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I'm spending about half my time on music and family," Neil Young says from a stop on his current arena tour. The rest is devoted to converting a 1959 Lincoln Continental into an experimental superefficient car — but even at half capacity, he's getting a lot of music out there. With a massive box set a few months away, Young is also preparing to put out a revelatory 1968 solo acoustic album and a Crazy Horse disc that's been shelved since 2000.
On the road, Young has been playing his most hits-packed sets in years, with a versatile band that can channel the ragged, fuzzed-out energy of Crazy Horse (on tunes like "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" and "Cinnamon Girl") as well as the hushed acoustic vibe of Harvest-era gems ("Old Man," "Heart of Gold"). "I haven't done a tour like this in 15 years," says Young. "With this band, there's no limit to what kind of music I can make." The players all go back at least 20 years with Young and include pedal steel legend Ben Keith, bassist Rick Rosas and drummer Chad Cromwell. "My other bands were always one thing or another," says Young. "This band can handle anything."
Rolling Stone sat down with Young and got the scoop on his upcoming projects.
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Sugar Mountain
Due Out December 2nd
When Young left the Buffalo Springfield in 1968, he hit the road for a series of intimate acoustic gigs. This disc, recorded in a coffeehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the third in his Archives series of material related to the box set. During the show, Young breaks out killer stripped-down versions of Springfield classics like "Mr. Soul" and "On the Way Home" — in addition to early solo gems like "The Old Laughing Lady," "Last Trip to Tulsa" and an instrumental sketch that eventually becomes "Winterlong." "You can hear where it all started from," says Young. "It's so raw and real. There's very little damage. It's very pure."
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Toast
Due Out TBD
Eight years ago, Young cut an entire disc of new material with Crazy Horse, only to abandon it just before it was done. "I didn't like it when I first made it," Young says. He likes the album now: "It's a mind-blowing record, very moody, kind of jazzy. The whole thing has got a massive sound." Young has mastered the disc's 5.1 surround sound and plans to release it in the near future. But even if there's a new Crazy Horse record, will there be a tour? "Maybe," says Young, sounding uncertain. "I'm not thinking about that right now."
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Archives Vol. 1
Due Out January 27th
After more than 20 years, the first volume of Young's career-spanning box set is finally coming out. The 10-disc set (available in Blu-ray for $432 or DVD for $345, and eventually in CD and download formats) is built around an interactive timeline that allows users to access hundreds of hours of audio and video, ranging from Young's high school band through 1972's Harvest. "There's photos, there's original lyrics, there's all the materials that make up a career," says Larry Johnson, the set's producer. So when is Vol. 2 due? "Now that we've done the format," says Young, "it'll be quicker."
[From Issue 1066 — November 27, 2008]
Related Stories:
- More from Issue 1066
- Neil Young Plays Quiet and Loud Classics at Tour Kickoff in St. Paul
- Neil Young's Rough Ride: A Look Back at the Freedom of Speech Tour