Neil Young will issue an unreleased 1976 album, “Hitchhiker”, on September 8.
According to Young news site Thrasher’s Wheat, the rocker originally recorded the 10-track, all acoustic album live in one session at Indigo Studios in Malibu, CA on August 11, 1976.
The album’s title track appeared on Young’s 2010 album, “Le Noise”, while the package delivers stripped-down versions of fan favourites “Powderfinger”, “Human Highway” and “Pocahontas”, and features two previously unreleased tunes: “Hawaii” and “Give Me Strength.”
The original session was produced by Young's longtime studio collaborator David Brings, and has been updated with new post production by John Hanlon, who has worked with the rocker since 1990 and produced his most recent works, including his latest effort, 2016’s “Peace Trail.”
Young recalled the 1976 recording session in his 2014 memoir Special Deluxe, writing “I spent the night there with David and recorded nine solo acoustic songs, completing a tape I called Hitchhiker. It was a complete piece, although I was pretty stony on it, and you can hear it in my performances.
“Dean Stockwell, my friend and a great actor who I later worked on Human Highway as a co-director, was with us that night, sitting in the room with me as I laid down all the songs in a row, pausing only for weed, beer, or coke. Briggs was in the control room, mixing live on his favorite console.”
“Hitchhiker” will be available on CD, vinyl and via digital formats.
Young recently released a new song, “Children Of Destiny”, with Promise Of The Real and reissued his long out-of-print 1977 anthology, “Decade.”
The 35-song collection of material covers the musician’s output between1966–1976 and features Young solo and with Crazy Horse, Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and the Stills-Young Band.
The remastered package is now available on vinyl, as a two CD set and digitally.
Neil Young
“Hitchhiker”
Release date: September 8
01. Pocahontas (released on Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
02. Powderfinger (released on Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
03. Captain Kennedy (released on Hawks And Doves, 1980)
04. Hawaii (unreleased)
05. Give Me Strength (unreleased)
06. Ride My Llama (released on Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)
07. Hitchhiker (released on Le Noise, 2010)
08. Campaigner (released on Decade, 1977)
09. Human Highway (released on Comes A Time, 1978)
10. The Old Country Waltz (released on American Stars N Bars, 1977)
See also:
Neil Young will no longer host Bridge School Benefit Concerts
Neil Young announces new album Peace Trail
VIDEO: Neil Young joins Paul McCartney for Beatles classics at Desert Trip
Neil Young to reissue four 1970s albums on vinyl
Search Neil Young at hennemusic
