Album Review: Neil Young - "Americana" - Premier Guitar

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
(Click photo to enlarge)

An album review of "Americana" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse from Premier Guitar by Charles Saufley:

Complain all you want that Neil Young—easily one of the 10 greatest songwriters of the rock ’n’ roll era—hasn’t written a classic album in years. But to define late-model Young via the recorded output of the last decade is to ignore guitar and vocal performances as incendiary, confrontational, and irreverent as ever. On Americana, Young frees himself from the constraints of original material, focusing instead on the textures and raw, adrenal possibilities of his greatest band, Crazy Horse, and a fistful of American folk standards. Like so much that Young does, the concept borders on the perverse, which is precisely why it’s such a kick in the ass.

Those looking for technical sorcery and smooth production need not read further. This is Neil and the Horse at their crustiest. But it’s more than Neil’s production nihilism and antipathy toward slickness that makes this record remarkable. Young and Co. approach and reinterpret these songs with arrangements that are often revelations. Take the schoolhouse classic, “Oh Susannah,” which becomes a funky and chugging minor-key stomp rivaling the barbarism of Neil’s old ’66 Sunset Strip, fuzz-punk compatriots The Seeds. The miner tragedy, “Clementine,” is pervaded with darkness and desperation that conjures images of the protagonist as a grimy mechanic mourning the drowning of his love—“Down by the River” revisited, perhaps? Meanwhile, the classic Carolina murder ballad of Tom Dula (aka “Tom Dooley”)—blunted in the popular imagination by the Kingston Trio’s polite banjo version—is rendered tragic, brutal, and menacing on the back of Young’s wailing Deluxe and the zombie march rhythms of Crazy Horse.

Listen to Album Premiere: 'Americana' by Neil Young and Crazy Horse | Rolling Stone.

---

---

Photo Gallery: Neil Young - Palace Theatre, Albany - 5/18/10

Neil Young - Palace Theatre, Albany - 5/18/10
Photo Gallery by Meta Nemegi





More of Photo Gallery by Meta Nemegi.

Thanks Meta!

Also, see Neil Young Concert Reviews - Albany, NY, May 18, 2010 and Neil Young's "Twisted Road" Concert Tour Reviews.

---

Neil Young Concert Reviews - Albany, NY, May 18, 2010

"Walk With Me" - Thanks 8xMissOctober and BSM!

Setlist from Sugar Mountain. Thanks Tom!!!

2010-05-18
Palace Theatre, Albany, New York, USA
Solo

1. My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) (acoustic guitar)
2. Tell Me Why (acoustic guitar)
3. Helpless (acoustic guitar)
4. You Never Call (acoustic guitar w/ pickup)
5. Peaceful Valley (acoustic guitar w/ pickup)
6. Love And War (acoustic guitar w/ pickup)
7. Down By The River (electric guitar - Old Black)
8. Hitchhiker (electric guitar - Old Black)
9. Ohio (electric guitar - white falcon)
10. Sign Of Love (electric guitar - white falcon)
11. Leia (upright piano)
12. After The Gold Rush (pump organ)
13. I Believe In You (grand piano)
14. Rumblin' (electric guitar - Old Black)
15. Cortez The Killer (electric guitar - Old Black)
16. Cinnamon Girl (electric guitar - Old Black)
---
17. Walk With Me (
electric guitar - white falcon)
18. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) (electric guitar - Old Black)

Tour: 2010 Twisted Road Tour
Band: Solo
Length: 98

From NEIL YOUNG @ THE PALACE THEATRE, 5/18/10 - You Review - Capital Region concert and performance reviews - timesunion.com - Albany NY by Michael Eck:

"It’s amazing how they’re all exactly the same,” he said late in his concert at The Palace Theatre on Tuesday night. “It’s the same song over and over again.”

“Well folks,” he said, before leaning into an unfamiliar rendition of the familiar “Cortez the Killer,” I don’t know where these songs come from. I think they come from you, but that’s me.”

Young was playing solo at the Palace, but it was far from an acoustic show.

As often as not he strapped on his faithful black Gibson Les Paul or the Gretsch White Falcon from his Buffalo Springfield days. And even when he did don an acoustic, it was often processed.

He also played songs on a trio of keyboards placed around the stage.

One of Young’s finest qualities is that he’s not afraid to fall on his own sword.

Thanks Dave M.!

Also, great review below in comments by Chris. Thanks Chris! Awesome review!

And -- hold on here -- entire concert is now streaming on Rust Radio!?! Thanks Roel and someone else....

---

Twisted Road Tour Opens Tonight!

Neil Young will be performing tonight at The Palace Theater Albany, NY. Special guest Bert Jansch will open concert.

Got a report? Drop a comment below. No registration required.

Check Sugar Mountain for setlist updates.

Also, see Neil Young's "Twisted Road" Concert Tour Reviews and the right, middle sidebar for continuous real time RSS feed updates.

---

---