'New' Neil Young Album June 14: A Treasure

 

This makes me happy.  Neil Young has announced a new release for June 14th:

A TREASURE

JUNE 14TH ON REPRISE RECORDS

SPECIAL DOUBLE-DISC VINYL EDITION AVAILABLE ON MAY 24TH

NEILYOUNG.COM AND ITUNES PRE-ORDER LAUNCHES APRIL 12TH

Neil Young will release a brand-new album, entitled A Treasure,on June 14th, on Reprise Records. It will be available in stores on CD and Blu-ray, as well as on iTunes and through all participating digital retailers. The limited-edition vinyl pressing will precede the CD street date, hitting shelves on May 24th, and will be pressed on 180-gram double-disc vinyl featuring special artwork etched into the fourth side. The vinyl edition will be sold through the official NeilYoung.com store and participating Record Store Day Independent Music Retailers only.

Digital buyers should note that iTunes, Amazon and all other digital retail outlets will launch a pre-order on April 12th. Fans can also look forward to a full line of brand-new exclusive merch plus Le Noise tour items and Archives-related goodies, which will launch in the Neil Young Online Store in April.

This will be another in Neil's ongoing 'Neil Young Archives Performance Series' of live shows/tracks.  This one captures Neil's 1984/1985 tours with The International Harvesters, a fantastic group Neil got together for the tour including the legendary pedal steel of Ben Keith and fiddle of Rufus Thibodeaux.  Neil's albums throughout the 1980's are infamous, they jumped from genre to genre and were generally poorly received critically and commercially.  The live shows, however, remained typically great, and I personally find his shows with The International Harvesters to be among the best he's ever done.  The tours surrounded the release of his 1985 album, Old Ways - a strictly country affair, but lacking the energy of the live performances.  The pedal steel and fiddle are dominant throughout the live instances of the songs, while on the electric songs Neil still performs his trademark sound.

Neil Young & The International Harvesters

A Treasure

Neil Young Archives Performance Series #9

*denotes unreleased song

*1- Amber Jean (9/20/84) Nashville Now TV Nashville, TN

2- Are You Ready For The Country? (9/21/84) Riverbend Music Center Cincinnati, OH

3- It Might Have Been 9/25/84 Austin City Limits TV Austin, Texas

4- Bound For Glory 9/29/84 Gilleys’s Rodeo Arena Pasadena, TX

*5- Let Your Fingers Do The Walking (10/22/84) Universal Amphitheater Universal City, CA

6- Flying On The Ground Is Wrong (10/26/84) Greek Theater Berkeley, CA

7- Motor City (10/26/84) Greek Theater Berkeley, CA

*8- Soul Of A Woman (10/26/84) Greek Theater Berkeley, CA

9- Get Back To The Country (10/26/84) Greek Theater Berkeley, CA

10- Southern Pacific (9/1/85) Minnesota State Fair St. Paul, MN

*11- Nothing Is Perfect (9/1/85) Minnesota State Fair St. Paul, MN

*12- Grey Riders (9/10/85) Pier 84 New York City, NY

[Thanks to Thrasherswheat.org]

It took me awhile to fully appreciate this period of Neil's career, but over the last year I've become enthralled by the live performances.  Southern Pacific and Grey Riders have always stood out to me, both featuring loud, extended guitar workouts, but I've come around to the more countrified songs too.  Nothing Is Perfect, originally slated for release on the aborted Farm Aid EP, extolls the virtues of the heartland American farming family, while Amber Jean  is a touching tribute to his daughter.  Soul of a Woman would reappear with Neil's shows with The Bluenotes in the late 80s as a, you guessed it, bluesy number.  Are You Ready for the Country?, originally released on Harvest, received an upbeat workout with Thibodeaux's fiddle prominent throughout.

Much thanks to the great Neil Young news site Thrasherswheat.org, as they have a preview of the release up on their site, with Neil himself explaining the collection, along with some footage: http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2011/04/exclusive-preview-video-of-neil-youngs.html

To get a bit of a taste of what this album will sound like, there are some performances available on youtube (indeed, Neil in the video talks about how they pulled video off the internet for the Blu-Ray).  This gets me excited for future Neil releases as he continues the monumental task of sifting through all of his archival footage, a process begun some 20+ years ago.  

 Here's a full 60:00 worth of Neil Young and the International Harvesters live at Austin City Limits in 1984, featuring some of the songs listed above.

And what better time than May 24th to finally start your vinyl collection?