Tag Archives: A Letter Home

Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’: an Album of ‘rediscovered songs from the past’

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Third Man Records logo.

The next Neil Young album, A Letter Home, will feature “rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology,” according to posts that appeared today on both the “Coming Soon From Third Man Records” area of Jack White’s Third Man Records website and the Neil Young website.

Here’s the text from both sites:

A LETTER HOME
January 22, 2014
Third Man Records unearths Neil Young’s “A Letter Home.”
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…… Homer Grosvenor

Young spoke briefly to Rolling Stone last night about recording the album, saying, “it’s one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had.”

When Young spoke at the 56th GRAMMY Awards Producers & Engineers Wing the night of January 21, 2014, he said something that would appear to relate to A Letter Home: “There’s something that happens with one mic. When everyone sings into one mic, when everybody plays into the same mic: I’ve just never been able to do that, with some rare instances like when I record in a recording booth from a 1940s state fair. I got that sound by closing myself into a telephone booth. And I notice, it sounds just like an old record. And I like the sound of old records! I’ve always loved that.”

The album is set for a March release according to Rolling Stone.

This info now officially confirms the news I broke about the album last week.

–– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Upcoming Neil Young Album to be Titled ‘A Letter Home,’ Due in March

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Photo via Neil Young’s Facebook page.

Neil Young’s next album will be called A Letter Home, and will be released in March, according to Rolling Stone’s Gavin Edwards.

Last week I reported that Young and Jack White recorded an album together, according to a source associated with the project, and I stand by that report. I didn’t say in my post anything about the two “doing a record of duets,” which was denied this morning on Neil Young’s Facebook page.

Post by Neil Young.

I also wrote in my post last week: “In December 2013, the Neil Young website Thrasher’s Wheat had these quotes from a source: ‘It is an album of covers. In it, as anticipated, he pays tribute to other renowned singer-songwriters. There are 12 tracks on it. There are no Neil Young originals…'”

Again, nothing about any duets.

As Consequence Of Sound wrote today:

This morning, though, Young’s Facebook page dismissed these “false rumors,” writing, “Neil Young and Jack White are not doing a record of duets as has been erroneously posted on various outlets. We are certain those rumours have no basis in truth.”

Now, if you’d allow me to pick apart that statement for a moment. Journalist Michael Goldberg’s initial report never mentioned a duet album. I think most people just assumed White had been recruited to produce the project, and that statement doesn’t indicate otherwise.

And here’s an interesting theory for you to chew on: Speaking with Rolling Stone, Young said the album is “one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had,” but didn’t elaborate beyond that. Could it be that Young recorded the entire project inside White’s Third Man Recording Booth? If you recall, Young recorded a cover of Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” inside the booth during Record Store Day 2013.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

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