Homegrown (Neil Young album)


Homegrown is the 40th studio album by Neil Young released June 19, 2020. The album consists of material recorded between June 1974 and January 1975. The album was recorded after the release of On the Beach and before the sessions for Zuma. Like those two albums, much of the material was inspired by Young's relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress, which was deteriorating in 1974. The album was compiled and prepared for release in 1975. Instead, Tonight's the Night was released in its place, and Homegrown remained unreleased for decades. It was finally set for release on Record Store Day, amid Neil Young's Archives campaign. Record Store Day's date was changed due to the coronavirus pandemic and so Homegrown finally came out on its own on June 19.

Background, recording, and near-release

1974 proved to be both a turbulent and creative year for Neil Young. With the unreleased 1973 album Tonight's the Night in the can, he recorded On the Beach in the Spring for a July 1974 release and then convened Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at his ranch for a few recording sessions before launching an extensive summer stadium tour with the group. On "CSNY", author Peter Doggett says that the group recorded "Through My Sails" and a version of "Love/Art Blues" at Young's studio on Broken Arrow Ranch on June 17. According to the same author, another session had taken place the day before, mostly for solo performances by Young, on which he recorded "Pardon My Heart", "Homefires", a solo version of "Love/Art Blues", "Hawaiian Sunrise" and "Love Is a Rose". Most of the songs from these sessions remained in the vaults. The exceptions were "Pardon My Heart" and "Through My Sails", both released on that year's Zuma album. "Love Is A Rose" was the third song to be released, appearing on the compilation Decade in 1977. As of June 2020, these are still the only released tracks from those initial sessions.
Later on, while on tour with CSNY, Young paused to record another new song, "White Line," as a duet with the Band's Robbie Robertson. It was recorded at Ramport Studios in London on September 12, 1974, two days before CSNY's show at the Wembley Stadium. That year, he debuted seventeen new songs in concert.
After the tour, Young held more recording sessions in Nashville, Los Angeles and again at his Broken Arrow Ranch. A December 11 session at Quadraphonic Sound Studios in Nashville with Levon Helm yielded "The Old Homestead", "Separate Ways", "Try" and "Daughters". Two days later, "Star of Bethlehem", "Homegrown" and "Deep Forbidden Lake" were recorded at the same studio. A troubled CSNY session at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, CA, on December 16, 1974, reportedly yielded another solo song, "Give Me Strength". According to Young's official website, "We Don't Smoke It No More" was recorded with his band at Broken Arrow on December 31, 1974. Four days later, "Vacancy" was recorded at the same studio with the same band. Final sessions took place at Village Recorder Studios in L.A. on January 21, 1975. This time the material consisted of short solo pieces featuring Young on guitar or piano. Among the songs recorded are "Little Wing", "Mexico", "Kansas" and the spoken word track "Florida".
Around thirty songs are reported to have been recorded between June 1974 and January 1975, many of which can be seen in hand written lists shown on Neil Young Archives, as several tracks lists were assembled before the album was canceled. The material from these sessions is largely acoustic, most of it being solo performances of Young on guitar and harmonica. Young has said that "Homegrown is the missing link between Harvest, Comes a Time, Old Ways and Harvest Moon." The songs are quite personal, and reveal much of his feelings on his failing relationship at the time with actress Carrie Snodgress. "It was a little too personal... it scared me" Young would later explain to Cameron Crowe in interview.
It was so near to being released that a cover had been created. At the last moment however, Young chose to drop Homegrown and release instead Tonight's the Night, an unreleased album recorded in 1973. Young stated that he had a playback party for Homegrown and Tonight's the Night happened to be on the same reel. He decided to release Tonight's the Night after that listening because of "its overall strength in performance and feeling" and because Homegrown "was just a very down album."

Songs

In his authorized biography of Neil Young, Shakey, author Jimmy McDonough offers descriptions of several of the performances captured during the sessions, which led to fans' speculation as to which of those songs were slated for the album's final track selection. After years of confusion and speculation, Young's official website published the official listing on April 25, 2020.
According to the site, these are the 12 songs that made the album :

Recorded 6/16/74

"Love Is a Rose" is a reworking of Young's previous concert encore favorite "Dance, Dance, Dance" which had been recorded by Crazy Horse on their debut album. It features new lyrics and would later be covered by Linda Ronstadt. Young would include "Love Is a Rose" on the 1977 compilation Decade.

Recorded 9/12/74

"White Line" – "a bittersweet song that Young had recorded as an acoustic duet with Robbie Robertson in England a few days before CSNY's Wembley show, where Robertson's group was one of the opening acts." "White Line" was later recorded with Crazy Horse in 1975 for the unreleased Chrome Dreams and again with the group in 1990 for Ragged Glory. It was also released in 2018 on Songs for Judy, a live album of solo performances recorded in 1976.

Recorded 12/11/74

"Separate Ways" – "the song begins in the middle of a doomy chord; Tim Mulligan lunged for the record button just as Young and the band dove into the song. Levon Helm rattles out a slow counterpoint as Ben Keith spins up a stark, bird-on-the-wire steel solo that has to be one of the lonesomest sounds ever recorded. "I won't apologize/The light shone in from your eyes/It isn't gone/And it will soon come back again," sings Young, sounding dead." "Separate Ways" was performed regularly with Booker T & the MGs in 1993 and with Crazy Horse in 2014.
"Try" – "in 'Try', a faint ray of optimism that followed 'Separate Ways' in one running order for the album, Young paid tribute to Carrie Snodgress by adapting bits of her language into verse: 'I'd like to take a chance,' yelps Young over a rollicking piano, 'but shit, Mary, I can't dance.'" Emmylou Harris also contributed background vocals. Young would later perform "Try" regularly in 2007 and 2008.

Recorded 12/13/74

"Homegrown" – "a goofy tribute to hemp recorded in a much higher version by the Horse." "Homegrown" was re-recorded with Crazy Horse for the unreleased Chrome Dreams and released on American Stars 'n Bars in 1977.
"Star of Bethlehem" is an acoustic ballad featuring vocals by Emmylou Harris. In a 1975 Cameron Crowe interview for Rolling Stone, Young indicated a desire to release parts of Homegrown on subsequent albums, citing, for example, the "beautiful harmonies" of Emmylou Harris. "Star of Bethlehem" would first see release on American Stars 'n Bars in 1977.

Recorded 12/31/74

"We Don't Smoke It No More" – recorded on New Year's Eve, "an inebriated blues vamp that would've sounded right at home on Tonight's the Night.".

Recorded 1/4/75

"Vacancy" – "a killer "Vacancy" features Young mangling guitar and harmonica simultaneously.".

Recorded 1/21/75

"Mexico" – described with "Kansas" as "solo Young performances—short, fragmentary and hallucinogenic" "Mexico" was played a handful of times in 2007 and 2008, and appears in the concert film Neil Young Trunk Show.
"Florida" – "some cockamamie spoken-word dream, set to the shrieking accompaniment of either Young or Keith drawing a wet finger around the rim of a glass". The lyrics of "Florida" were later superimposed over the credits for On the Beach on the insert that accompanied the original vinyl release of Tonight's the Night.
"Kansas" – described with "Mexico" as "solo Young performances—short, fragmentary and hallucinogenic" "Kansas" was played on occasion in 1999, 2007 and 2008, and appears in the concert film Neil Young Trunk Show.
"Little Wing" features acoustic guitar and harmonica. "Little Wing would see release in 1980 on Hawks & Doves. Young would also play "Little Wing" live in 1977 and for only the 2nd time on Fireside Session II in 2020.

Other songs from Homegrown sessions

"Through My Sails," recorded June 17 with Crosby, Stills and Nash, and "Pardon My Heart," recorded the day before, were both released on Young's Zuma in 1975. Other songs associated with the group, including "Human Highway," "Pushed It over the End" and "Hawaiian Sunrise", were also recorded during the period but possibly saved for the planned CSNY reunion album that would not materialize for another 14 years.
"Deep Forbidden Lake" was released on Decade in 1977. In the liner notes to the compilation, Young mentions "Deep Forbidden Lake" as a track recorded for Homegrown. It also appears on some of the trial lists for the album shown on his website.
"The Old Homestead" was released on Hawks & Doves in 1980.
"Love/Art Blues" was mentioned by Young in an August 1975 interview with Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone in a discussion about the Homegrown sessions, along with "Pardon My Heart." "Love/Art Blues" would see release live on CSNY 1974, a 2014 compilation of the 1974 tour with "Traces" and "Hawaiian Sunrise".
"Give Me Strength" would see release on 2017's Hitchhiker, a studio album that documents a solo performance by Young recorded in 1976. It was also released in 2018 on the live album Songs for Judy. "Hawaii" was also recorded at the same 1976 session and released in 2017 on Hitchhiker.
"Bad News Comes to Town" would see new life, this time with a horn section, during Young's 1988 tour with the Blue Notes, captured live on 2015's Bluenote Café.
"Homefires" was debuted live in the summer of 1974 and appears on tentative tracklistings for the album on the Neil Young Archives website. Young would also play the song on his 1992 solo tour, and then again on his 2018 solo tour.
The song "Barefoot Floors" was covered by Nicolette Larson on her album Sleep, Baby, Sleep.
"Mediterranean", "Frozen Man", and "Daughters" have also appeared on various Homegrown tracklists.

Release

In 2010, Neil Young's stated that Homegrown along with other period unreleased albums were being "rebuilt" for inclusion in the second volume of his Archives project. Unlike similar unreleased collections from this period of Young's career, such as Chrome Dreams and the session acetates for Tonight's the Night, Homegrown never circulated in whole as a bootleg.
In July 2019, Neil Young Archives' mastering team began working on the original master tapes. The official site for Neil Young Archives shows several pictures of the tape boxes and respective handwritten notes, revealing much of the work that was required to create new analog masters using the original as a source. Safety copies were also used to substitute for the bits where the original tapes were damaged.
On November 21, 2019, an article was posted to Neil Young's Archives website announcing Homegrown as the first vinyl release scheduled for 2020. The article also included a short video of engineer John Hanlon overseeing an all-analog transfer of one of the album's songs.
The album was released on June 19, 2020. "Try" was released as a single exclusively to the Neil Young's Archives website on May 13, 2020, followed by "Vacancy" on June 10, 2020.
The original release date of April 18, 2020 had to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Critical reception

Homegrown was met with universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 88, based on 17 reviews.
Writing for The A.V. Club, Alex McLevy praised the release, writing that it is "no less masterful for having sat unheard all these years. If anything, the passing time has helped intensify the lush intimacy of the recordings, making Young’s spare and rich instrumentation stand out all the more in an era of auto-tuned digitalization."

Track listing

Personnel

Produced by Neil Young & Elliot Mazer except tracks 3, 6, 7 and 11 produced by Neil Young & Ben Keith; track 4 and 9 produced by Neil Young & Tim Mulligan; tracks 8 and 10 produced by Neil Young, Ben Keith & Tim Mulligan.
Cover art: Tom Wilkes.

Charts