The opening cut off Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s first record together in nearly a decade, Americana, just arrived in official form. Between January’s 40-minute “Cortez the Killer” jam session and the description of a children’s choir accompaniment on a pair of tracks, we weren’t quite sure what to expect from these guys after all these years. As it turns out, though, their take on Stephen Foster’s 19th century folk tune combines both of those teasers in the exact way you might imagine. Jason at Speakers in Code wasn’t kidding last week when he told me it’s as if Neil, Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro simply wandered into the barn, started jamming and hit record. Hear a taste via some vintage footage set to the track below (and stay tuned for a nice bit of studio banter at the end):
