Steep Cats to pay tribute to Neil Young and Crazy Horse

By Kyle Mooty

LPR Editor

Neil Young and Crazy Horse rocked the seventies with several classic albums. Now, thanks to Rach & Rhodes Presents and The Original Black’s BBQ, the band is being brought to life by The Steep Cats during a tribute concert at Lockhart Arts & Craft.

The show will be Friday, Nov. 1, the night before the two-day Texas Monthly BBQ Fest comes to Lockhart. The doors will open at 7 p.m. with the show beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.

The Steep Cats will perform 23 songs over two sets. These songs will come from a series of Young and Crazy Horse albums such as On the Beach, Tonight’s the Night, Zuma, Time Fades Away, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, and Live Rust.

A native Canadian, Young originally went to Los Angeles to form the band Buffalo Springfield in the sixties. He formed Neil Young and Crazy Horse after his days with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

The often feedback and distortion sound by Young’s guitars playing earned him the moniker “Godfather of Grunge.”

At the age of just 7 in 1951, Young contracted polio during one of its last major outbreaks in Ontario and came perilously close to death. In the mid 60s, Young developed epilepsy. In fact, he wrote hits such as “Cinnamon Girl” and “Down by the River” while ill with a 103-degree temperature. He wrote the hit “Ohio” after the 1970 killings at Kent State University. 

“I saw him at the Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas in Austin,” Rhodes said. “He was there for two nights. He had guitars just lined up, along with two pianos and a pump organ.

He’d walk out and look around and say, ‘Oh, that’s the guitar I wrote Old Man with.’ He would just pick up things at random. He really didn’t have a set list.

“It was the most I’ve ever seen people cry at a concert. It just sounded so beautiful. It was so cool and so intimate. He had everybody in the palm of his hands.”

Rhodes said Young played ‘After the Gold Rush’ on a pump organ.’

“I just always loved those old Neil Young and Crazy Horse records,” Rhodes said. “A couple of the songs we’ll play will be his solos. If you’re really into Neil Young, we’re gonna play some deep cuts.”

The Steep Cats will consist of a four-piece band, including Rhodes on guitar, Mark Creaney on guitar and harmonica, Zac Bryant on bass and keyboards, and Ben Jacks on drums.

“We started talking about doing the show,” Rhodes said. “I kinda feel like we’re living a high school dream.”

Rach & Rhodes are also the curators of the Texas Monthly BBQ Fes music for the second consecutive year.