A Treasure

Glorious days of hard years

The genius Neil Young’s long artistic journey is an endless story to tell: there have been so many moments of universal glory and bitter incidents. However, it should be errorless to say that the most troublesome, nervous and uncertain period in his stellar career was the eighties. In those years, Neil experienced a severe personal life crisis, quarreled badly with his label and had no clear plans concerning his music future. In the end, the label management wanted to sue him for playing something different from what was agreed under the contract. But now, all that is far behind, and we know that men tend to forget all the bad and remember the good. They can cherish the pleasant moments the while life like a treasure that they can find only once. A Treasure is the name to Neil Young’s latest release with a cover that also features the title of the ensemble International Harvesters. Alongside this band, Neil played a wonderful tour in the mid eighties with some of its fragments constituting the body of the new CD. This is a very special collection compiled by Young himself out of the great many of archives. It looks like the songs he chose are his most valuable recollections from that time of many troubles.

Great teamwork

A Treasure should in no way be considered as Neil Young’s solo effort. Too great are the credits of those who played for International Harvesters. The album presents twelve tracks, each recorded live during gigs given 1984 through 1985. The majority of them can be heard on Young’s other records, but A Treasure’s versions are considerably different from the originals, which is the result of International Harvesters’ work. Two pianos, fiddle and two guitars mould a new background for Neil who, in his well-known manner, unfolds fascinating stories of many kinds. The disc has a peculiar song, never released before, Grey Riders. Electric guitar with effects all over it brings up comparisons with Neil’s early rock-music experiments in the times of Buffalo Springfield. Still, the predominant lot of material here is classic country, like Все Let Your Fingers Do The Walking, or Nothing Is Perfect. One of the few exceptions is Soul Of A Woman that has a big blues influence. The lyrics of most of the songs here reflect Neil’s signature style characterized by fusing comic lines with tragic statements within a couple of sentences, and conveying a big thought through describing little things.

As a thank you to old friends

What can be so valuable in another live record by Neil Young who has released a great deal of suchlike CDs already? A Treasure is not like any of his other concert collections because it restores Young’s playing side by side with what seems to be his best supporting band ever. Each member of this ensemble is a personality not only in country capital Nashville, but in the entire country. It is very much possible that Young chose these concerts for the new compilation because this is how he wanted to say a distant thank you to the musicians who did an outstanding job. Today, of all those who created these songs right off the stage, twenty five years ago, we still remember and love only one. With this record, he brings back the listener’s respect and attention to those who made these songs what they are. Besides, A Treasure is a picture of Neil Young’s creative essence, a picture of a musician who has never become a representative of one particular genre, but who has always found something for himself in so many of them.