iSound

Neil Young was born in Toronto. Now, he doesn't make a big deal of this...I mean, having seen him several times in Toronto, I can't say he whips out a longer set or anything for the hometown faithful...but that's because his heart is elsewhere. It's in his music. He spent his childhood in the blissful Northern Ontario town of Omemee (turn left at the T-intersection that divides Omemee and Buckhorn) and, after his mom Rassy's divorce from sports journalist Scott Young, he fled to Winnipeg. The Winnipeg scene of the early 1960s was corrosive and diverse. Consider that the twin talents of Young and guitarist Randy Bachman (he of the solo of the BEST version of "Shakin' All Over", recorded in a Winnipeg TV studio by Chad Allan and the Expressions) loomed large over the snowy town. Neil gigged from Winnipeg to Port Arthur (home of young Paul Shaffer) to Yorkville as a folkie, a surf instrumentalist, a rock 'n' roll convert and a guy with a funky side. Among his endeavours were ...