Honoring a rock icon. Neil Young tribute show in Canton to feature 'Ohio,' 'Southern Man'
SUGAR CREEK TWP. − Members of the rock band Beach City Postal Service seemingly turned back the clock to the early 1970s as they jammed on the iconic song, "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Haunting opening guitar chords rang out before Dustin Mayle sang the indelible verses, his face contorted with intensity for every word of the protest anthem:
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming. We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming. Four dead in Ohio.
Neil Young wrote the song in reaction to the events at Kent State University in 1970, when the Ohio National Guard shot into a crowd of anti-Vietnam War protestors and other demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine.
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Guitars growling, bass thumping, drums hammering, the four-piece band filled the one-car garage-size rehearsal space with enough volume for a concert hall.
This wasn't the first time the band had performed the song. Video footage of a live version was posted on Facebook, attracting the attention of Dan Kane, retired entertainment writer for The Canton Repository.
Kane already had wanted to curate a Neil Young tribute show. Now he had found the right band to lead it. So he scheduled "An Evening of Neil Young" at 8 p.m. on March 16 at The Auricle Venue + Bar, 201 Cleveland Ave. NW in downtown Canton.
Along with Beach City Postal Service, the lineup features Blue Hour, Anya Van Rose, Cody J. Martin and Willis Gordon. Tickets cost $12 in advance at https://www.ticketweb.com/, and $15 at the door.
He describes the Akron band Blue Hour as a country-folk act featuring steel guitar.
The Akron band Blue Hour is a country-folk act featuring steel guitar. Van Rose is a Stark County singer-songwriter in the alternative rock genre. Influenced by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, Martin is a guitar player and vocalist whose music crosses into blues, rock, folk and country. Gordon is a local musician known for his electric guitar work and mix of soul, blues and jazz.
Beach City Postal Service also will perform in collaboration with Van Rose, Martin and Gordon.
"They've got Neil's Crazy Horse guitar sound down cold, plus three-part vocal harmonies," Kane said of the band. "I'm so excited to hear them play all these Neil songs."
The story of Beach City Postal Service
Beach City Postal Service features two members − Jake Buckridge and Russell Jones − who were in the local rock band Vex as teenagers. Even then they were disciples of hard rock rock and metal − Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and others.
Vex won the 2014 Canton Repository Battle of the Bands competition at the Canton Palace Theatre.
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Vex disbanded a few years later, but Jones and Buckridge, both Fairless High School graduates, never strayed from their love of classic rock, forming Beach City Postal Service in 2022.
The band plays original songs, as well as Neil Young and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young covers. Beach City Postal Service would like to release an EP or album this year, said Jones, who plays bass and sings backing vocals.
Old souls
What's curious about Beach City Postal Service and their allegiance to Neil Young is that drummer T.J. Gang is the most senior member at age 31. All members were born decades after Young launched his sprawling career.
Buckridge is 27. Russell and Mayle are both 28.
Call them old souls, call them born in the wrong era. Whatever the case, nobody can doubt their devotion to Young, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 individually and two years later with Buffalo Springfield.
Gang was introduced to Young's music by his father and the 1975 album, "Zuma."
"My dad saw him (in concert) like nine times," he said.
"There was always a mystique about Neil," Gang enthused. "His catalog is so huge that you would always hear new stuff and new versions of things − it never ended."
Jones and Mayle recalled listening to Neil Young songs while working together at The Exchange in the Belden Village Mall area.
"We plowed through Neil Young albums," Jones said. "And I'd play them all day. Pretty much every day."
A concert for casual or diehard Neil Young fans
Beach City Postal Service promises a tribute concert pleasing for any fan of Young.
"It's for anyone who wants to come out, and either feel what they know (about Neil Young) or feel things for the first time," Gang said. "And either way you're feeling."
Songs will include "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Ohio," "Like a Hurricane," "Cortez the Killer," "Down by the River," "Tonight's the Night," "After the Gold Rush," "Heart of Gold," "Old Man," "Southern Man" and "Rockin' in the Free World."
"I think we feel like we all have to play these songs the best we possibly can because you want to do Neil justice," said Buckridge, who shares lead vocal and guitar-playing duties with Mayle. "He's important to all of us."
Songs are kept faithful to Young's versions. A three-part harmony is added to "The Needle and the Damage Done."
Most difficult to replicate is Young's signature guitar sound − raw, heavy, distorted, intuitive
"He has a very unconventional style," Buckridge said. "He's very, very hard to imitate."
Whittling down the setlist was a dilemma.
"We have so many great songs," Mayle said of the concert. "And there's still so many missing, but you can only do so many. You could play for or five hours before you got through all the best Neil Young songs."
A Neil Young finale will end the show with gusto, all performers sharing the stage.
"We haven't ironed out the details but we want to bring everybody up at the end and have a big song to close it out," Buckridge said.
Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com. On X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP and Instagram at ed_balint.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Neil Young tribute concert set for The Auricle in downtown Canton
