Neil Young – Carnegie Hall 1970 (2021) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

The show rounded off a seminal year for Young who had released the ‘After The Gold Rush’ record just 3 months earlier in September which followed on from the ‘D’ej`a Vu’ album he recorded as part of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young in March of the same year. This show is a never before heard recording with Young playing solo on vocals, acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica. Young played two solo acoustic shows at Carnegie Hall that week.

Even though Neil Young fans have something to celebrate almost every month these days, October 2021 is set to be special, with the launch of a new collection of unreleased material. As the name suggests, the Neil Young Official Bootleg Series focuses on live material, hitherto only available in bootleg form, but now officially released at last. The fun begins with a solo concert by the Loner, given in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall on 4 December 1970. It was an intense time for the Canadian. A few weeks after Everybody Knows This is Nowhere came out in May 1969, Neil Young signed a lucrative deal with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, which gave rise to the album D’ej`a Vu, a dreamlike hippy piece which leapt to the top of the charts and made the foursome global stars. Amid this feverish whirl, he took advantage of his fame to bring out After the Goldrush in midsummer 1970, his third solo work which contains some of the most beautiful songs he ever recorded. The record was mostly made in his house in Topanga Canyon, California. A perfect blend of rock, folk and country, he took it on tour at the end of that year, travelling solo, and playing a date in the Big Apple. The tracklist from Carnegie Hall 1970 mixes songs from Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and brand-new material from After the Goldrush. Neil Young even offers the audience a taste of the follow-up in the form of Old Man, which was to be the opening track for his famous Harvest, which came out in February 1972. Over a long night, a purely acoustic set (one piano, one guitar) can wear a little thin. But Neil Young’s songs from this period are such masterpieces that it’s impossible to get bored with them: we are captivated by this colourful, melodic, rural ride for the full hour-and-a-half-plus runtime. – Marc Zisman

Tracklist:
1. Neil Young – Down by the River (Live)
2. Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl (Live)
3. Neil Young – I Am a Child (Live)
4. Neil Young – Expecting to Fly (Live)
5. Neil Young – The Loner (Live)
6. Neil Young – Wonderin’ (Live)
7. Neil Young – Helpless (Live)
8. Neil Young – Southern Man (Live)
9. Neil Young – Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing (Live)
10. Neil Young – Sugar Mountain (Live)
11. Neil Young – On the Way Home (Live)
12. Neil Young – Tell Me Why (Live)
13. Neil Young – Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Live)
14. Neil Young – Old Man (Live)
15. Neil Young – After the Gold Rush (Live)
16. Neil Young – Flying on the Ground is Wrong (Live)
17. Neil Young – Cowgirl in the Sand (Live)
18. Neil Young – Don’t Let it Bring You Down (Live)
19. Neil Young – Birds (Live)
20. Neil Young – Bad Fog of Loneliness (Live)
21. Neil Young – Ohio (Live)
22. Neil Young – See the Sky About to Rain (Live)
23. Neil Young – Dance Dance Dance (Live)