George Fest

February 25th would have been the 73rd birthday of late Beatles member George Harrison. To celebrate his birthday I will review George Fest: A Night To Celebrate. This is a live album that features performances of Harrison’s songs by many artists, including Norah Jones, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and even “Weird Al” Yankovic. The event was hosted by George’s only son, Dhani Harrison and his widow, Olivia Harrison.

This album was recorded in September of 2014 at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, but it was only released a couple days ago to coincide with George’s 73rd birthday. The release of the album was coupled with a DVD of the entire concert. The concerts was played on MTV and VH1 this past week as well for people who wished to watch it without buying a copy of the DVD. The albums begins with talk show host and close friend to Dhani Harrison, Conan O’Brien. This is not the first time Conan showed his appreciation for George’s work.

A few years back, Conan helped work on an app with Dhani on cataloging George’s wide-selection of musical instruments. Conan begins with a funny introduction saying that he thought it was a tribute concert for George Michael. After the intro, Conan started to play “Old Brown Shoe,” a single George wrote during the later years of the Beatles. The highlight of the concert was definitely Brian Wilson’s version of “My Sweet Lord,” a classic single that was featured on George’s landmark solo album, All Things Must Pass. I haven’t heard a great cover of “My Sweet Lord” since Billy Preston sung it at the “Concert for George,” back in 2002.

While I am not familiar with some of these other bands that were playing (e.g. Cold War Kids and Brandon Flowers), I did enjoy listening to them. This album may be just covering George’s songs, but it is still enjoyable and refreshing to hear a new voice behind some of George Harrison’s best compositions.