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Pegi Young and the Redemers

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.
Young sees Raw as the soundtrack to the seven stages of grief. Its not a linear process, she says. You bounce back and forth. And each song could be sung by either party.
In addition to chronicling this new chapter of her life, Raw also reflects the music Young has been drawn to since growing up in northern California in the 1960s. Yes, I remember dancing in the living room to Motown, she says. Ive always loved harmonies, lyrics, and rhythm. I used to go to the Fillmore and the Avalon and Winterland.
Pegi Young and the Survivors - Raw
Although it would be decades before she would take her work to the stage, Young was writing poetry in grade school and studying it in college. She picked up an acoustic and taught herself some chords and folk covers, and became a bona fide hippie nomad: hitchhiking around the country, with stops in Vermont and Canada. By 1972, shed settled down with her dog in a teepee in northern California. I bought it for $200, she says. My first home. In 1974, she was working in a restaurant and living in the teepee when she met Neil Young.
The rock & roll road, family life, tending to the Young children, and the creation and operation of the Bridge School kept her busy. But by the early aughts, Young, having toured with her ex-husband and spent time in the studio with the best of the best, was ready to become a recording artist in her own right, encouraged by Neils longtime manager Elliot Roberts. Two songs written during the teepee years ultimately graced her eponymous 2007 debut album. I mostly set out to do covers, Young says of that collection. I was really shy about breaking out my own songs, but about three days into it, my guitarist original lead guitarist, Anthony Crawford convinced me to bring in my stuff. The country-rock-tinged album also marked her first recorded work with Spooner Oldham and the late pedal steel icon Ben Keith, both of whom shed sang alongside on Neils tours. They formed the original core of Pegi Young and the Survivors.
Raw features Oldham and several more recent Survivors, including Muscle Shoals-based guitarist Kelvin Holly, a veteran of Little Richards band; drummer Phil Jones; and the newest Survivor Shonna Tucker (Drive-By Truckers), whove added soulful muscle to the sonic texture. The group lost their original Bassist the renown Rick Rosas in 2014.
With Kelvin in the band, were going to a place in my wheelhouse, more R & B stuff, like Otis Clays Trying to Live My Life Without You, which also has the great horn sounds [from the TexiCali Horns] and harmonies of the girl groups I listened to as a kid.
Of her five albums, Raw is the first on which Young is credited with production duties. Her M.O: Be authentic, be true, sing whats in your heart. Its not about making it perfect, its about letting it be real, sometimes raw and flawed, as long as its true. This also includes highlighting her band, the Survivors, whose camaraderie she credits with strengthening and inspiring her. That is most evident on unabashed rocker You Wont Take My Laugh Away From Me, a defiant strut of hard-won confidence that ends with Youngs joyful laughter.
My laugh has always been rather distinctive, Young says. Its something I can hold on to thats still mine. As for the future, Young has started work on a memoir and making plans for a tour around Raws release. I am a survivor, she relates. Although we named the band The Survivors after Ben Keith died, We didnt have any idea some ten years ago, what an apt name it would turn out to be! Ive gone through a lot of good stuff and scary stuff, and I will keep going forward.

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Dyson House Listening Room (View)
7575 Jefferson Hwy.
Baton Rouge, LA 70809
United States

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Owner: Dyson House LR, Inc.

On BPT Since: May 24, 2016

Dyson House Listening Room

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Michael P.

Baton Rouge, LA United States

Oct 03, 2017 3:45 PM

Greg P.

Baton Rouge , LA United States

Oct 03, 2017 10:57 AM

Gary S.

Baton Rouge, LA United States

Oct 03, 2017 10:37 AM

Gary S.

Baton Rouge, LA United States

Oct 03, 2017 10:37 AM

Joel N.

Baton Rouge, LA United States

Oct 03, 2017 9:26 AM

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