Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neil Young

Twitter / @flea333

Here's a recent Tweet from Red Hot Chili Pepper's Flea:

"Neil young is the only rock musician that was important culturally in the 60's who is still truly relevant and pushing the envelope today."

In a RollingStone.com article "The Immortals: 50 Greatest Artists of All Time", Neil Young comes in at #34. The writeup is provided by the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea:

"There's a rare contradiction in Neil Young's work.

He works so hard as a songwriter, and he's written a phenomenal number of perfect songs. And, at the same time, he doesn't give a fuck. That comes from caring about essence. There can be things out of tune and all wild-sounding and not recorded meticulously. And he doesn't care. He's made whole albums that aren't great, and instead of going back to a formula that he knows works, he would rather represent where he is at the time. That's what's so awesome: watching his career wax and wane according to the truth of his character at the moment. It's never phony. It's always real.

The truth is not always perfect. "

In a 2004 RollingStone.com article, Flea on Neil Young & Crazy Horse:

"I can't say enough about how much I love Crazy Horse.

The sound is so deep, the groove is so deep -- even when they're off, it still sounds great, because they feel it so much. I don't usually go for that approach. I like Sly and the Family Stone, Miles Davis and Mingus. I like consummate steady musicianship. I grew up on jazz. I didn't listen to rock music until I played in my first rock band when I was in high school. I went from progressive to Hendrix to funk to full-on L.A. punk. That's when I had the realization that emotion and content, no matter how simple, were valuable.

A great one-chord punk song became as important to me as a Coltrane solo, and I've had the same feeling about Neil Young. He changed the way I thought about rock music. As a bass player, I used to be into very boisterous, syncopated and rhythmically complex songs.

After hearing Neil, I appreciated simplicity, the poignancy of 'less is more.' "

"A Man Needs A Maid"
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Neil Young Honored As MusiCares Person Of The Year

Also, see Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere".

More on other artists influences and Neil Young.

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Backstage at Bonnaroo 2011 with Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield @ Bonnaroo 2011
Photo by DanMud

It's always fun to get backstage -- especially when Buffalo Springfield is onstage at a mega event concert like Bonnaroo 2011.

And we never get to see Rick "The Bass Player" Rosas or Joe "The Drummer" Vitale, either it seems. So these (photo) notes are for you!

Richie Furay and Rick Rosas
Photo from Rick Rosas Facebook Wall Photos (62)

Rick Rosas, Ivan Neville, Joe Vitale
Photo by John Nunu Zomot | Facebook - Bonnaroo 2011 (60)


Stephen Stills and Daniel Lanois Interview Backstage at Bonnaroo 2011


Stephen Stills and Richie Furay Backstage with Buffalo Springfield at Bonnaroo

From Buffalo Springfield: Stills and Furay on the band's future | Rolling Stone New and Hot Videos by Eric Helton, Matthew Murphy:

"'It's really neat to reconnect with these guys,' Furay says. 'When we were young we didn't know what we were doing. I don't remember the bickering and the fighting...I think people want to add something that wasn't there because lots of times it's more fun if there's a little dirt.' Furay says that the band has '30-plus' dates for the fall - a number the freaks Stills out. 'They better have a break in there, he says. 'If we had this much trouble with six, I can't imagine 30.'

Richie Furay talks Bonnaroo, reunion and fall tour

Buffalo Springfield Drummer Joe Vitale's Kit
Photo from Joe Vitale's Photos - Facebook Profile Pictures (60)

More on Buffalo Springfield at Bonnaroo Festival 2011.

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Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul " at Bonnaroo, June 11, 2011 on YouTube

Buffalo Springfield's "Mr. Soul " at Bonnaroo, June 11, 2011 on YouTube.

From Speakers in Code: Video | Buffalo Springfield Performs "Mr. Soul" at Bonnaroo posted by Jason Gonulsen.

More on Buffalo Springfield at Bonnaroo Festival 2011.

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Two Takes On Neil Young by Joel Bernstein & Henry Diltz

One of the most exciting shows this year comes to the Morrison Hotel Gallery in SoHo on June 17th. Music photographers Henry Diltz and Joel Bernstein will exhibit and sell limited edition prints of legendary musician Neil Young: Two Takes On Neil Young by Joel Bernstein & Henry Diltz.

This will be the best collection of Neil Young photographs ever presented and the pair will be in town for the SoHo loft show.

Joel Bernstein’s many album covers are commonly listed among the most influential in rock's visual history. His first, at age 18, was Neil’s After the Gold Rush, often cited in Best Album Covers Of All Time lists. As a close friend of Neil’s since then, he has captured some of his most beautiful and intimate moments.

Henry Diltz met Neil when he was in Buffalo Springfield. Henry has visually chronicled Neil’s career over the past 40+ years.

Morrison Hotel Gallery
124 Prince Street, New York City
Saturday, June 18th, 11am - 7pm
Exhibition Opening, photographers will be present from 12pm - 2pm
For more information please call us at 212-941-8770.

Uncropped photo used for cover of After The Goldrush with Graham Nash in foreground
Photo by Joel Bernstein

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Special Deal on NYA for TW Readers

Neil Young Archives Vol. 1

Hey, in case you guys hadn't got around to it just yet, you might be interested in this awesome deal on the Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 coming up today, Friday 6/17 at 12noon EST on PopMarket.com! The deal only lasts 24 hours and you must use the exclusive discount code below.

As everyone knows, this is the first volume of the Neil Young Archives series of box sets, produced by Neil Young himself. This series is the definitive, comprehensive, chronological survey of his entire body of work. Volume I covers the period from his earliest recordings with the Squires in Winnipeg, 1963, through to his classic 1972 album, Harvest and beyond, including studio and live tracks with the legendary Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Neil Young with Crazy Horse. This Blu Ray disc edition contains 10 discs, each in its own custom sleeve. 9 of these discs hold a total of 128 tracks (12 hidden), all presented in ultra high resolution 24-bit/192 Khz stereo PCM state-of-the-art master quality sound, and featuring nearly 60 previously unreleased songs, versions, mixes, or rare tracks.

List Price: $349.99 / PopMarket.com! Price: $214.99

Discount code you can use is blog1027.

Created by Sony Music Entertainment, POPMARKET caters to fans, bargain hunters and serious collectors alike. Introduced in late 2010, POPMARKET has quickly become a buzzed-about site for incredible deals that often sell out within hours, containing a mix of premium music and rare, collectible albums, boxed sets and memorabilia at deeply-discounted member's-only prices available for a limited time.

Don't be denied!

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VIDEO INTERVIEW: Neil Young On playing with country music legends

Another video on the The Making of A Treasure with an interview of Neil Young at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

From Rolling Stone by Matthew Murphy:

'As a group of musicians, they were absolutely the peak,' Neil Young says of the International Harvesters, the band of country music veterans he played with on his new live album A Treasure, which was recorded on tour in 1984 and 1985. In this interview shot backstage at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Young told Rolling Stone's Patrick Doyle about how he was investigating his country roots at the time of that tour, and how he could never hope to recreate the magic of his collaboration with this particular set of musicians.

In a comment, Jonathan said:

This video got me to thinking - after I wiped away my own tear.

It's as if Neil truly is letting his guard down and giving fans a genuine insight into his personal thinking about his legacy. I'm so glad that he is opening the vaults and finally releasing one gem after another - gems that we all knew were in there but that he didn't release for numerous reasons.

It's fantastic that he is setting the pace for his Archives releases - not someone else who may have other motives other than the music itself - think Hendrix.

Also, see The Making of A Treasure: Interviews with Neil Young.

More on Reviews of Neil Young & The International Harvesters "A Treasure" and Tech Notes: Preview Video of Neil Young's New Album "A Treasure".



fyi - Treasure is now #8 #5 on Amazon.com Bestseller List.

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Broken Arrow Magazine: May 2011 - Win a Copy

Neil Young
Watercolour by Dennis James Gergel Jnr.
(Cover scan by Purple Words on a Grey Background)

The latest issue of Broken Arrow Magazine, published by the Neil Young Appreciation Society just arrived and we're now finishing up reading the issue. As always a nice read -- especially as we look back while looking ahead.

And -- thanks to the generous support of NYAS and editor Scott Sandie -- we're pleased to be able to offer a copy of the latest issue of Broken Arrow Magazine to a Thrasher's Wheat reader. Details follow below.

Issue #122 (May 2011) of Broken Arrow Magazine - as usual - has some fine articles, commentary and nice photos.

In particular, a very extensive chronology of Neil Young's live performances in London, England by Scott Sandie. With many rare photos and detailed notes, it's an essential reference for Neil Young collectors.

Also in the issue:

• Twisted Road Tour 2011 Reports
• Don't Kill The Machine: An Analysis of "Hippie Dream" by Guy Haslam
• Juno Awards 2011 report by Sharry Wilson
• Some of Neil's Father Scott's Letters

Also, note the final article "Last Dance" and the NYAS editor's call for submissions to Broken Arrow.

Act now. Seize the day. Your society needs you!

So check out the Neil Young Appreciation Society page for more info on how to join.

Don't be denied!

Thanks Scott and everyone who is supporting the NYAS & BA!

Thrasher - NYAS#2476


More on back issues of Broken Arrow magazine.

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HOW TO WIN A COPY OF LATEST ISSUE OF BROKEN ARROW MAGAZINE

One lucky Thrasher's Wheat supporter will win a free copy of the latest Broken Arrow Magazine. We truly appreciate being able to what we do here at TW, and we love being able to give something back in return.

All Thrasher's Wheat supporters between now and the end of the month will be automatically entered into the Broken Arrow Magazine drawing. (If you donated in the last 30 days you are automatically eligible and no further action is necessary).

Click below to send support now via Visa or Mastercard — or send support via Paypal.

If you're unable to send any support at this time, we understand. You can also enter the drawing by adding yourself to the Neil Young News mailing list.

Click here for other support options and to learn why we need your support to continue operating Thrasher's Wheat.

Thanks and Good Luck to everyone!

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The Making of A Treasure: Interviews with Neil Young

Neil Young & The International Harvesters

Based on all of the positive reviews of "A Treasure" thus far, it would seem that Neil Young & The International Harvesters have a bumper crop on their hands.

Which brings us to the "The Making of A Treasure" based on recent interviews with Neil Young. Rarely have we ever had so much insight into the creative process of producing a release as we have with these recent interviews and the videos Tech Notes and Neil Young's Photo Gallery Interview on the International Harvesters.

From Neil Young Unearths His Country 'Treasure' | Rolling Stone Music | Alternate Take by David Fricke:

When asked what he and Ben Keith, who passed away last year, were looking for in that trove of twang and dirt-road idealism, Young is cheerfully forthright.

"We were looking for this," he says. "We were looking for a treasure. And we found it."

"I wanted to capture the spirit of this band playing together, the greatness of these musicians," Young continues, calling from Nashville two days after his Bonnaroo show with Buffalo Springfield. "I wanted to capture the interplay of real country music, being played by real country musicians.

"I was told that no matter what I did, country radio would not play me," Young recalls, "mostly because of my songwriting. I'd put out things like 'Southern Man' and 'Alabama'" – Young's Seventies broadsides at reactionary Dixie conservatism – "so culturally, they drew the line.

"But while we were not accepted by country radio, we were accepted by country musicians," he adds with emphatic relish. "They all played 'Southern Man' with me. They didn't care. It wasn't about that."

"I only played songs with the Harvesters that the band could do justice to," Young says of the set lists on those tours. "And a lot of those were pure country songs."

"Country and blues is almost the same thing," Young declares. "It's just the way it's played – the musicians, the use of the instruments. To me, the songs all fit. I didn't care." There is a quick chuckle on the line. "I had limited success in both directions, so it didn't matter to me."

"If you're going to do something, you should do it all the way. You have to have the right musicians, and you don't want them playing another way. You want them to play with you in a way that is right for them."

He cites one exception from the Harvesters period, an early '85 tour of Australia and New Zealand: "I toured with half of that band and half of Crazy Horse. And it didn't work that well. I realized I'd lost some of the authenticity, in trying to do too many things at once – exactly what I'd been trying to avoid." When Young hit the road again in the U.S. in the fall of '85, he was back with a full band of Harvesters. "I'd ended up with something that was not as satisfying, so I stayed with the extremes. Whether people understood it or not was secondary."

"At that point in my life, the people in control of who played the music on the radio, how it got out, were sure that I shouldn't be doing what I was doing," Young says with a curt lingering irritation. "But it didn't matter to me. I kept on doing it anyway. When you hear this record, that's the reason.

Maybe now, 25 years later, it might float.

"But the thing is, it doesn't matter if it floats. Because it floats for me and the musicians, for everybody that was a part of it."

Neil Young discusses the International Harvesters band and A Treasure

From Neil Young Looks Back on 'Treasure,' Aims for 'Archives 2' Release in 2012 | Billboard.com by Gary Graff, on using unauthorized video material to enhance Archives releases:

"Anything that anybody puts out there is fair game for me. I can now use and I will continue to use on all my 'Archives' projects from now on any defining performance from any (source) synced up to the sound that I like."

"We wanted to bring as much of the experience, from a historic, archival perspective, as possible. If I can see a band play a song and it's not the same version, I will sync it up and make it work so that you get a feeling of what was actually happening during the day when it was done. Now I have all these videos of things I did a long time ago...that I will sync up with my archival studio tracks and take people on a trip back there, where it was happening. There's something really cool about that."

"We had no support. I was being sued by my record company...and I also had been told by (Geffen) that country radio would never play this. So we really started to let out the shaft and just go for it. I was out there doing it myself and playing it for people who were loving it, and we were having a great time living high off the hog and just flying down the road in buses and just never stopped for about a year."

"The band could learn a song in half an hour, and we could play it that night. There's nothing these guys couldn't do. This was a band that could play anything and play it right away, so there was no delay. That was perfect for me.

In the future, Young adds: "There'll be some Internet-based distributions that'll be interesting."

Neil Young - 1985
Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty

From Neil Young on 'A Treasure': It Was Only a Change of Plan - WSJ.com By JOHN JURGENSEN:

WSJ: In addition to the lawsuit by Geffen, you also switched booking agents and toured different venues, including state fairs.

Did you take a financial hit for your artistic decisions?

YOUNG: It was a pretty big financial hit.

At the same time I was doing that my financial situation was further clouded by being sued by the IRS for having to go back and pay, retroactively for seven years, sales tax on product that I'd made. According to the IRS, I had so much artistic control in my contract that I was actually selling music to the record company, and that put me in a different tax bracket. So that was quite a monthly hit that I took, along with the fact that I was being sued and along with the fact that radio stations would not play country music by me. There were enough things working in that direction that I just decided to ignore everything. Trying to deal at once I would have gone crazy.

So I just stayed on the road, where I could afford to live and make the music that I love.

Photo by Pegi Young

From Neil Young releases what Geffen Records didn't consider 'A Treasure' - latimes.com by Randy Lewis:

But Young, long celebrated for his iconoclastic artistic spirit, never got to record the album he had in mind at the time.

"It was the first time in my life I'd been locked out of the studio by my record company."

They thought I was all over the map and didn't understand why I was out there playing country, although to me it sounded like B.B. King more than country. To me it didn't make any difference. They could call it whatever they wanted. But I'd already been making records a long time and I knew what I wanted to do. They could call it whatever they wanted."

"They told me they wanted me to play rock 'n' roll, and told me I didn't sound like Neil Young. So I gave them 'Everybody's Rockin' ' and said, 'This is a rock 'n' roll album by Neil Young after someone tells him what to do; this is exactly what you said you wanted.' And we got way into it. I really liked it. As long as it's good music and I'm playing with my friends, I don't care what genre it is. All my music comes from all music — I'm not country, I'm not rock 'n' roll, I'm just me, and all these things are what I like."

"Once you do something really well, you really don't want to do it again. The natural thing is to keep on going and find something else to do. The way we did those songs, there's nothing that makes me want to do them again. If I could play them with the same band again I would, but I can't do that. That's what this whole record is about."

"The only musical person in the whole organization was the guy who owned it [Label founder David Geffen]. He was going farther and farther down his own path; he was a media mogul and had other things on his mind.... None of the other people there were music people. They would send people out on the road, listen to the [Harvesters] band and go back to the record company and say I was not ready to record. They wouldn't talk to me, then I'd hear they'd been there. They'd make suggestions on what they thought I ought to record.

That's not the way I work....

The record company did everything it could to stop me from doing what I did, but I look at is as some of the best work I ever did. Up until that point I'd had a very supportive relationship with them."

"Eventually they let me out of the contract. They had to. They sued me, and I still didn't stop."

"I wish they were still here today, I would be doing more work with them. But so many important elements of the band are gone. It's like playing 'Harvest' songs without Ben Keith — I just can't go back there...."

"The only thing I can do is go forward. It's the only place that doesn't have any ghosts and shadows from the past."

Also, see reviews of Neil Young & The International Harvesters "A Treasure" and Tech Notes: Preview Video of Neil Young's New Album "A Treasure".

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Videos of Buffalo Springfield at Bonnaroo Festival 2011

"Broken Arrow"

A couple of Buffalo Springfield videos from this weekend's Bonnaroo Festival 2011.


"Rockin' in the Free World"

Thanks BSM!

More on Buffalo Springfield at Bonnaroo Festival 2011.

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Meta Review: A Treasure - Neil Young & The International Harvesters

A Treasure
Neil Young & The International Harvesters

The reviews for Neil Young & The International Harvesters' new album "A Treasure" have been rolling in like diamonds in the dew.

As for our take on all this, we'll just say that "A Treasure" was released as a tribute to the late, great Ben Keith. There's really not much more to add to that...

So, are you ready for the country? If so, here's a meta review round up...

From Neil Young Unearths His Country 'Treasure' | Rolling Stone Music | Alternate Take by David Fricke:

A stand-alone triumph and vital to understanding his creative impulses at one of the toughest junctures of his career.

From FILTER Magazine by Daniel Kohn:

Though these performances are more Willie Nelson and less Crazy Horse, that doesn’t take away from the grizzled vet’s willingness to take chances. The music hasn’t changed, but times have—and for that, the bard deserves an apology from the legions of doubters who thought he lost his marbles because, as this live record confirms, the man truly remains ahead of the curve.

"Amber Jean"

From SoundSpike by Kurt Hegre:

Neil Young is too weird to be a good redneck.

Oh, sure, he wore a bandana, played Hank Williams' guitar and threw his support behind Ronald Reagan in the '80s, but at the end of the day he's still just an eccentric, hippie genius who doesn't belong in Nashville any more than he does at a royal wedding.

The man can play country music as well as anyone alive, but it's when he turns up the volume on his latest release that we really get a taste of what sets him apart from all the fake country music that fills arenas across the country.

Photo by Pegi Young

From Turn It Up by Greg Kot:

Young’s ongoing series of archival releases allows him to have the last word, or at least to frame what he was doing in a clearer context. “A Treasure” (Reprise) documents his country phase and makes the point that, no matter what his detractors and doubters say, it really wasn’t a “phase” at all, but one of his periodic and most fully realized immersions into the genre. The dozen tracks are drawn from a 1984-85 tour with an excellent eight-piece band he dubbed the International Harvesters. It included longtime collaborator Ben Keith, as well as such stellar Nashville instrumentalists as Rufus Thibodeaux, Spooner Oldham and Hargus “Pig” Robbins.

The set includes five previously unreleased Young songs, all of which present credible takes on Nashville traditions: the way cornball humor masks a broken heart in “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking,” the outlaw swagger of “Soul of a Woman,” the sweet celebration of a newborn daughter in “Amber Jean,” the hard-won spiritual wisdom of “Nothing is Perfect,” and the stomping, howling “Grey Riders” – a new, old classic.

What makes this album a must for Young aficionados is that the Harvesters are likely the most musically accomplished band the singer ever assembled. Thibodeaux’s fiddle and Keith’s steel-guitar complement Young’s craggy guitar; there’s an evident virtuosity, but it never comes off as slick. This band could light up any honky-tonk on a Saturday night.

"Get Back To The Country"

From PopMatters by Matthew Fiander:

So Young seems to get it both ways on A Treasure.

We see a rough-hewn country side, but he doesn’t neglect his ability to crunch out some rockers. The unreleased material here — particularly closer “Grey Riders” with its thundering solos — prove worthy editions to the Young canon, and are palatable enough for both long-time fans and anyone who might just stumble upon these tunes.

A Treasure shows us a curious side to Young as a performer, and confirms his unpredictable artistic vision, but its biggest feat is salvaging solid songs from subpar albums. Of course, the trouble with that is — while the songs are exponentially better here — they still don’t always represent the best of Young’s songwriting. While this may not sound like Old Ways, what it shares with that record is that this set has a solid overall sound, but the songs themselves don’t always distinguish themselves.

Young’s singing is brittle and sweet here, and the players vital, but if you weren’t told it was Neil Young you might mistake some moments for the musings of an anonymous bar band. While in some ways that speaks to the loose and joyful feel of these recordings — despite the trouble around him, Young sounds for all the world like a carefree singer — it undersells Young’s distinctive voice both as a singer and songwriter. Like many of his more divisive albums, A Treasure finds him digging into a musical itch he needs to scratch—here, the country and western tradition—and while it works better than those records, it still might be more of a compelling and curious piece to the Neil Young story than it is a great live document in its own right.

Neil Young - 1985
Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty
From Consequence of Sound by Jake Cohen:

The nearly eight-minute “Southern Pacific”–a chugging lament on train culture–is the centerpiece of the second half of the album. The train screams into your headphones with a fast rock backbeat and lyrics full of melancholy and nostalgia. Anthony Crawford’s totally raw banjo solo, complete with noisy fret scratching, sounds like the sound of rusty train brakes. Young’s voice soars with urgency, delivering a commanding performance of this socially conscious tune, channeling the plight of the American worker into song.

Yes, it’s a live album, but not “this is what he’s been doing recently.” If anything, this feels more like a vault release of a new band with familiar faces. Above all, you can feel the exuberance that comes from playing raw, unbridled live music, and there are few from that generation who excel at this better than Neil Young. Old man, take a look at your life, indeed.

Neil Young in 1984 playing with the late pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith
Photo by Steve Cross

From Premier Guitar Joe Coffey:

A Treasure is a 12-song time capsule of that tour and includes five unreleased tracks that Young fans have been wondering about for 25 years. It’s being offered in the standard mp3 and CD formats, as well as a CD/Blu-ray package that aims to give fans an offering in the audio connoisseur-preferred Blu-ray format, even though no known video exists to give viewers moving visuals of some of the performances. Blu-ray viewers see the album cover on the screen during much of the album. Since something is better than nothing, existing video of Neil performing some of the songs is synced up with the audio on the Blu-ray, even though a few different musicians rotated in and out of the International Harvesters and this video may not accurately show who can be heard playing, if that makes sense.

This is a welcome concession for Young fans that relish a Blu-ray listening experience. But it’s a bit ironic since the mix, which isn’t bad at all, is still limited by the quality of the source recordings. In a video on his website, Young admits, “we didn’t use good sound in the first place,” while emphasizing that the recordings are “… the best versions of these songs.”

With that in mind, listeners can approach the album with a new-old-stock kind of expectation, which is appropriate considering the contents. Standout Ben Keith, the late steel player who can be heard on Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” as well as Young’s original version of “Old Man,” adds rich textures of lap and pedal steel throughout the album. His country-western (as they used to call it) authenticity is matched by Rufus Thibodeaux’s fiddle. Right out of the gate, the two set the mood for the album on the opening track, “Amber Jean”— a Texas two-step number recorded when Young and the band appeared on the Nashville Now TV show with Ralph Emery. Other standouts include the honky tonk-infused “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking,” a bluegrass-meets-rock version of “Get Back to the Country,” and a locomotive-strong performance of “Southern Pacific.”

Neil Young -"Southern Pacific" from A Treasure

From LAist By Bobzilla:

The eighties were a big decade for midlife crises (and lawsuits) among sixties rockers, but Young took the desire to mutate with the times and head into unpredictable territory much further than any of his peers.

In response to the pressure, Young split town, fired his Hollywood booking agent, and headed to Nashville. There he found himself a hell of a support crew, built around pedal steel player Ben Keith and fiddler Rufus Thibodeaux, and hooked up with Waylon Jennings’ agent, who put the band on the state fair circuit. By all accounts, the change of venue suited Young just fine. One of the tracks on A Treasure was recorded at Gilley’s Rodeo Arena in Pasadena, TX, a show at which Young was reported to have surveyed the rickety wooden stage, suspended ten feet in the air over a massive pile of horse shit, and marvelled, “Sure beats playin’ to a bunch of fuckin’ hippies at the Fillmore!” Young stuck with it and toured the group for a solid year, longer than any of his other genre diversions, though a followup to the 1984 album Old Ways never materialized.

At the center of this release are live versions of five previously unreleased songs that surfaced on his 1984 and 1985 tours. “Grey Riders” is the instant classic of the bunch, a frantic gallop with a killer guitar breakdown that would have fit perfectly on Time Fades Away. Placed at the end of the album, it’s shocking the first time you hear Young’s guitar explode and become the loudest thing in the room, obliterating his band, like he’s been holding that back for an hour and it’s time to let it out.

From Crawdaddy! by Jeff Wilson:

But there’s more than just high quality musicianship involved in A Treasure, which is culled from shows Young and the International Harvesters performed during a US tour in 1984 and 1985. A good chunk of Neil Young’s work conjures up images of a hippie that lives out in the desert in hopes avoiding the madding crowd, but A Treasure reflects engagement. Economically, America was hemorrhaging and people were hurting, and many of these songs address that pain. To put it lightly, decades later the concerns expressed in these songs still seem relevant.

Although the emphasis during the International Harvesters tour was on traditional country and western music, some of the best moments occur when Young leads his bandmates down some unfamiliar paths. Although it’s more reminiscent of the Beach Boys than Hank Williams, the dreamy Buffalo Springfield classic “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” is so strong here that I question whether any version can top it. Sounding like a hellbound train barreling down the tracks on a stormy night, the haunting “Southern Pacific” features some brilliant banjo, steel guitar, and fiddle.

Laser etched 4th side of "A Treasure" Vinyl LP
Photo by Chuck "iused2BAfireman" Naughton

From Uncut.co.uk by Damien Love:

This being Neil Young, it only makes sense he should follow his most haunted and out-there record in years, 2010’s Le Noise, with one of the easiest, most carefree and down-home releases of his career.

You could argue there’s simply not much that really needs be said about this, the latest in Young’s Archives Performance Series – a live compilation drawn from his 1984-’85 tours through the heartland of Reagan’s America with the band of country veterans. For the most, this is music to be felt more than thought. Good simple songs about good simple things, to tap a toe to, drink a beer to, wipe away a tear to.

On the other hand, though, when you step back and consider the context, A Treasure becomes more than just a collection of countrified tunes delivered with gloriously ragged enthusiasm. This album is the sound Neil Young makes when you push him.

...

Warts, ugly cousins, blazes of greatness and all, however, A Treasure makes a perfect snapshot of this ornery, shapeshifting moment. Certainly, there’s no arguing with the other unreleased song, “Grey Riders”, a spooked, weird run through “Ghost Riders In The Sky” territory, cannily sequenced as the closing track, and not merely because the Harvesters shift to a new pitch of intensity. Here, as though he can hold it back no longer, Young’s guitar begins wrenching loose in mangled, restless, rusty squeals. You could call it the “classic Neil Young” sound, if there was such a thing. But as the howl comes slicing through, it sends out a clear signal. Things were about to change. Again.

From Jambands.com by Brian Robbins:

I know I promised a descriptive phrase for the sounds to be found on A Treasure. I toyed with “grungebilly” and jotted down “Cosmic Hank”. Neither really does these tunes justice, however. The music made by Neil Young and that once-in-a-lifetime lineup known as the International Harvesters was what it was. And it was theirs. And it was great.

God bless Ben Keith: it was he who – when he first put an ear to these recordings – referred to this music as “a treasure.”

Right on, Ben. You said it better than I ever could.

Ben Keith: 1937 - 2010
Bridge Benefit Concert 2008
Photo by Craig Abaya

More on A Treasure: New Neil Young Album Coming and Release Details on A Treasure: New Neil Young Album Coming June 14.

Also, see Neil Young News: Neil Young Discusses The International Harvesters and "A Treasure" Release and Tech Notes on The Making of A Treasure.


International Harvesters Tour, Costa Mesa, CA - 10/24/84
Photo by Robert Matheu

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Neil Young Discusses The International Harvesters and "A Treasure" Release

Neil Young discusses the International Harvesters band and his new archives release, A Treasure.

The video is rather intimate look at the different musicians and Neil's memories of their time together. Neil discusses 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. 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.”

More background on A Treasure, Release Details on A Treasure and Tech Notes Preview Video.

Also, see Meta Review: A Treasure - Neil Young & The International Harvesters.


A Treasure
Neil Young & The International Harvesters

Pre-Order A Treasure by Neil Young & The International Harvesters on Amazon.com

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