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Neil Young, Shakey In the course of his thirty-year career as a recording artist, Neil Young has experienced as many extreme low points of critical and commercial success as he has high, but no question, he is one of the most important rock composers and performers North America can claim. His signature raw nasal tone, emotional guitar playing, highly personal lyric writing, and hippie-cowboy loner stance have helped shape rock and roll as it has advanced from adolescence into maturity. Through his experimentation with every genre, from folk to heavy metal to rockabilly to techno, Young has a unique sound that is only his own. Born the son of Edna "Rassy" Young, a former quiz show panelist on Canadian Television, and Scott Young, a sportswriter for the Toronto Sun, Young's first musical inklings were encouraged when his father gave him a ukulele for Christmas in 1958. His parents split up not too long after that, and in 1960, Young moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his mother. A rather apathetic student, he was far more interested in playing the banjo and guitar than turning his mind to his studies, and he eventually dropped out of high school to concentrate his attention on the band he had formed, Neil Young & the Squires.