This year’s Bridge School Benefit Concert lineup has been announced. The Neil Young annual event has a gigantic bill to celebrate the silver anniversary of the concert. It will take place on October 22 and 23 in Mountainview, CA at Shoreline Amphitheater.

Joining Neil Young for the weekend celebration will be Beck, Mumford and Sons, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Arcade Fire and Los Invisibles with Carlos Santana.

Other performers listed on the official site of the concert include Diana Krall, the jazz queen, who will be performing on Saturday and Sunday performers Foo Fighters and Tony Bennett. It appears all the stars are showing up to support the cause near to Young’s heart.

The benefit concert is a fundraiser for the special school that was started in 1986 by Neil Young and his wife Pegi to help Ben, their son. On hand to help launch the inaugural concert were heavy hitters like Crosby, Stills & Nash, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. The show has become a staple for music lovers, which has taken place every year except for 1987.

On September 16, tickets will be going on sale at Live Nation. The concert proceeds will help to assist children with communication needs and disabilities.

Following months of speculation, Buffalo Springfield will be going on a tour for the first time since the group broke up in 1968. Original members Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, and Neil Young will perform six concerts in California starting in the early part of June. The culmination of the tour will be their performance on June 11 at Bonnaroo. Rick Rosas, who has played bass for Young for many years, will replace the deceased original member Bruce Palmer. Joe Vitale, drummer for Crosby, Stills and Nash, will replace the deceased original drummer Dewey Martin.

Richie Furay released a statement in which he said, “It’s hard to believe 42 years have passed since we played together as the Buffalo Springfield. Over the years, music never stopped flowing from each of us, and it’s come ‘full circle,’ if you will. And now, we get to share our hearts with you again – yes, Buffalo Springfield again!”

In October, 2010, the group reunited for two concerts at Young’s yearly Bridge School Benefit. Right after these performances, Furay gave an interview to Rolling Stone and he stated, “Before I got the call about the reunion I always told people there wasn’t any chance we’d ever reunite. Now I’m never going to say never again. We left with the idea that we can do this if we want to. “As of right now, there are no more concerts scheduled after California and Bonnaroo. However, David Crosby indicated in an interview with Rolling Stone that the group will most likely perform additional concerts later in the year. Furay’s website states that the group will be going on a tour that is “slated for September.”

For the Bridge School Benefit, the band played songs from their time together in the 1960s. These songs were “Rock and Roll Woman,” “Bluebird,” “I Am a Child,” Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing,” “Mr. Soul,” “On The Way Home,” and the song they are most well-known for “For What It’s Worth.”

Furay stated, “We wound up doing the songs that flowed best. I was thinking maybe about us doing Steven’s ‘Hot Dusty Roads’ from the first album or ‘Hung Upside Down’ [from 1967’s Buffalo Springfield Again]. The ones we wound up doing certainly covered the spectrum of our music.”

Gillian Welch has been booked as the opening act for all performances.

At the Induction Ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night in New York City, Alice Cooper was inducted by Rob Zombie, Neil Diamond was welcomed by Paul Simon, Dr. John was inducted by John Legend, Tom Waits was inducted by Neil Young, Darlene Love was brought in by Bette Middler and Leon Russell was inducted by Elton John.

Waits, who is never without his snappy one linesr, was last night in rare form. He described his songs being very interesting things that could be done with air. He quipped, they say I’m hard to work with and have no hits. They say that as if that’s a bad thing. He performed “House Where Nobody Lives,” “Rain Dogs” and “Make It Rain.”

While inducting Waits Neil Young said, this man is indescribable. I am here to try to describe him for you. This man’s a great performer, singer, magician actor, changeling and spirit guide.

Paul Simon describing Neil Diamond said, he was called a Jewish Elvis Presley. In many synagogues in fact Elvis was considered to be a fake Neil Diamond.

“Sweet Caroline” was performed by Diamond. Robbie Robertson and Bruce Springsteen joined him and later on The Crystals song “Da Doo Ron Ron” was joined by Bette Middler, Dr. John, Leon Russell, Elton John, Darlene Love and Alice Cooper.

Fuse TV will be showing Tom Waits’ Induction ceremony performance at 9 pm EDT on March 20.

Neil Young will be touring in 11 United States venues beginning on April 15 and going through the early part of May. The first concert will be in Durham, NC.
There will be two concerts each in Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and New York.

Based on information from an official statement, Young will be singing songs off of his 2010 album, “Le Noise.” The musician, who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will also perform several of his “classic tracks” both acoustically and electronically.

At the Grammys in February, Young’s songs “Angry World” off the “Le Noise” album, won the award for Best Rock Song. This was Young’s second Grammy win, and his first win for his music. His first Grammy was for album packaging.

The eight songs on the “Le Noise” album were produced by Daniel Lanois who has also produced music for U2 and Bob Dylan. The tracks were recorded in Lanois’ house, which is located in the Los Angles neighborhood of Silver Lake.

Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit, which is on its 24th year, will feature a reunion performance from Young’s former rock country band, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Buffalo Springfield.  Young will be teaming up with the original and only living band mates Richie Furay and Stephen Stills for the two-day headlining charity gig.

Joining the trio for the two day event are fellow rock country icons Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Pearl Jam who will be celebrating their 20th year in the biz with their appearance in the benefit, Grizzly Bear, Elvis Costello and Modest Mouse.  Other artists such as Elton John, Lucinda Williams, Leon Russell, Billy Idol and Jackson Browne with David Lindley will also be performing in the said event but only in one of the two scheduled shows.

The Bridge School Benefit show has always been known to feature unplugged performances from all of its guests so expect Buffalo Springfield to belt out an all acoustic set.

The Bridge School charity concert will be held at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Northern California on October 23 and 24.  The event is primarily organized by Neil Young to raise funds for Bridge School’s specialized programs for its physically disabled students.   It also aims to disseminate more information and awareness on how students with such disabilities and their families can cope with their present situation.

Tickets for the event will be available starting on Sunday, September 19 via Ticketmaster.

In September Neil Young, the rock legend, will be heading for the Gulf Coast to perform four benefit shows which aim at helping fight hunger.  The region is still trying to recover from the recent tragic oil spill.

Tyson Foods, in conjunction with these concerts, will be donating 100,000 pounds worth of chicken products for the area’s needy.  Young is asking that concert attendees bring food items that are non-perishable to the shows.  Bay Area Food Bank will be distributing donated items to communities that have been hard hit in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama.

Neil Young limited edition shirts are being made available at Gulf Coast shows exclusively.  All the proceeds will go towards relief efforts.

The benefit shows, according to a recent press release, were forged from the long friendship between John Tyson, Tyson Foods Chairman, and Neil Young.

During a recent press release Young said, millions of people living at the Gulf Coat have been struggling with hunger.  The oil spill’s economic impact had made things worse.  I appreciate John Tyson, along with his company, being willing to get involved and help the region’s food bank in helping to feed the needy.  Both of us encourage concert attendees to support local business and spend money locally.

“The Gulf Coast Tour” is visiting theaters in Pensacola, FL; Mobile, AL; Biloxi, MS and Panama City, FL.  In addition two non-benefit shows have been announced by Young for Florida.  On September 22 he will be performing in Clearwater and will be in Hollywood, FL on September 23.

2010 Neil Young Concert Tour
September 2010
20 – Panama City, FL – Marina Civic Center (Gulf Coast Tour)
25 – Biloxi, MS – IP Showroom (Gulf Coast Tour)
26 – Mobile, AL – Saenger Theatre (Gulf Coast Tour)
28 – Pensacola, FL – Saenger Theatre (Gulf Coast Tour)
22 – Clearwater, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall
23 – Hollywood, FL – Seminole Hard Rock Casino

This year’s lineup for the benefit show Farm Aid, which will include mainstays Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Willie Nelson, recently got much bigger.

Organizers announced today that Band of Horses, Jeff Tweedy, Jason Mraz, Norah Jones and Kenny Chesney have been added for this year’s concert.  The 35th anniversary show for the benefit is  scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, WI at Miller Park on October 2.

On Saturday August 14 tickets will be going on sale at tickets.com.  Advanced tickets can be ordered by Farm Aid members.  More information is posted on Farm Aid’s website.

According  to Farm Aid, over its history, has raised almost $37 million for supporting family farms.

Venerable rock elder Neil Young is plotting a summer tour for 2010 which will feature just him and the guitar. It will be the first solo-acoustic jaunt for Young in the past 10 years. The venture will get started in Albany, New York on May 18 and run through June 7 in Dallas, Texas. A full listing of Neil Young tour dates can be viewed below.

Neil Young was last in the limelight in February when he performed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics closing ceremonies. Young’s latest album “Fork in the Road” was released in April 2009. Jonathan Demme pointed his film camera at Young in his new film release “Neil Young Trunk Show.” The film chronicles two performances of Young at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia harking back to 2007.

2010 Neil Young Concert Tour
May 2010
18 – Albany, NY – Palace Theatre
19 – Buffalo, NY – Shea’s Performing Arts Center
21 – Worcester, MA – Hanover Theatre
23 – Wallingford, CT – Oakdale Theatre
24 – Washington, DC – Constitution Hall
26 – Louisville, KY – Louisville Palace Theatre
27 – Knoxville, TN – Knoxville Civic Auditorium
29 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theater
30 – Spartanburg, SC – Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

June 2010
1, 2 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
4 – Houston, TX – Jones Hall
5 – Austin, TX – Bass Performance Hall
7 – Dallas, TX – Meyerson Symphony Center

Monsters of Folk, Gavin Rossdale, Sheryl Crow, Wolfmother, Fleet Foxes, Chris Martin- Coldplay’s frontman, No Doubt and Neil Young will be performing both nights at this year’s Bridge School Annual Benefit concert.

The event will take place in Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheater October 24 and 25. On the engagement’s first night Jimmy Buffett will also be featured. Adam Sandler, the comedian and actor, will be featured during the second night.

According to the website for Bridge School, tickets will go on sale for the event beginning September 20 on LiveNation.com or by telephone at 877-598-6659. Prices for tickets are $75 and $150 for reserved seats, with general admission seats costing $39.50 plus service charges. The general admission tickets are also available at $99 for four packs.

Reserved seats on the lower level will be available as well, but are limited in number, via an auction on LiveNation.com. Additional information can be obtained from the website of Bridge School.

The concerts will be benefiting Bridge School, a San Francisco Bay Area organization that helps children with severe speech impediments. The school was co-founded in 1986 by Jim Forderer and Neil Young’s wife Pegi, parents with children who have severe physical and speech impairments with Dr. Marilyn Buzolich.

In 1986, the same year that the school was established, was when the very first benefit concert was held. It has taken place every year since except for 1987. Neil Young performs at the event each year. Past performers include Wilco, Tom Petty, Phish, Green Day, Thom Yorke, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam.

According to the website for Bridge School, performers mainly use acoustic instruments for the benefit shows.