Playing The Songs of Neil Young

The Olympic Symphonium pay tribute to Neil Young with special festival performance.

This Saturday, Shivering Songs founders The Olympic Symphonium will take to the stage at the Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market to perform a special tribute to the songs of Neil Young.

Since first launching the Shivering Songs festival as a way to celebrate the release of their third studio album The City Won’t Have Time To Fight, the Fredericton based folk ensemble have worked hard to direct the festival’s focus toward showcasing both established and emerging artists, while continuing to bring unique programming and one of a kind performances to the city’s downtown core.

As the festival continues to grow and evolve, so too does the band’s place within it. While the group’s members can usually be found performing in some capacity over the weekend, a performance dedicated entirely to their own music has become less of a priority.

“I think it’s maybe timing more than anything,” said the group’s Graeme Walker. “The perfect scenario would be to perform a new album but it just hasn’t worked out that way. It’s also a really busy hectic weekend for us as organizers so it’s hard to find time to play together.”

Recent editions of the festival have seen the group take on a more collaborative role performing together with Motion Ensemble or as last year’s Songs of the City house band.

This year, the group will perform many songs from Neil Young’s Harvest and Harvest Moon albums (along with a few other favourites) as they revive their tribute performance to this iconic Canadian songwriter.