A Treasure: New Neil Young Album Coming
UPDATE: June 2011
See reviews of Neil Young & The International Harvesters "A Treasure" and Tech Notes: Preview Video of Neil Young's New Album "A Treasure". Also, see Neil Young's Photo Gallery Interview on the International Harvesters and The Making of A Treasure: Interviews with Neil Young.
Neil Young & The International Harvesters
From our friends at Shakey Pictures:
NEIL YOUNG TO RELEASE LIVE ALBUM, ENTITLED A TREASURE ON REPRISE RECORDS
RENOWNED ROCKER UNEARTHS LIVE COUNTRY ALBUM RECORDED WITH LEGENDARY BAND, THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTERS, WHILE ON TOUR IN THE U.S. IN 1984-1985
The 12-track live album A Treasure includes songs recorded during Young’s 1984-1985 U.S. tour and contains five previously unreleased songs. Among those, “Grey Riders” will be the first track serviced to radio. A Treasure features Young’s onstage work with some of the greatest artists in the history of country music, including the late, great Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar and Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, along with living legends Spooner Oldham and Hargus “Pig” Robbins on piano, Tim Drummond and Joe Allen on bass, Karl Himmel on drums, Anthony Crawford on guitar, banjo and mandolin among many others. A Treasure is Young’s first release since last year’s Grammy- and Juno Award-winning album, Le Noise.
The live album captures this iconic artist during a fascinating time in his career, when he was facing criticism and lawsuits from his then current record company for exploring a more traditionally country sound. “You can call me erratic,” Young said when asked at the time about his tendency toward musical shape-shifting, “but I’ve been consistent about it, consistently erratic.” Always celebrated for his musical versatility, A Treasure, is akin to a sonic time capsule, instantly transporting the listener to the time and place when it was made. “I love this record,” Young says. “I hadn’t heard these takes in 25 years, but when we unearthed them co-producer Ben Keith said, ‘This is a treasure.’”
Part of what makes A Treasure so compelling is the musical contributions of The International Harvesters, with whom Young was playing at the time. Many of them were already paragons within the country music world and their notoriety has only grown in the years since. “I just love to hear those guys,” Young says. “They’re all country music legends.” Those behind the scenes also made significant contributions to A Treasure’s sonic potency. Tim Mulligan mixed and mastered the tracks. At the time these songs were recorded, Bob Sterne was the tour manager, Tim Foster ran the stage, and Larry Cragg was in charge of the band’s instruments.
A Treasure will be released in several formats, including standard CD, vinyl, digital download with and without videos, and as a deluxe CD/Blu-Ray package. The Blu-Ray version will feature a curated selection of video that lends context and imagistic power to the tracks. “I like to look at these old live videos and listen to what I think are the best versions of these songs,” Young says. “It’s fun to see what we looked like when we were playing it then.”
More info on the release dates and the Tech Notes video will be coming soon.
Stay tuned...
UPDATE: June 2011
See reviews of Neil Young & The International Harvesters "A Treasure" and Tech Notes: Preview Video of Neil Young's New Album "A Treasure". Also, see Neil Young's Photo Gallery Interview on the International Harvesters and The Making of A Treasure: Interviews with Neil Young.
25 Comments:
:)
Fantastic news......have all the albums and hoping he comes to Canada again this tour.....getting to see him again is always great time.....I heard it was being released in June
This gives me a special feeling...
No one believed me when I said that neil admitted to the massey hall footage being from a different night, berore it was released.
“I like to look at these old live videos and listen to what I think are the best versions of these songs,” Young says. “It’s fun to see what we looked like when we were playing it then.”
So don't be surprised when the video footage for this release doesn't sync up perfectly.
syscrusher
Ps not that it's a bad thing, I'll take unsynced video anyday
Is this part of the Archives Live Performance Series? Thanks
Wonder when Archives Guy will reprimand us again? Last week's hullabaloo was much ado about nothing.
I'm sure he'll be quite pleased when all us Rusties cough up our hard-earned cash and buy Treasure.
Won't ya, Will?
I was lucky to be home when Neil previewed the "Treasure" and these are quality recordings.Hope the preview is included in the Bluray.
Zejt
BTW, are there any more plans for Blu-Ray Live releases? Gee-wiz, i hope so.
Talk about being over-sold on a new format.
When was the last Live release? over a year ago is my guess.
thanks Neil, thanks Will!
Can someone please educate me, These NYA Performance series recordings. Are they also going to be released with the Archives box sets? I just don't want to pay twice for the same material.
Thanks
You can post anonymous again? I thought You stopped that crap Thrash?
Get back to the country..back where it all began!
Really looking forward to this release. Excellent news! I remember seeing Neil and the International Harvesters perform at the Grandstand at the CNE in Toronto in 1984 and 1985. Very cool shows!
My first glimpse of Neil playing live was at Live Aid in '85. I was in love with that performance of Powderfinger, though I had no idea what the name of the song was. I rushed out and bought Old Ways (first NY album purchase) and was disappointed that the song wasn't on it. Later that summer, I got Live Rust and was bummed that the version of Powderfinger was not has good as the Harvester's version.
I've told this story so many times on Rust. It's my official introduction to Neil! As much as I am going to love this new release, I am a bit bummed that I won't be getting that amazing version of Powderfinger from that tour. I can only hope that some of the Crazy Horse songs that Neil did with the Harvesters will come out in the Archives V3 with the video and superior sound, such as DBTR from ACL and Powderfinger from LiveAid.
Also for The Performance Series Neil Young is making records and not "Bootleg Series". So those are the selected songs by Neil.
Clearly Country Home, Powderfinger, the great version of Helpless,DBTR, Razor Love, Interstate, the first very good This Old House and the suggestive Hillbilly Band deserved the release. Maybe if Treasure sells well...
So Tired.
Very cool. I love the album cover, and can't wait to hear it. Keep up the great work on spreading the Neil news, Thrasher. Very much appreciated.
Absolutely FANTASTIC! I can't wait! It's always great to have good Neil news! New happenings- tours, albums, etc. It was quiet for a little while there. Really looking forward to Treasure!
Also, looking forward to all those unreleased albums we were told about a while back- Homegrown, Oceanside Countryside, etc. Bring um on Neil!
Thank you!
Number 945 arriving track number 7, get your baggage ready, All aboard! Dous Warsaw N.Y.
I guess the release isn't canceled then? The Tech notes video is truly great and from what I've heard and seen in that particular video, so will the CD itself, that version of Grey Riders is off the charts! Is it Special Release Series or Performance Series?
Part of Archives Vol II, no doubt!
If that video shows up on the BluRay or wherever, I will be thrilled. He's wearing the Zuma-Pmp t-shirt I gave him!
I love it when he says "We sunk up the video."
Hello readers of Thrashers Wheat,
In the coming days Neil Young, Shakey Pictures and the NYA team will be providing this site with information on the much anticipated release of A Treasure.
This record, which is #9 in the NYAPS series is very special to us on the archives team on so many levels.
We aren't salesmen nor marketing suits, but rather production folk who love the music we work with.
IMHO, this is one hell of a record that captures spot on key performances by the International Harvesters in concert.
Much work has gone into the review of the this band's body of work and while this could have easily been a 2 or 3 disc set, the archives team has distilled the Harvesters down to 12 essential and potent tracks.
Last week the serendipity of the ever unfolding tapestry of now brought to the Web a leak of the 14 minute promotional film that Neil made to explain a Treasure.
It is titled "Tech Notes".
This film was pulled from distribution with the cooperation of the fan base and Rust community, but will go live to the world in the coming days on this site.
We will bring Tech Notes to you to watch, share, download, upload and view on your mobile devices.
Ben Keith called this record " A Treasure".
I have two words for you-
Grey Riders
-Archives Guy
in reply to several questions:
*yes this is part of the live series.
NYA PS
Neil Young Archives Performance Series
*This record is from the Volume 3 era, not Volume 2.
*at this time, A Treasure is a stand alone NYAPS release and not part of a box set.
I hope that Neil dedicates this release to the late, great Ben Keith.
Archives Guy said...
...at this time, A Treasure is a stand alone NYAPS release and not part of a box set.
At this time. Hehe.
Looking forward to this as much as anyone, but a few questions:
Will there be a CD/DVD version?
And will the mooted DVD version of Le Noise be realeased? (I'm not interested in BluRay).
I would prefer to buy this on vinyl rather than CD. I bought Le Noise on vinyl but it cost over twice as much as vinyl releases of comparable quality (in terms of pressing and packaging) by independent labels who can expect to sell a fraction of what a new NY album will. Why is this?
I saw the Live Rust show at the Cow Palace, and the IHs at the Greek in Berkeley. I think it's therefore safe to say I saw maybe the greatest and the worst performances of Neil's career. The Greek show was about 45 minutes long, with 20 minutes of opening and closing hicked up "Are You Ready for the Country". I love when Neil plays his own version of "country". This was more like a parody.
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