[photo by nyctaper]
Neil Halstead is such a modest and unassuming fellow, that I was not even sure it was him setting up to play at the Truck America Festival earlier this month. As we set up the nyctaper DPA microphones as the stage mics for guitar and violin for his set, Neil was quietly tuning his guitar. He began his set in a similar fashion, mumbling hello before the first number. The moment the music began, it was as if a switch was turned on and his immense talent shone through. As a key figure in the influential 90’s band Slowdive and later with the excellent Mojave3, Neil Halstead’s solo work is almost a third career, and his two albums stand up to the best of his early bands’ catalog. His Truck set drew from those two releases and included some new numbers, before Neil was joined by Joe Bennett on violin for a couple of Mojave3 songs. While the crowded tent was eerily quiet during his set, at times the only sound was the voice of Neil’s young son calling out to his dad — which was entirely appropriate given the family nature of the excellent Truck America Festival.
We recorded this same in the same location and with the same equipment as the Gary Louris set and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!
This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].
Neil Halstead
2010-05-01
Truck America Festival
Big Indian, NY USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-05-23
Setlist: (setlist help requested)
[Total Time 49:17]
01 Driving With Bert
02
03 Queen Bee
04
05 See You On Rooftops
06
07 [banter]
08
09 Yer Feet
10
11 Some Kinda Angel
12
13
14 [banter]
15 Sometimes The Wheels
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Neil Halstead, visit his website, visit his MySpace page, and purchase his latest album from the Brushfire Records website [HERE].
Thanks for this LOVELY recording! Great to hear so many new Neil songs as well.. I thought I’d add the bit of information that track #10 is called “Creatures of the road”, it’s been around for a while, recorded for a radio session and whatnot. :)
Here’s a couple of track titles for Neil Halstead at the Trucks Festival;
Driving with Bert
*Never Again
Queen Bee
Unknown
See You On Rooftops
Unknown
Banter
Unknown
Yer Feet [Mojave 3]
*Think I’m Gonna Drive
Some Kind Of Angel
Unknown
Unknown
Banter
Sometimes The Wheels