I love this review by Tony.
Tony deals with the boxed set as well as the single disk.
Listen to the album:
Thanks Thrasher’s Wheat!!
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Tag Archives: A Letter Home
Audio: Stream Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Right Now!
Neil Young’s new album, A Letter Home, will be released on May 27, 2014.
Meanwhile you can give it a listen.
Check it out.
Thanks Huffington Post!
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Hilarious Neil Young Spoof: ‘String Theory’ (1974) The Second Limited Edition Voice-O-Graph Release from Neil Young & Jack White’s Third Man Records
In a way, Neil Young’s latest release, A Letter Home, and all the hoopla about recording with the primitive Voice-O-Graph machine is itself quite absurd.
But even so, this takes it to a new level.
From Willard’s Wormhole:
String Theory (2014)
Neil & Jack, On The Road AgainThe second in a series of Limited Edition releases from Jack White’s Third Man Records is this audiophile Deluxe Edition of Neil Young’s greatest hits, as played into an empty CMI standard #211 Cylinder-size tin can, held aloft by Neil…
Read the rest at Willard’s Wormhole.
You’ll be glad you did!
And don’t miss this info about the Deluxe edition.
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Audio: Stream Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Right Now!
Listen while you can.
Here it is:
01 A Letter Home intro
02 Changes (Phil Ochs Cover)
03 Girl From the North Country (Bob Dylan Cover)
04 Needle of Death (Bert Jansch Cover)
05 Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot Cover)
06 Crazy (Willie Nelson Cover)
07 Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin Cover)
08 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson Cover)
09 If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot Cover)
10 Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter Cover)
11 My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen Cover)
12 I Wonder If I Care as Much (Don Everly Cover)
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Audio: Neil Young Sings ‘Girl From the North Country’ on ‘A Letter Home,’ Plus More
Here’s Neil Young’s version of “Girl from the North Country,” which appears on his new album, A Letter Home.
Plus Neil Young’s cover of “Crazy”:
And “On the Road Again” (with Jack White adding vocals and piano):
“Needle of Death”:
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ to Be Included in $109.98 Deluxe Edition of Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’
Here’s Warner Bros. press release on the upcoming “Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set” of Neil Young’s A Letter Home, which is priced at $109.98 and includes two songs not on the “standard edition” that will sell for $13.99.
April 24, 2014 – (Burbank, CA.) – Neil Young will release a CD, digital album and a Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set of his recent vinyl album A Letter Home on Reprise Records on May 27th. The box set is a beautifully packaged expanded version of the vinyl edition first released on April 18th by Jack White’s Third Man Records. The Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set will also contain a Download card for the hi-res Audiophile version of the album. Click here to pre-order A Letter Home. Click here to view the album cover art. Click here to view the Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set package.
Young recorded the collection of covers with White on a refurbished 1947 Voice-O-Graph recording booth at Third Man’s Nashville headquarters. Imagine a very simple recording studio not much larger than a phone booth and you’ll get the idea. He describes the album as “an unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever.” Recorded live to track to one-track, mono, the album has an inherent warm, primitive feel of a vintage Folkways recording,
As for the track-listing, Young chose songs that have personal meaning for him, such as British folk artist Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” (which inspired Young to write 1972’s “Needle and the Damage Done”), Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” Don Everly’s “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Home Town,” and many others. Click here to watch a video for “Needle of Death”
The album begins with Neil recording a spoken letter to his late mother, informing her of his personal and present state of affairs which sets the tone and atmosphere for the duration of the album. He does this once again at the beginning of Side 2 in a way which could explain why he’s selected these particular songs to record. In essence, this presentation is, as its title implies, A Letter Home from Neil. This is a deeply personal and expressive listening experience which is as real and raw emotionally as it is sonically and yet light of touch in its form and flow.
Reprise will release the complete box set, which includes a special “direct feed from the booth” audiophile vinyl version and a DVD that captured the original electro-mechanical process, along with comments from the producers and recording engineers. It includes:
Standard audio LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl
Audiophile LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl
Standard audio CD
DVD with footage from the recording
12″ x 12″, 32-page full color booklet
Download card for hi-res Audiophile version of album
Seven 6″ vinyl discs pressed on clear vinyl. The 7th disc of this set features a version of Dylan’s
“Blowin’ In The Wind” backed with an alternate take / arrangement of “Crazy”
The track-listing for A Letter Home is as follows:
A Letter Home intro
Changes (Phil Ochs)
Girl from the North Country (Bob Dylan)
Needle of Death (Bert Jansch)
Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
Crazy (Willie Nelson)
Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin)
On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter)
My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
I Wonder If I Care as Much (Don Everly)
# # #
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Video: Neil Young Releases ‘A Letter Home’ With No Pre-Release Hype
I first reported in mid-January of this year that Neil Young’s next album would consist of all covers and that he was “collaborating” with Jack White.
I speculated that songs on the album would likely include Phil Ochs’ “Changes,” Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe.”
Today the album, A Letter Home, was released with none of the usual pre-release hoopla, and it includes all of those songs, plus Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown,” a second song by Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Only Read My Mind,” plus songs by the Everly Brothers and Willie Nelson.
Jack White not only recorded the album on his 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl record recording booth at Third Man Records in Nashville, but he’s released the album on Third Man Records, is credited along with Young as the album’s co-producer (actually it says on the back cover “Reproduced by Jack White and Neil Young) and plays on two tracks.
“[It’s] a phone booth,” Young told Spin. “It’s all acoustic with a harmonica inside a closed space, with one mic to vinyl … It’s a funky old machine, it sounds like Jimmy Rogers or something.”
For Record Store Day tomorrow, the album will be available on vinyl in limited quantities at select record stores around the country.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Changes” (Phil Ochs)
02 “Girl From The North Country” (Bob Dylan)
03 “Needle of Death” (Bert Jansch)
04 “Early Morning Rain” (Gordon Lightfoot)
05 “Reason To Believe” (Tim Hardin)
06 “On The Road Again” (Willie Nelson)
07 “If You Could Only Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot)
08 “Since I Met You Baby” (Ivory Joe Hunter)
09 “My Hometown” (Bruce Springsteen)
10 “I Wonder If I Care As Much” (Everly Brothers)
Here are live performances of some of the songs.
“Reason To Believe” at Farm Aid 2013:
“Changes” at Carnegie Hall 2014:
“Early Morning Rain” at Farm Aid 2013:
“Since I Met You Baby” at Farm Aid 2013:
“Needle of Death” at Carnegie Hall 2014:
“If You Could Read My Mind” at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, 2014:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
News Update: Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Rockets Past $2.8 Million
For Neil Young, times are good. Very good.
He’s on a creative roll with amazing live concerts In New York and Canada, a new album, A Letter Home, in the bag, a second memoir, “Special Deluxe,” due out later this year and the money pouring in to fund PonoMusic.
As of about 10 p.m. PT today 8649 people had put $2,812,059 into the company.
Also, Young’s second big archives set is in the works and a source known as “Archives Guy” who claims to be involved in the project told Thrasher’s Wheat:
At this time we are still planning on physical release for NYA V2 and yes it will be available on Pono, too in full 24/192 sound quality. I’m happy to report that we are in full on production of NYA V2 right now. Maybe I’m biased, but I think V2 might be the best one. A plethora of previously unreleased tracks.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –
News Update: Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Passes $2.2 Million Mark
This is pretty wild.
Neil Young’s Kickstarter campaign for his PonoMusic player passes the $2.2 million mark this evening.
To be exact, 6,475 people had contributed $2,112,066 when I wrote this at around 8:30 p.m. PT, but, actually, the take is now up to $2,206,538.
And 6,784 have people have now contributed.
Meanwhile, what’s up with Neil’s upcoming album, A Letter Home?
Young told Billboard it will ‘likely’ be out this spring.
“It’s not ready for prime time yet. It’s not really a release yet, but it’s a very unique record,” Young said. “It’s like a time capsule. It doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard that was made recently. And some great songs, some beautiful music.”
For more, check out my post on A Letter Home:
Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Now Set For ‘Likely’ Spring Release
Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Now Set For ‘Likely’ Spring Release
— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —
Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ Now Set For ‘Likely’ Spring Release
Neil Young’s next album, A Letter Home, has been pushed back to a ‘likely’ spring release, Young told Billboard Originally, back in January, Young told Rolling Stone the album would be out in March.
As I first reported, the album is a collaboration between Young and Jack White. It was recorded at White’s Third Man studio in Nashville, is being released on Third Man Records and features Jack White on two tracks.
“It’s not ready for prime time yet. It’s not really a release yet, but it’s a very unique record,” Young said. “It’s like a time capsule. It doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard that was made recently. And some great songs, some beautiful music.”
“They’re songs that I love, songs that changed my life, songs that made it so that I understood what someone else was saying to me, songs by greater writers.”
Although Young has not revealed which songs will be on the album, I have speculated that it will include many of the covers Young performed at Farm Aid last year and at his recent acoustic shows in New York and Canada such as Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death,” Phil Ochs “Changes,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe.”
Young also told Billboard that his forthcoming memoir will be called “Special Deluxe.”
He told Billboard it’s a book that focuses on his love of cars.
“So it’s a history through automobiles, and it’s a history of automobiles and it’s a history of the environmental impact of automobiles. And it’s a projection into the future of automobiles. It has its own agenda that develops over the book.
Young also said he’s working on new music, and would like to do an album with a full orchestra, live, recorded mono with one mic.
“I want to do something like that where we really record what happened, with one point of view and the musicians moved closer and farther away, the way it was done in the past. To me that’s a challenge and it’s a sound that’s unbelievable, and you can’t get it any other way. So I’m into doing that.”
— A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post —