Event

KZFR Presents Pegi Young and the Survivors

Singer, songwriter, Pegi Young and her band, The Survivors play a full set at the Chico Women's Club in support of her new album, Raw. Doors open at 6:30pm

Pegi Young & The Survivors Featuring: Spooner Oldham, Kelvin Holly, Phil Jones & Shonna Tucker

Alexander Nelson opens the show at 7:30pm.

Pegi Youngs powerful new album, Raw, gets right to the point. Opening cut Why kicks off with Youngs impassioned alto, demanding, Whyd you have to ruin my life? Whyd you have to be so mean? Over the soulful Americana rock of her band the Survivors led by legendary keyboardist/songwriter Spooner Oldham Young taps into a surprisingly primal force.
Theres a reason for that. Young wrote most of Raw in the wake of her 2014 separation and divorce from Neil Young, to whom shed been married thirty-six years. Over the decades, the pair had raised a family, made music together, and worked to support northern Californias Bridge School for severely disabled children. Pegi founded the Bridge School in 1986 after being unable to find the right kind of care for their son, Ben, who has cerebral palsy.

[Raw] was very cathartic for me, Young says. What happened was real, but I also look at this record as having a universal quality to it. Im certainly not the only one to go through a late-in-life divorce, and Im not going to be the last. But in my case, it was so painful because wed been together for so long.
Yet the songs most co-written with guitarist Kelvin Holly and Oldham arent all expressions of anger. The first track to be released from the album is Too Little Too Late, a raw and poetic psalm of regret, the truth-tellin Gave My Best to You and a rockin update on These Boots are Made for Walkin convey resilience and sass. A gorgeous, stripped-down version of Don Henleys The Heart of the Matter explores the grace of forgiveness. As a whole, the album is a journey from shock, to rage, to sadness, to strength, but not necessarily in that order.