A Treasure [CD]

The latest in the Neil Young Archives Performance Series, A Treasure is an unlikely collection of songs from Young's deeply unfashionable 80s period, including cuts from the Old Ways album whose style this live recording most closely resembles. While Old Ways is probably the only one of his Geffen albums still worth listening to in its entirety, it is one of a series of releases considered unrepresentative of Young's more familiar output, as a result of which Geffen eventually sued him. Its hardcore country leanings are tempered on A Treasure, partly because the live band that Neil Young had put together, consisting of Tim Drummond, Ben Keith, Spooner Oldham, Rufus Thibodeaux and others, represented the very best musicians available; and partly also because new life was breathed into old songs, including an almost inspired version of 'Southern Pacific', more familiar from the plodding version on the pedestrian Re-Ac-Tor album.

While there are other inspired moments on A Treasure, including a version of 'Flying On The Ground Is Wrong' originally on the first Buffalo Springfield album from 1966, and a magnificent performance of 'Grey Riders', one of the great unreleased Neil Young songs, which begins as a country stomp, and ends reminiscent of 'Like A Hurricane' drenched in disintegration and feedback. Other 'lost' material appears, including 'Amber Jean', which is competent but less inspirational, and in total the album features 5 previously unreleased songs. All are painted to a greater or lesser extent in the country stylings with which Neil Young was experimenting at this stage in the mid-80s. It is an unexpected and unusual choice of release, given the fact that Young's classic 70s archive material has yet to appear, but adds weight to a positive reassessment of an under-appreciated and often dismissed period of his career. It is also a timely release, coming less than a year after the death of Ben Keith, one of Neil Young's longest serving and most inspired musicians, whose comment on hearing the tracks again, led directly to the album's title. While the overall effect of A Treasure is slightly underwhelming, it is nevertheless a worthy and welcome addition to a series of live recordings that is becoming almost essential.

3.5 stars.

Appreciating all the facets of Neil Young over the years has been a challenging musical adventure. Its commonly accepted that he hit a "difficult patch' in the 1980s with his label effectively disowning him and more than the odd misstep along the way. His defense at the time has nonetheless stood him in good stead over the years for despite all the tangents taken he has admitted, " I've been consistent about it, consistently erratic." On the surface why Young's dalliance with country music through the album "Old Ways" caused the Geffen label such a problem appears odd. Young had released a similar album in 1980 with "Hawks and Doves" and Elvis Costello had successfully released "Almost Blue" his traditional country excursion in 1981. Yet Young's recording came on the back of a number of commercial failures not least the horrible vocoder experiment "Trans" and a frayed relationship with the label which saw Geffen's patience just about worn out. Young being Young and one of the world great professional contrarian's alternatively raised a large middle finger to them and carried on regardless going out on the road with the The International Harvesters in 1984 and 1985, playing venues like the Minnesota State Fair. This band was the cream of Nashville musicians and by any standards a much more accomplished set of players than Crazy Horse "the best bar band in the world". The outfit included slide guitarist Ben Keith, bassists Tim Drummond and Joe Allen, fiddle player Rufus Thibodeaux, drummer Karl Himmel, and piano players Spooner Oldham and Hargus "Pig" Robbins. These guys give greater depth to the rather underpowered country which had emerged on "Old Ways" with the result that it is transformed in this recording into something with more vitality and verve.

"A Treasure" is an archive recording that contains 12 songs five of which are new, two of which bookend the album. "Amber Jean' is first up which is a lovely ode to his daughter that could have happily fitted on "Comes a Time". Alternatively the explosive closer "Grey Ryders" is like a country version of "White lines" and really rocks with the superb fiddle of Thibodeaux driving it on. As Young's angry guitar burst through this could have fit on "Ragged Glory'. In between we get a range of great songs, including a pile driving cover of "Are you ready for the country", the loose swinging country blues of "Soul of a woman" and the fabulous rocking "Southern Pacific" where you can almost feel the movement of the train. There are straight country songs here which for this reviewer is a joy since Young is a master of genre and "Let your fingers do the walking" which would a brilliant opener to a Texas honky tonk dance. He also transforms the old Buffalo Springfield number "Flying on the ground is wrong" into a lovely country lament and it is one of the albums big standouts. Young of course flirted with support for Ronald Reagan at the time and "Motor City" captures his mood of homeland values with an anti Japanese car import song which states that there are "already too many Toyota's in this town" to considerable audience applause.

For those who didn't like the "metal folk" of last years excellent "Le Noize" this will be far more familiar Neil Young territory but with enough variation and top notch country sounds to satisfy old and new devotees. It's clearly been a hidden treasure and shines a new and more favourable lens on a phase of the great mans career that has been rather cavalierly written off until now. Overall its is an excellent addition to the Young canon.

Neil Young unpredictable as ever. Treasure was named by the late Ben Keith when Neil was playing some of the archive material. I guess this cd/dvd will form part of the Archives 2 due anytime this decade. The Treasure features the band that in the UK we saw at Live Aid in 85, and this record is a mix of new songs & old songs. For Neil fans it's material that would fit with Old Ways, Harvest Moon & Comes A Time. One track stands head and shoulders above the rest and that's the blistering 'Grey Riders'. The DVD flits about from TV shows and You Tube but serves as a snapshot of Neil live before we had instant film on You Tube.
I can't see how this will attract new fans, but Neil Young has never pandered to fans old or new. An essential purchase for Neil Young fans.