SXSW 2006: Neil Young

Neil Young is patient with the onslaught of photographers down front at his keynote interview at SXSW. Our time to get pictures done is knocked back from five minutes to two minutes, and in the thick of the thing it's simply absurd. If I had a dime for every shutter click, I could have switched my rooms to the ritzy Driskill Hotel. The Wall Of Lenses approach to photography is not a proper thing, but what's a guy to do.Young, interviewed in a package with film director Jonathan Demme, turns out to be a warm and fascinating speaker and a dedicated craftsman. He is introduced with the observation that America has plunged back into the terrible seas where it once foundered on the Vietnam war, where the killings of students at Kent State inspired Young to write "Ohio," one of the theme songs of a generation (Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde, who will speak later on from the same stage, was a student at Kent State when the National Guard opened fire on unarmed students there).SXSW co-founder Roland Swenson voices the heart of his audience in his introduction when he pleads, "Mr.Young, if you can hear me back there, we need another song."Check my X Marks set for more shots of Austin and South by Southwest 2006.