmates and brothers Lukas and Micah Nelson star in “Paradox,” a low-budget Western by first-time filmmaker and Young’s girlfriend, the actor Daryl Hannah.

Other cast members include Lukas and Micha’s pops, Willie, who provides narration, plus Corey McCormick, Anthony LoGerfo, Tato Melgar, Charris Ford and Dulcie Clarkson Ford.

”Like a group of neighborhood kids deciding to put on a show, we all decided to make a movie,” Hannah said in press material for “Paradox,” which she describes as an “unorthodox … funny, idiosyncratic, homespun movie” partially shot on a cell phone and a Super 8 camera.

”Our cast members acted as a de facto crew, carrying their own props, dressing in different costumes to be extras, moving stuff around, and we essentially had no budget,” she said.

A trailer for the film - which premieres March 15 at the SXSW Festival, hits Netflix March 23 and is slated to run in select theaters later this year - describes it as “an unrealistic tale” that takes place “many moons ago in the future.” It introduces Young’s character and alludes to the nickname he’s carried around for decades due to his epilepsy.

”The Man in the Black Hat - I heard he can be kind of Shaky,” a disembodied voice as says as Young and POTR’s rendition of “Peace Trail” plays in the background.

The song comes from Paradox (Original Music from the Film), which will be released digitally and on vinyl March 23. The album features Willie Nelson’s narrations, incidental music, original songs, remakes of Young tracks such as “Pocohantas” and covers of the Turtles’ “Happy Together,” Lead Belly’s “How Long?,” Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” and other material recorded by Young and Promise of the Real, who are expected to launch a joint tour later this year.

Album Review: Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts - Talkin to the Trees

Neil Young demonstrates his strength as a lyricist remains atrophied as he opens his new album with the Chrome Hearts with the following:

When today has come and gone/I might be singin’ my new song/might be short and it might be long/but I’ll still be singin’ my new song

Said new song is “Family Life.” Said new band is keyboardist Spooner Oldham, second guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo. And said new album is Talkin to the Trees. And at 79, Young is now singing about grandchildren as on the folksy opener and the electric stomping “Dark Mirage.”

Placed back-to-back, “Silver Eagle,” an acoustic-country expression of American patriotism and “Let’s Roll Again,” an electric-rock ‘n’ roll kick in the American ass, both steal the melody of “This Land is Your Land,” further illuminating Young’s dry creative well. “Big change,”meanwhile, betrays betrays Biden-level naïveté in declaring the new executive might be bad and it might be good.

What makes Talkin to the Trees stand out among other 21st-century offerings from Young is that, with the exception of “big change,” it’s all listenable. Not mandatory listening. And it’s no classic. But diehard Young fans will be “Thankful,” as in the “Harvest Moon” rewrite that closes the LP is titled, he and the Chrome Hearts made something not destined for the scrap heap.

Grade card: Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts - Talkin to the Trees - C+

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts Talkin’ to the Trees 2025 Reprise ——————————————————————— Tracks: 01. Family Life 02. Dark Mirage 03. First Fire of Winter 04. Silver Eagle 05. Lets Roll Again 06. Big Change 07. Talkin’ to the Trees 08. Movin Ahead 09. Bottle of Love 10. Thankful ———————————————————————

Anthony LoGerfo

Corey McCormick

Micah Nelson

Spooner Oldham

Neil Young

Lukas Nelson – Webster Hall – November 18, 2023

It’s been a few years since Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real last visited Webster Hall and what feels like a lifetime of world tumult, happenings and music that’s passed since then. That the songs from the band’s crisp 2023 release, Sticks & Stones, sound like people eager to break out and boogie is probably not an accident, but then Nelson and his snappy country-rock squad have always walked the line between wistful-moving and barroom-blastoff — better than most. They’re love-me-tender when they want to be, with a joyful, almost goofy earnestness. They can deliver sad songs that hit the feels. And they can rock your face off. 

There’s a lot of Nelson’s dad, Willie, and a lot of occasional employer Neil Young, and a little of other obvious touchstones like Tom Petty in what they do, but these days POTR sound most like one of the best live bands of the past decade, never leaving behind their party-hardy roots, keeping the rock part of folk-rock firmly in mind, writing better and better songs that adequately pace a lip smackingly fun show. On Saturday they once again got after it, nailing the newer tunes and finding new excitement in the old ones. Opener “Entirely Different Stars” began mysterious, got to a crowd-stoking boogie and ended with a psychedelic guitar breakdown. “Sticks and Stones” had double-barreled piano and plenty of saloon in it to push the song forward. Nelson was rocking so hard during the fist-pumping “Four Letter Word” that his signature hat flew off. The early POTR favorite “All the Pretty Horses” underscored just how far the band’s come in their command of their own dynamics, starting quietly solo, patiently building to a full-band sound that filled up the room.

Those were just part of the action. The tunes that at this point might be called the POTR classics — including stinging-sweet “Forget About Georgia,” groovy “Find Yourself,” country-gospel “Set Me Down on a Cloud” — all delivered, as they always do. But the band went deeper still, especially Nelson himself, who delivered a good chunk of the set solo, near-solo and acoustic, either guitar or piano, and left the room spellbound with the sentimental “Smile,” the proud “Just Outside of Austin” and the achingly beautiful parent-to-child-benediction “Giving You Away,” shimmering with steel from multi-instrumentalist Logan Metz. There were surprises, too: The brilliant NYC-based soulful R&B singer Emily King joined Nelson to duet on what was described as a new song, loaded with New York-centric lyrics.  As ever Nelson and the POTR band — Metz, Corey McCormick, Anthony LoGerfo, Tato Melgar, aces, all — brought things to a blowout finale, barreling through the hilarious “Wrong House,” a nifty segue from their own galloping “Ladder of Love” into Willie’s “Bloody Mary Morning” and then “Find Yourself” to close the set. It was as full and varied a show as POTR have ever played here. We wrote of this same band at this same venue in 2019 that they’d “earned their swagger.” In 2023, they totally own it. —Chad Berndtson | @Cberndtson

(Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real play Royale in Boston tomorrow night.)

Dr. John Things Happen That Way (Rounder / Concord; 2022) Por Juan F. Trillo [Grabación de jazz]

El álbum que hoy Tomajazz les presenta, Things Happen That Way, es una obra póstuma, un homenaje a la labor de toda una vida sobre los escenarios de aquel músico excéntrico que se hacía llamar Dr. John. Se ha publicado ahora, hace escasas semanas, a finales de septiembre, a pesar de que falleció en 2019, pero como reza el dicho, más vale  tarde que nunca. En cualquier caso y donde quiera que esté…

Draagyn Shares New Single –  “A Night Between Two Days”

Experimental genre chameleon and artist Draagynhas shared a new single, “A Night Between Two Days”. Debuted over at BrooklynVegan and is available now on all streaming services, the avant-garde, multi-instrumentalist, and dark chanteuse conjures all kinds of dread feelings with her voice and musical skills. On the follow up to 2019’s otherworldly, 8+ minute single “Majesty,” she hops from Black…