In last week’s Chain Gang, Clint West made the connection between Shooter Jennings’ old man Waylon, who amongst other things, added his distinctive guitar sound to a number of tracks on Neil Young’s 1985 country album ‘Old Ways’. For my link this week, I’ve chosen to focus upon Neil’s most famous guitar sidekick, about whom he says; “He holds everything together. He’s skilful, beautiful, got a great touch, but he’s open. Most importantly, he’s listening to everything!”
I’m talking about Nils Lofgren, who recently returned to these shores as part of Bruce Springsteen’s amazing E Street Band. Nils met Neil in May 1969, and within a year worked with him on the seminal ‘After The Goldrush‘ album that was released in September 1970, on which he played guitar and piano and sang harmony vocals. On this fascinating short video clip, Nils talks about how his experience of playing the accordion had a significant influence on the song ‘Southern Man’, which he developed on the ‘Goldrush upright’ while Neil was having his lunch!
