Neil Young has announced that he will be releasing a new album in June with Crazy Horse.
The album, which is titled ‘Americana’, will be released on June 5 and was recorded at Audio Casa Blanca studios in January. The record is Young’s first with Crazy Horse since 2003 and the first album with the full Crazy Horse line-up of Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Frank Sampedro since 1996’s ‘Broken Arrow’.
The record has been produced by Neil Young and John Hanlon and is entirely comprised of new versions of classic American folk songs, including ‘Clementine’, ‘Gallow’s Pole’ and ‘She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain’.
According the album’s accompanying press release, Young said of why he’d chosen to record these songs: “They represent an America that may no longer exist. 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 announcement of the album follows the streaming of a 37-minute long studio session Neilyoung.com, which included lyric sheets for many of the tracks that are now confirmed to feature on the album.
Young, who released his last solo album ‘Le Noise’ in 2010, recently hit out at the sound quality of modern recorded music, describing the sound of modern records as “the worst we’ve ever had”.
The tracklisting for ‘Americana’ is as follows:
‘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’