Keeping up with the efforts of Neil Young is happily exhausting. In addition to Neil Young’s appearance at The Book Expo with Patti Smith, it’s been a whirlwind publicity junket for the consummate musician, author, audiophile and film star. Right on the heels of his new recording with CrazyHorse, Americana and advance publicity for his diary, Waging Heavy Peace is a new documentary, Journeys Neil Younga film by Jonathan Demme.
The film will première on Friday June 29th in select cities.
Americana - Neil Young& Crazy Horse’s first new album in 9 years – will not be available in stores until next Tuesday, June 5th, but you can hear the entire album now exclusively at Rolling Stone Magazine’s Web Site if you’re in the US, Canada, and most other countries around the world.
Yesterday I wrote a blog post about Neil Young & CrazyHorse’s soon to be released album, Americana. I mentioned the artwork being done for each song on the Americana album by Shepard Fairey.
I received an e-mail from the Neil Young mailing list today that provides a Web page with the links for all 11 Americana song art works.
This is my favorite song art so far
The third video for Americana, “Clementine” made its exclusive premiere today on AOL‘s the Boot.
Neil Young has resurged my audiophile interest with his focused strategy to bring high resolution audio to music listeners. I support his initiative, happily denoting he has achieved the high resolution audio goal he set out to accomplish with his next recording, Americana. This recording will be available on BluRay and 180 Grade Vinyl where you will hear 100% of the audio.
On the Bluray product you can hear all of the nuances of the CrazyHorse sound exactly as recorded by John Hanlon at Audio Casablanca Studio. If you want the best, now you have a choice. The Americana Bluray also contains 12 videos of the Americana songs, with an alternate version of “Clementine,” plus documentary footage of the Americana choir as it was being recorded at East West Studios in LA. (Be advised the BluRay edition is not available until July 10th vs. the other products released on June 5th)
If you want to be part of Neil Young & CrazyHorseAmericana history on June 5th, 2012 pre-order the high resolution audio recording 180G 2 LP vinyl + lyric book edition.
It’s important to note that in order to get the full benefit of 100% audio you will need a high resolution audio playback unit. This will mean a high fidelity turntable, receiver and speakers or a Sony Home Audio (Home Theater) system.
Americana is a work of art on other levels too. Shepard Fairey, prominent street artist has teamed up with Neil Young to create the artwork for the rocker’s new album with CrazyHorse, Americana.
Fairey isn’t just tagging the cover, he’s creating an original painting for each track on the album. The artwork will be for sale at a one-day private exhibition at Santa Monica’s Perry Rubenstein Gallery on June 1 and is expected to be on display for the masses in upcoming music videos and the staging of Young’s “Americana” tour.
Written in the 1800s based on an old Negro spiritual, this song refers to the second coming of Jesus, and “she” is the chariot Jesus is coming on. Some interpret this as the end of the world. Others have said that “she” refers to union organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones going to promote formation of labor unions in the Appalachian coal-mining camps. The Americana arrangement continues the folk process with a new melody, a new title and a combination of lyric sources. – Neil Young (Americana Liner Notes)
I have discovered a music, social activism and journalism synergy between Patti Smith and Neil Young. Each is a respected cultural icon with a distinct style and loyal fan bases. Its magical when their artistic muses intersect.
Copyright Kate Simon 1979
Both have new studio albums coming out on the same day this year, June 5th, 2012. Patti Smith will release Banga on Columbia Records on June 5th. The last song on Banga is Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush” which sews the Patti Smith and Neil Young tapestry closer together.
On June 5th, Neil Young & Crazy Horse will release a very special album titled AMERICANA, which is the first Neil Young & Crazy Horse recording in nearly nine years.
AMERICANA is a collection of classic, American folk songs. In their day, some of these may have been referred to as “protest songs”, “murder ballads”, or campfire-type songs passed down with universal, relatable tales for everyman!
Oh Susannah
Clementine
Tom Dula
Gallows Pole
Get A Job
Travel On
High Flyin’ Bird
Jesus’ Chariot
This Land Is Your Land
Wayfarin’ Stranger
God Save The Queen
Patti Smith performed at the Music of Neil Young at Carnegie Hall in New York City to pay tribute to the legendary 50-year, 34-album career of Neil Young.
Patti Smith, with her daughter Jesse on grand piano, stood at the mic, hands behind her back, and recited “It’s a Dream,” a spare tune of simple emotion from Young’s 2005 album Prairie Wind, which he wrote after his father’s death, with a nod to his own brush with mortality from a brain aneurysm. It’s a song of retrospection and appreciation, with Young revisiting his boyhood in Ontario and celebrating life’s little beauties, like the sound of the birds in the morning, and holding his wife in bed at night. Smith choked up, missing a verse. When she continued, the crowd carried her on their cheers. Now that’s a tribute.
Patti Smith has established herself as an award-winning author with the book,Just Kids which won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2010.
BookExpo America announced that Neil Young will speak June 6 (the day after Americana is released…) about his upcoming memoir on Blue Rider Press, “Waging Heavy Peace”. Young will speak on stage at the Jacob Javits Center with an interviewer to be named later. One interviewer possibility: Stephen Colbert, who has interviewed Young on his Comedy Central show and is already a featured speaker at BookExpo
“I felt like writing books fit me like a glove; I started and I just kept going,” Young said.
Americana - 
Yesterday I wrote a blog post about 
