Neil Young and Crazy Horse will attempt to do what other brave souls (me included) have failed at for years, define definitively Americana.
Of course I don’t think the upcoming album, Americana (6/5) by Young and the band, he began fronting in 1968 after his band Buffalo Springfield dissolved, will be doing anything of the sort. But I am intrigued by them covering late 19th century/early 20th century American folk songs, which include the classic murder ballad Tom Dooley, Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, Gallows Pole the classic folk song covered by Leadbelly and Led Zeppelin and forlorn American western ballad Clementine.
Young and Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Frank “Poncho†Sampedro, will redefine what people think of when when they associate the band with “Classic rock.”
The album was produced by Neil Young along with John Hanlon and Mark Humphreys. I saw the band in February for the Grammy MusiCares tribute to Paul McCartney where they covered the Beatles I Saw Her Standing There (all videos of that performance have been removed online as far as I can tell) and the band was in lean fighting form. There are no reports of a tour resulting from the album.
Americana Tracklist:
1 – Oh Susannah
2 – Clementine
3 – Tom Dooley
4 – Gallows Pole
5 – Get A Job
6 – Travel On
7 – High Flyin’ Bird
8 – She’ll Be Comin ’Round The Mountain
9 – This Land Is Your Land
10 – Wayfarin’ Stranger
11 – God Save The Queen