Reprise

"Why do these old songs live so vividly now? They do to me."<br/><br/>Neil Young with Crazy Horse in all their "Ragged Glory". <br/>Neil & The Horse have played together for over 50 years and the performances of these songs is a true highlight of that long relationship.<br/><br/>9 songs, with the original song titles replaced with selected lyrics. ("Farmer John", being a cover, retains its original title.)<br/><br/>The album was recorded in 2023, with this line-up:<br/><br/>Billy Talbot - Bass, vocal<br/>Ralph Molina - Drums, vocal<br/>Micah Nelson - Guitar, vocal, piano<br/>Nils Lofgren - Guitar, vocal, piano<br/>Neil Young - Guitar, vocal, harmonica<br/><br/>Neil: "In the spirit it's offered...made this for the Horse lovers. I can't stop it. The horse is runnin'. What a ride we have. I don't want to mess with the vibe. I am so happy to have this to share."

For the past two decades, Toast has been whispered about in collectors' circles in hushed tones, as Young has dropped pieces of information about it here and there, especially as it contains three never-before-released songs.<br/>Last year, in his online daily newspaper, The Times Contrarian, Young wrote about the album in-depth. "The music of Toast is about a relationship," he said. "There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the breakup, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it's over. This was that time."<br/><br/>Aptly, Toast is heavy and distressed, brimming with electrifying tension. Even its sweet-sounding opening track, "Quit," features the refrain, "Don't say you love me." "Standing In The Light of Love" and "Goin' Home" let the Horse off the tether in fields of overdriven guitar; an out-of-work logger grapples with his faith on the breakneck "Timberline;" and on "Gateway of Love," Young dreams of a less painful future over a hypnotizing 10 minutes, leading into the somber, brokedown "How Ya Doin'?" The songwriter sums up the album best during its shadowy finale "Boom Boom Boom": "All I got is a broken heart, and I don't try to hide it when I play my guitar."

RAGGED GLORY (1990) was a non-stop celebration for the music Neil Young & Crazy Horse are still creating at full force, and was recorded at Young's Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California. The 10 song original album is expanded for this re-issue with 4 rare tracks. "Interstate" and "Don't Spook The Horse" were both b-sides to singles. "Box Car" and the 12 minute "Born To Run" were both previously unreleased versions prior to release in the ORS 5 box. The 4 additional songs have resulted with the album expanded to 2 CDs. The album was remastered from the original analogue tapes.

Over Neil Young's long and storied career, a few special shows have earned an almost mythic reputation, thanks to the dubious but nevertheless appreciated (in retrospect) practice of bootlegging.<br/><br/>Shakey Pictures Records and Reprise Records are now happy to announce the first of a new series - The Neil Young Official Bootleg Series -- Carnegie Hall 1970.

On his new album, BEFORE AND AFTER, Young has approached a totally eclectic collection of mostly obscure songs like a painter with a new palette. Picking from a vast array of his originals, Young chooses favorites from his playbook like a trip into his music history and performs them mostly alone, taking a solo acoustic journey to a new place. Each of the songs blend and create one continuous flow, clocking in at a 48-minute pure and intimate listening experience. Produced by Lou Adler and Neil Young and mixed by Young and Niko Bolas, aka The Volume Dealers, this is unlike any other album he has released to date.<br/> <br/>Young describes BEFORE AND AFTER succinctly: "The feeling is captured, not in pieces, but as a whole piece - designed to be listened to that way. This music presentation defies shuffling, digital organization, separation. Only for listening. That says it all".<br/> <br/>New versions of the songs themselves seamlessly move and morph with mesmerizing clarity, beginning with his earliest Buffalo Springfield appearance, "Burned," to the recent "Don't Forget Love" (from 2021's BARN) and including the previously unreleased song "If You Got Love".

1972 gjorde Neil Young det lägmälda mästerverket "Harvest". 20 år senare återvände han till känslan på detta album med "Harvest moon". 20 år... kunde det vara möjligt att han fortfarande hade samma fruktsamma känsla kvar? Visst, Neil Young har gång på gång visat att han inte stelnat i sin form. Han traskar stilla fram över åkrarna med sin gitarr och sitt munspel, och mediterar i texterna över tillvaron. Han samlade flera av musikerna och bakgrundssångarna som var med på "Harvest" för att få tillbaka så mycket som möjligt av atmosfären. Och han lyckades verkligen göra ännu ett mästerverk.

Young Neil: Unplugged 1993 [CD]