Neil Young Nation Book

Early on in Neil Young Nation, Kevin Chong provides us with our talisman: "Music is better when it's shared, it becomes more real…"

I have a distinct recollections of first experiencing Neil Young: Lakota Sleepaway Camp. 14 years old. The Live Rust version of "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black) playing at rhinoceros-stunning volume." And on each grinding repetition after the initial riff, 6-8 boys jumped up and down on the bunk's unsteady wood floor, laughing maniacally. After that introduction, stomping there with my friends and bunkmates, there was a marker placed within me for Neil's music.

Neil Young, like Whitman, contains multitudes, and might be one of the few artists, by vestige of the breadth of his work, and his relentless seeking, that exemplifies any place there to be discovered, there to be found by those whose desire for connection with something larger simply must come to the fore. And it is no surprise that people who find there way to Neil seek others; this is exploratory music, music that begs to be passed around, hashed over…shared.

Throughout "Neil Young Nation" there's wonderfully cogent musical analysis. Like Lester Bangs, when Kevin Chong writes about music he loves, it makes you want to go out and listen to it more carefully than you have before. And he does this without ignoring some of Young's less successful ventures, both in music, political opinion and his personal relations. This is not hagiography, though there's a tangible affection that is palpable, for the man and his fans.

Throughout "Neil Young Nation," Kevin Chong writes lovely descriptions throughout, such as in describing witnessing strangers in a bar: "At the short end of the backwards L-shaped bar, two women holding tight to their middle-thirties sat on their stools." There's unexpected sweetness that mingles effortlessly with sharp, self-lacerating humor…the tale here is as much about the nature of friendship, what is unspoken yet shared, the integral part of what binds us needing no explanation.

It's also a travelogue much in the mold of Bill Bryson, showing us Yanks the lesser-known places across Canada, integral to Young's history, which Kevin Chong brings effortlessly to life. And in searching for Neil Young, Kevin presents us with a myriad of characters, real people whose lives in some way intersected with Young's, many of whom are worthy of more than supporting roles in someone else's story. But he's done his own work, on his own story; those people's stories remain to be expanded upon. May they communicate the essence of things as well as this author does in this fine work.