Neil Young Reportedly Recording Two New Albums with Crazy Horse
Neil Young showed up at the Slamdance Film Festival over the weekend to promote 'Journeys,' his latest film collaboration with director Jonathan Demme, and during the coffee klatsch the duo held after the screening, Young reportedly dropped a bit of a bombshell: he has a new album with his longtime on-again, off-again band Crazy Horse in the can, and another one already in the works.
Although Young neglected to provide further details, it's still something to look forward to for Young fans who have been patiently waiting for the grizzled iconoclast to reunite with bassist Billy Talbot, drummer Ralph Molina, and guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro. The last Young/Crazy Horse album, 'Greendale,' which didn't even feature guitarist Frank Sampedro, came out way back in 2003 -- a veritable eternity for the restless Young, who has released a half-dozen albums since then.
Of course, music has always been just one component of Young's artistic output, and 'Journeys' is the latest proof. Young's third film with Demme, it represents what he calls "the other side of the universe" from their first collaboration, 2006's 'Heart of Gold.'
"'Heart of Gold' was a massive production with great caretaking to present this whole image of this forgotten style of presenting music, in this great old chapel of country music," explained Young in a recent interview. "This film we just made is so opposite of that. It's just one person. The sound is completely different and the attitude of it is different...this one here, you're like inside my instrument, inside the distortion of the guitar. There's nothing in the way."
"It put a lens up to his life," added Demme. "He's a medium for all of our lives. Certainly, our generation, whatever Neil's been singing about for the last 40 years or whatever, it's like, `Thank you. That's exactly what I was feeling. You've put it into words and music.'"