This month sees the release of Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’ which features 12 covers including Bob Dylan and Bert Jansch…watch the video of Neil performing Needle of Death below:
I can hear the questions already, what is that thing he’s in and why does it sound like an old Robert Johnson recording? Well that’s where Jack White and Three Man Records steps in. That object, the size of a telephone box is a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth. The whole album was recorded on it. Jack White explains:
“Neil Young just stopped by. He was driving his electric car, the LincVolt, he was driving around town and filming stuff, and he stopped by, checked it out, and me and him were talking about it. We had a curtain set up on the other side,” said White. “And some kid came into the recording booth and recorded a Neil Young song and when he opened the door, Neil Young just peaked his head out.”
“It was a pretty beautiful moment. And I think that a few months later he called me and said, ‘Hey man I want to come and record in that booth. Hey, maybe I’ll do my whole next record there.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not going to stop you. Where do you want me to pick you up?'”
Neil Young describes the album as “an unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever”. Recorded live to track to one-track, mono, the album has an inherent warm, primitive feel of a vintage Folkways recording. As for the track-listing, Young chose songs that have personal meaning for him, such as British folk artist Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” (which inspired Young to write 1972’s “Needle and the Damage Done”), Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” Don Everly’s “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Home Town,” and many others.
The album begins with Neil recording a spoken letter to his late mother, informing her of his personal and present state of affairs which sets the tone and atmosphere for the duration of the album. He does this once again at the beginning of Side 2 in a way which could explain why he’s selected these particular songs to record. In essence, this presentation is, as its title implies, A Letter Home from Neil. This is a deeply personal and expressive listening experience which is as real and raw emotionally as it is sonically and yet light of touch in its form and flow.
Tracklisting:
1. A Letter Home Intro
2. Changes
3. Girl From The North Country
4. Needle Of Death
5. Early Morning Rain
6. Crazy
7. Reason To Believe
8. On The Road Again
9. If You Could Read My Mind
10. Since I Met You Baby
11. My Hometown
12. I Wonder If I Care As Much
Order it from our Folk Music Store:
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