BottleRock Festival 2019 Neil Young & Promise of the Real in Napa Valley, CA by Terry P Anderson

It’s a long drive from Orange County, CA, to Napa Valley, CA, also known as Wine Country, about 450 miles each way. When I finally arrived in Napa, I felt kind of lost, like I was driving around in a very small farm town that never ended. The town was surrounded by more and more small farming towns. Once I found the fairgrounds, I was directed to a dirt road parking lot. There was a valet shuttle, which was a Cadillac Escapade that transported the concertgoers down the hill to the festival entrance gate. Naturally, it was a food and wine tasting event with the added bonus of live bands performing on several stages. I ran into a fellow Rustie and struck up a conversation. He was waiting for his friends, and they were all from Canada. He asked me, “So, you’re waiting for Neil Young, eh?” I nodded and he started saying quotes from Neil’s tunes. He would say the first line of a lyric and I had to follow with the next line. This went on for a while, and I was getting worse when his friends showed up and they went on a quest of wines and spirits. I was getting blown away by the Canadian at that local game anyway.

The first thing I saw was a huge gathering of food trucks parked on the grass end-to-end and illustrated with artistic murals and colorful menus painted on their sides. The choices were many from Mexican to Chinese and on to vegan and gourmet burgers. I followed my nose down the row of culinary aromas mixed with smoke and spice. The food trucks had eye-catching colors and enticing names like “Tortilla Fats” and “Viva Las Vegans.” I was beginning to get extremely hungry by supper time, so I got in line at the Kobe beef gourmet burger truck called “Me So Hungry.” I ordered a $17 burger and a $7 lemonade. I ventured over toward the merchandise venues for souvenirs and t-shirts. I was listening to Imagine Dragons play as I bought a Neil & the Real t-shirt.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice singing, “I saw an old man walkin’ in my place, when I looked at him, it could have been my face.”! I had to hurry then, as it was Neil Young & Promise of the Real singing their second song, “Mansion on the Hill”! At the end of that tune, Neil started talking to the audience as he joked about how the “other” Neil, Neil Diamond, had stolen his name, or the first half anyway. (It made me think Cracklin’ Rose? Or Love is a Rose?) So Neil took notice of this other Neil and paid attention to him in his concert performances. He noted how smoothly Neil Diamond could switch guitars between songs without you noticing it. Real slick!

Of course, Neil was joking about how long it took his own crew to switch from Old Black to the White Falcon for the next song, “Alabama.” It was comforting to hear him turn the Time Machine back to Harvest and then keep it there for the next song, “…someone and someone were down by the pond, lookin’ for something to plant in the lawn.” The White Falcon flew across the night sky as we listened to “words….”

Later on, the boys busted into “Like A Hurricane” with Micah Nelson playing the Pirate Peace Dove Organ, which was lowered down to the stage by ropes. As Neil ramped up this classic tune into a virtual frenzy on Old Black, Micah started rocking forward and backward like a swing on the organ. I thought for a second that it might fly away! I heard “you are just a dreamer and I am just a dream.”

It was a cold and foggy night in the little town of Napa Valley. The venue is surrounded by small neighborhoods and there was a strict curfew of 10 pm that night.

It was an awesome concert filled with epic songs. I had never heard “Milky Way” or “Rainbow of Colors” before that night! The encore was “Rockin’ in the Free World”! Sadly, at about halfway through the song, the management of the venue suddenly pulled the plug on the PA system, at exactly 10 o’clock! We could still hear the band playing, but the sound was muffled. The audience kept singing until the very end, “Keep on rockin’ in the free world, keep on rockin’ in the free world!” on and on and on… echoing into the fog. It was a rebellious finish as the fans finished the song for the band.

Terry P Anderson on holiday in Half Moon Bay