Send "Neil Young " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 The live archive series Neil Young has been releasing over the past half-decade is surely a way to celebrate the best of Young’s long and impressive career. What’s most admirable about it, though, is how it also represents the artist himself, warts and all. After Live at Fillmore East 1970 and Live at Massey Hall 1971—two brilliant live documents showing Young’s best work with Crazy Horse and solo respectively—the archives have taken some turns. There was the early-solo-career 1968 set on Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House, and then the perplexing but enjoyable Dreamin’ Man ‘92. That one gave us solo live versions of the songs that would become Harvest Moon. It wasn’t the most exciting set—the versions were fine but missed the album’s sweet layers—but it was a classic Young move. He released the sound he was into at the time, the part of his past he was exploring. We could follow along or not.In this way, the archive series is just as stubborn and erratic as Neil Young’s studio output, which is what keeps it interesting, and A Treasure is the most intriguing release to date. It’s not the best—those first two installments are untouchable—but it represents a peculiar time in Young’s career and shows that, despite being in limbo he was still energized to perform, to keep pushing and reinventing himself, and to chase down whatever muse hit him in the moment. The 12 songs here are culled from tours that took place in ‘84 and ‘85. The tours were not in support of any album in particular—though there’s stuff here that would end up on 1985’s Old Ways—and he wasn’t backed by his label. By ‘84, Young had recently released the infamous vocoder-vamp Trans and, then, he stuck Everybody’s Rockin’ right in Geffen’s eye. The album’s ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll revivalism was a response to Geffen’s request for a more rock-oriented album from Young, and the label hated the record so much they sued Young over it....full text |
| Muzicadown |
| Description: The 12-track live album, A Treasure includes songs – 5 of which are previously unreleased – recorded during Young’s 1984 and 1985 U.S. tours without the support of an album, or Young’s then record label due to unique and unusual circumstances. Among those, “Grey Riders” will be the first track serviced to radio. A Treasure features Young’s onstage work with some of the greatest artists in the history of Country music, including the late, great Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar and Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, along with living legends Spooner Oldham and Hargus “Pig” Robbins on piano, Tim Drummond and Joe Allen on bass, Anthony Crawford on mandolin & guitars and Karl Himmel on drums, among many others....full text |
| Neilyoungnews |
| The 12-track live album A Treasure includes songs recorded during Young’s 1984-1985 U.S. tour and contains five previously unreleased songs. Among those, “Grey Riders” will be the first track serviced to radio. A Treasure features Young’s onstage work with some of the greatest artists in the history of country music, including the late, great Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar and Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, along with living legends Spooner Oldham and Hargus “Pig” Robbins on piano, Tim Drummond and Joe Allen on bass, Karl Himmel on drums, Anthony Crawford on guitar, banjo and mandolin among many others. A Treasure is Young’s first release since last year’s Grammy- and Juno Award-winning album, Le Noise. The live album captures this iconic artist during a fascinating time in his career, when he was facing criticism and lawsuits from his then current record company for exploring a more traditionally country sound. “You can call me erratic,” Young said when asked at the time about his tendency toward musical shape-shifting, “but I’ve been consistent about it, consistently erratic.” Always celebrated for his musical versatility, A Treasure, is akin to a sonic time capsule, instantly transporting the listener to the time and place when it was made. “I love this record,” Young says. “I hadn’t heard these takes in 25 years, but when we unearthed them co-producer Ben Keith said, ‘This is a treasure.’” Part of what makes A Treasure so compelling is the musical contributions of The International Harvesters, with whom Young was playing at the time. Many of them were already paragons within the country music world and their notoriety has only grown in the years since. “I just love to hear those guys,” Young says. “They’re all country music legends.” Those behind the scenes also made significant contributions to A Treasure’s sonic potency. Tim Mulligan mixed and mastered the tracks. At the time these songs were recorded, Bob Sterne was the tour manager, Tim Foster ran the stage, and Larry Cragg was in charge of the band’s instruments. A Treasure will be released in several formats, including standard CD, vinyl, digital download with and without videos, and as a deluxe CD/Blu-Ray package. The Blu-Ray version will feature a curated selection of video that lends context and imagistic power to the tracks. “I like to look at these old live videos and listen to what I think are the best versions of these songs,” Young says. “It’s fun to see what we looked like when we were playing it then.”...full text |
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