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Ben Keith

An American pedal steel guitarist, from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Ben worked as a session musician in Nashville in the late 1950s and 1960s.

He is most famous for his work with Neil Young, both in stage shows and on albums such as “Harvest”, “Journey Through The Past”, “Time Fades Away”, “On The Beach”, Tonight's the Night, “American Stars 'n' Bars”, Comes A Time, “Hawks 'n' Doves”, “Old Ways”, “Freedom”,Harvest Moon, “Silver and Gold”, Prairie Wind, “Chrome Dreams II”, and the live albums “Unplugged” and “Road Rock Vol. 1”.

He played the role of “Grandpa Green” in the Neil Young feature length movie Greendale, released on DVD. He has also worked with Terry Reid, Todd Rundgren, Lonnie Mack, The Band, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Paul Butterfield, J. J. Cale, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Ian and Sylvia, Hungry Chuck, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Anne Murray and Ringo Starr.

Keith is also known as the producer of Jewel's debut album Pieces of You and as a solo recording artist. He toured with Crosby Stills Nash & Young on their 2006 Freedom of Speech tour.

From classic recordings by country's brightest golden-era stars to right hand man status with one of rock's most enduring icons, even to the leading edge of the current pop/rock wave, Ben Keith's role in American music continues to grow after more than four decades.

As a steel guitarist and a member of Nashville's “A Team” of session musicians in the late fifties and early sixties, he recorded with a host of the day's top stars; that's Keith on Patsy Cline's megahit, “I Fall To Pieces.” By the late sixties he was producing country and blues acts and recording with the likes of Ringo Starr and Mother Earth.

In 1972 Neil Young, in Nashville to tape an appearance on The Johnny Cash Show, heard Ben and called him to play steel on his next album. The session would result in "Harvest", seen by many as one of Young's definitive works.

Keith's tenure with the singer/songwriter, which continues to this day, includes touring and serving as co-producer on 1993's "Harvest Moon" (which received a Grammy nomination for Record Of The Year), as well as "Comes A Time", "American Stars And Bars and Old Ways".

Working with Young opened many doors for Ben; he became one of the rock world's premier backing musicians, with recording credits that include Todd Rundgren, Lonnie Mack, The Band, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Paul Butterfield, J.J. Cale, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Ian and Sylvia (Great Speckled Bird), Hungry Chuck and others.

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Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition (CD/DVD)

Read "Harvest 50th Anniversary Edition (CD/DVD)" reviewed by Doug Collette


To hear and see Neil Young express such deep-seated personal contentment near the end of his film Harvest Time is to understand more fully why he would go to some lengths to curate a box set of the album upon which the movie is based. While some of the content enclosed on the CDs and DVDs in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the 1972 album has been in unofficial circulation for awhile, immersion in the collection vividly depicts the vagaries ...

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