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Neil Young And Crazy Horse to Release New Album 'Americana' on June 5th

Disc features traditional American songs like 'Tom Dooley' and 'This Land Is Your Land'

March 19, 2012 8:00 PM ET
'Americana'

Neil Young and Crazy Horse will release their new LP Americana on June 5th. It's their first album together since Greendale in 2003, and their first album with the full Crazy Horse line-up of Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Frank "Poncho" Sampedro since Broken Arrow in 1996. The songs on Americana are all classic American folk songs, including "This Land Is Your Land," "Gallows Pole," "Tom Dooley" and "Clementine." 

At the Slamdance Film Festival earlier this year, Young talked about the album. "A very young choir of children plays with Crazy Horse [on the album,]" he said. "They're songs we all know from kindergarden, but Crazy Horse has rearranged them, and they now belong to us."

"What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist," says a press release announcing the new album."The emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written." 

The disc was recorded at Audio Casa Blanca and was produced by Neil Young and John Hanlon with Mark Humphreys.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse made their first live appearance since 2004 last month at the MusicCares tribute to Paul McCartney in Los Angeles. They played "I Saw Her Standing There" that many critics called a highlight of the star-studded show, though the band has released no touring plans. "I honestly have not heard a solitary thing about touring," Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina wrote on his Facebook page last month. 

Here is the complete track-listing for Americana:

"Oh Susannah"
"Clementine
"
"Tom Dooley"
"
Gallows Pole
"
"Get A Job
"
"Travel On
"
"High Flyin’ Bird
"
"She’ll Be Comin ’Round The Mountain"
"This Land Is Your Land
"
"Wayfarin’ Stranger
"
"God Save The Queen"

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