Note: The Evening will be “Gone Fishin’” until Monday, January 3. Merry X-Mas to all and Happy Holidays!
Smiles
“I’ve been singing this way for so long, riding through the storm.”
Yesterday, I received a note from my father. “You might want to listen to Neil Young’s new record, ‘Barn.’”
I’m sure glad my dad sent the note—I’d been eyeing Young’s new album “Barn,” his 41st, and his 14th with Crazy Horse, for about a week. Released on December 10, I’d thought that I would eventually get around to it, and that it probably wasn’t very good. I’m really into Young’s older, essential music but haven’t been partial to his recordings over the past decade. So, I wasn’t rushing to hear “Barn.”
I had to drive out about 40 minutes last night on the Beltway, and I decided on my dad’s recommendation to give “Barn” a spin. I knew that Young and Crazy Horse (now with guitarist Nils Lofgren) had recorded the album in a historic barn they spent 9 months restoring in the Rockies. What I didn’t know was this record contained some of Young’s most meaningful and powerful rock and roll to date.
Young is now 76 and the intensity of his music on “Barn” is astonishing. Just watch.
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