Recording Academy to Honor Neil Young (Again)
Just four years after the Recording Academy honored Neil Young with an all-star tribute concert, they are once again honoring him. This time it’s the Recording Academy Producers and Engineers Wing. The seventh annual ceremony will take place on January 21st and held at Village Studios in West Los Angeles. Past honorees include Chris Blackwell, Jimmy Iovine, Quincy Jones and T Bone Burnett.
See Where Neil Young Ranks on Our List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists
“It is with great honor that we pay tribute to a musical icon who has been tireless in his own efforts to draw attention to the importance of hearing music as the artists who created it intended, and who has continually set precedents of excellence within the music community,” Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow said in a statement. “The contributions of Neil Young are innumerable, as is his incomparable body of work, and we look forward to an unforgettable evening with this legendary artist.”
In 2010, Young was named the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year, another annual Grammy-week event. A massive tribute concert was held in his honor, featuring performances by Elton John, Wilco, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Leon Russell, Dave Matthews, John Fogerty and many others.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse were recently forced to cut short their world tour because guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro suffered a hand injury. Young’s future musical plans are unclear, though he is playing his annual Bridge School Benefit with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young later this month. It’ll mark the group’s first performance since their 2006 Freedom of Speech tour wrapped in 2006.
Much of Young’s time in recent years has been devoted to his LincVolt electric car project and his high-resolution digital audio format, Pono. In a recent note on his website, Young wondered whether too much of his time has been spent on these types of initiatives.
“As the sun rises today I wonder,” he wrote, “how hard should I try? As I spread awareness of climate change and make that my priority, am I losing sight of day to day life? Is this more important than making music? Why should it matter so much to me?”