The Ducks – High Flyin’ (Live) (2023) [FLAC 24bit/176,4kHz]

The Ducks – High Flyin’ (Live) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:47:10 minutes | 3,44 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

This is the first official release from The Ducks – a short-lived group Neil Young played with in 1977. The Ducks included Neil (guitar, harmonica and vocals), Bob Mosley (bass and vocals), Jeff Blackburn (guitar and vocals) and Johnny Craviotto (drums). Mosley was originally a member of the Bay Area band Moby Grape; Blackburn had previously formed his own band and co-wrote the classic “My My Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)” with Neil.

The band played several shows in Santa Cruz, California, and other California venues for two months in 1977. This 25-track live album contains the highlights of those shows. The set lists were very democratic, with each band member taking turns leading. 5 Neil Young songs are featured, including a rocking version of “Mr. Soul” and beautiful renditions of “Are You Ready For The Country,” “Little Wing,” “Sail Away” and “Human Highway.”Neil Young has never been especially interested in the way the music industry expects artists to operate, preferring to trust his gut rather than fretting about career expectations. It’s not hard to imagine Young saying to hell with it and joining a bar band rather than dealing with the annoyances of rock stardom, and he did just that for a while in 1977. That year, he impulsively joined a fledgling band called the Ducks, featuring Bob Mosley of Moby Grape on bass, noted songwriter Jeff Blackburn on guitar, and Johnny Craviotto, who worked with Ry Cooder and Arlo Guthrie, on drums. While Young was the most famous person on board, he was not the leader; all four Ducks took turns singing lead, Mosley and Blackburn wrote most of the songs, and they were content to play bars and clubs in their native Santa Cruz, California, doing two sets a night and charging a three-dollar cover at the door. With someone as famous as Young in the lineup, this could only stay a secret for so long, especially since the Ducks were playing two or three nights a week, and the grand experiment was over in three months, with only a few bootleg tapes to confirm it ever happened. Thankfully, Young obsessively documents his activities, and he had a mobile recording truck tape some Ducks gigs in August 1977. Forty-five years later, he pulled the reels out of his vault and compiled a Ducks album, 2023’s High Flyin’. The Ducks were a bar band in the same way NRBQ were a bar band — their mix of country rock, blues, and tough, straight-ahead rock & roll was rooted in the classics without getting mired in clichés. While they had good, unpretentious fun on-stage, they also had impressive chops and a catalog of fine material, and the energy of seeing a group this good in a funky, intimate setting was not lost on their audiences. Young seems to be having a ball not having to be the star of the show, and his guitar work is excellent, ripping out solos in his unmistakable style but also buzzing along beside Blackburn. He also takes the opportunity to rework some of his classic tunes, with a gutsy tear through “Mr. Soul” a highlight of this set. Mosley and Blackburn’s originals are good enough to stand up to comparison to Young’s, and Mosley seemingly taught some of the tricks of Moby Grape’s glorious harmonies to his fellow Ducks, feeling rougher but no less satisfying. Mosley and Craviotto are a superb rhythm section, too, knowing when to groove and when to push the music into fifth gear. It’s a shame the Ducks didn’t have the chance to mature and cut a studio album, because they clearly had talent and potential to spare, but there’s no shame in being a truly great bar band, and High Flyin’ shows the Ducks were something special for just three bucks. – Mark Deming

Tracklist:

1-01. The Ducks – I Am a Dreamer (Live) (04:24)
1-02. The Ducks – Younger Days (Live) (03:45)
1-03. The Ducks – Gypsy Wedding (Live) (02:44)
1-04. The Ducks – Are You Ready For The Country? (Live) (03:40)
1-05. The Ducks – Hold On Boys (Live) (04:30)
1-06. The Ducks – My My My (Poor Man) (Live) (03:34)
1-07. The Ducks – I’m Tore Down (Live) (03:42)
1-08. The Ducks – Hey Now (Live) (02:53)
1-09. The Ducks – Wide Eyed and Willing (Live) (04:13)
1-10. The Ducks – Truckin’ Man (Live) (03:27)
1-11. The Ducks – Sail Away (Live) (05:32)
1-12. The Ducks – Gone Dead Train (Live) (03:52)
1-13. The Ducks – Silver Wings (Live) (05:35)
1-14. The Ducks – Human Highway (Live) (03:48)
1-15. The Ducks – Your Love (Live) (04:03)
1-16. The Ducks – I’m Ready (Live) (03:49)
1-17. The Ducks – Little Wing (Live) (04:42)
1-18. The Ducks – Car Tune (Live) (03:10)
1-19. The Ducks – Windward Passage (Live) (06:23)
1-20. The Ducks – Leaving Us Now (Live) (05:32)
1-21. The Ducks – Mr. Soul (Live) (05:10)
1-22. The Ducks – Two Riders (Live) (04:47)
1-23. The Ducks – Honky Tonk Man (Live) (03:27)
1-24. The Ducks – Sailor Man (Live) (03:43)
1-25. The Ducks – Silver Wings (Set 2) (Live) (06:34)

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