It’s a well-told story that bears repeating.
One day in 1972, Neil Young rowed fellow Crosby Stills Nash & Young band member Graham Nash out into the middle of the lake at his California ranch and instructed producer Elliot Mazer to play his freshly completed new album, Harvest, at extreme volume, using his house and barn as stereo speakers. When Mazer asked if the playback of one of the all-time great guitar albums was to its creator’s satisfaction, Young famously hollered back, “More barn”.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of that landmark record we find Neil referencing that fabled occasion with the title of his 41st album and the follow-up to 2019’s Colorado. Recorded this summer under a full moon at a 19th Century barn (naturally) in the Rockies, it features the revived Crazy Horse line-up, with Ralph Molina on drums, bassist Billy Talbot and founding member Nils Lofgren.
With glimpses of 76-year-old Young and his band in their pomp, the feel is enjoyably loose as Barn segues between aching sepia-tinged balladry, raging climate change anthems and devastating lead guitar work that threatens not so much to strip the paint from the walls of the titular farmyard building as raze it to the ground.
Check out our dedicated station where we are playing tracks from Barn.
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