Thursday, April 07, 2011
Neil Young Announces Volume 9 of His Archive Series

Australia's Undercover has exclusively revealed that Neil Young's next release will be the next volume in his Archive series (number 9), focusing on live recordings from 1984 and 1985 with his group the International Harvesters.

The album is titled A Treasure. It features many of the songs from the 1985 country album Old Ways plus some previously unreleased tracks.

The short-lived International Harvesters band toured the world in the mid-80s. It included Neil’s first-ever Australian tour. About the band Neil says, “In the mid 80s I played with Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle. He was great. Ben Keith, the late, great Ben Keith. We got Spooner Oldham on piano on some of the cuts, on the great majority of the cuts. We also have Tim Drummond on bass who is still on the planet and rocking. Tim Drummond is a great bass player, he is amazing and so is Joe Allen. The last songs on the album have Joe Allen on the bass starting around Southern Pacific."

On previous Neil Young Archive DVD and Blu-Ray releases, Neil has paid little attention to the video, preferring to use the technology as an audio platform. Fans have queried the lack of video on previous releases so Neil found a solution. His Shakey Pictures team combed the internet for fan footage and they used that, sometimes with no-so accurate results. “What happens on the film, sometimes you see Joe Allen and you should be seeing Tim Drummond, because these are the only videos we have,” Neil explains. “We got them from the internet and we syched them up with the original tracks and its pretty cool to actually watch. But we have some problems because we have the wrong bass player on something like Bound For Glory. You are seeing Joe Allen who is great but you are not really hearing him playing. You are listening to Tim Drummond. Joe Allen looks great so you get a good-looking bass player with a great bass player playing or the other way around”.

For some songs there was no video to use. “Several of the songs have no video,” he says. “We use the cover when we do that. That’s when you look at the cover and get a feel for the record. We didn’t want to put anything else in there because there is nothing else and we don’t have it anyway”

The tracklisting for A Treasure is:
•Amber Jean
•Are You Ready For The Country?
•It Might Have Been
•Bound For Glory
•Let Your Fingers Do The Walking
•Flying On The Ground Is Wrong
•Motor City
•Soul Of A Woman
•Get Back To The Country
•Southern Pacific
•Nothing Is Perfect
•Grey Riders

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VQGGL6/?tag=imwan-20

is this going to be on CD?

It will be on CD, Renny. You can find more details here:

http://theseconddisc.com/2011/04/08/nei ... e-release/

All best,

Joe

The Second Disc
http://www.theseconddisc.com

thanks joe!

Has this been delayed yet?

Alan

It's actually #9 in the Archives Performance Series, of which volumes 0, 1, 2, 3 and 12 are already out.

It sounds like the kind of glorious video mess I would Looooove....

Something to look forward to as soon as my business has stopped absorbing every free dollar ---maybe this fall, celebrate!

On newswires today:

Neil Young to Release Live Album, A Treasure, on June 14th on Reprise

BURBANK, CA — (Marketwire) — 04/14/11

Neil Young will release a brand-new album, titled A Treasure, on June 14th, on Reprise Records.
It will be available in stores on CD and Blu-ray, as well as on iTunes and through all participating digital retailers.
The limited-edition vinyl pressing will precede the CD street date, hitting shelves on June 7th, and will be available on 180-gram double-disc vinyl pressed at Pallas, and mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering by Chris Bellman. The fourth side of the vinyl will feature special album artwork etched into the disc. The vinyl edition will be sold through http://neilyoung.warnerreprise.com and participating Record Store Day Independent Music Retailers only.
Fans should note album pre-orders begin at iTunes, Amazon and other retailers on April 14th.
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, and Karl Himmel on drums, 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.”
The city and track-listing for A Treasure is as follows:
* Denotes Previously Unreleased Track

1 *Amber Jean (9/20/84) Nashville Now TV — Nashville, TN
2 Are You Ready For The Country? (9/21/84) Riverbend Music Center — Cincinnati, OH
3 It Might Have Been (9/25/84) Austin City Limits TV — Austin, Texas
4 Bound For Glory (9/29/84) Gilleys’s Rodeo Arena — Pasadena, TX
5 *Let Your Fingers Do The Walking (10/22/84) Universal Amphit — Universal City, CA
6 Flying On The Ground Is Wrong (10/26/84) Greek Theater — Berkeley, CA
7 Motor City (10/26/84) Greek Theater — Berkeley, CA
8 *Soul Of A Woman (10/26/84) Greek Theater — Berkeley, CA
9 Get Back To The Country (10/26/84) Greek Theater — Berkeley, CA
10 Southern Pacific (9/1/85) Minnesota State Fair — St. Paul, MN
11 *Nothing Is Perfect (9/1/85) Minnesota State Fair — St. Paul, MN
12 *Grey Riders (9/10/85) Pier 84 — New York City, NY

Along with Trans & Weld (the noise only part), the Harvesters studio album (Old Ways i think?) is my least favorite NY album ever.

Personally, I wish he would just release the Ducks stuff already. Some of my fave Neil recordings.

No DVD release, only Blu-Ray for the video ??

it's neil young....never expect anything....never hope for anything....never question anything...never believe anything until you have it in your hands.

I saw this tour. He was touring with Waylon Jennings. I was too young to really appreciate it at the time, as I did not care about country at all. Certainly not the first thing I want to grab when it comes to Neil, but Old Ways has grown on me over the years.

Although I would have preferred a release that featured his tour with Booker T and the MGs... that was a great show...

Got the promo today. Here is the art: