Hot August Night

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(“Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”)

Neil Diamond recorded Hot August Night at the Greek Theater on August 24th, 1972 and to celebrate it’s fortieth anniversary, Columbia Records has just issued a deluxe double disc reissue of his classic live album that adds three songs plus all Neil’s stage banter and band introductions (they’re not reissuing it on vinyl, though).

Here at Hymie’s we’ve decided to celebrate this extraordinary event and continue our mid-summer tribute series by presenting our own HOT AUGUST NIGHT, next Sunday August 19th. Last year we celebrated Carlos Santana’s birthday with a coloring contest, a chili cookoff and a live set of his music by an awesome local band, Bitter Roots (you can see some highlights from the event here).

This year the coloring contest will be a little more complicated because we’ve chosen the “connect-the-dots” cover of the 1970 compilation of Bang Records-era hits Shilo:

Rare is the clean cover for this album, but we’ve found one without a single pair of dots connected and made copies for everyone to color – we’ll have art supplies of all kinds available (you’re welcome to bring your own, too) and everyone is welcome to join the contest. The first place winner will receive a copy of the new 40th anniversary edition of Hot August Night and a Hymie’s gift certificate.

They could use the gift certificate to buy a copy of Shilo, which is one of the best “best of” albums you’re going to find. It doesn’t have “Brother Love” but it does have all these songs:

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(“Solitary Man”)

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(“Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon”)

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(“Kentucky Woman”)

We are especially excited about this year’s music, which will be performed by Neil Dynamite and the Heartlights.  They are the Twin Cities’ premier Neil Diamond cover band!

Over the next couple days we’re going to post some more awesome Neil Diamond songs here on the blog, plus Neil Diamond trivia. We’ll also tell you a little more about the elusive, mysterious Neil Dynamite and his amazing back-up band. Until then you’d better get your calendars – you’re going to want to draw a big circle around August 19th, which is sure to be a super fun day here at the record shop!

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(“Thank the Lord for the Night Time”)