Neil Young and Crazy Horse have finished their first new album since 2012’s Psychedelic Pill and are aiming to release it in the fall. “We believe we have a great Crazy Horse album, one to stand alongside Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Sleeps with Angels, Psychedelic Pill and all the others,” Young wrote on his website. “Untitled at this moment, our Crazy Horse album with Nils [Lofgren], Ralphie [Molina] and Billy [Talbot] stands as one of our most diverse albums I have ever made and I can’t wait for you to hear it.”
Young is releasing a recording of a 1973 show in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on June 7th as part of his ongoing archive series. He originally planned on following it up with his 1975 unreleased LP Homegrown, but those plans have now been delayed to make room for the Crazy Horse album. “Recorded at 9200 feet elevation in the Rocky Mountains, with our old tube board, mics and equipment, J[ohn] Hanlon and crew captured the master at 24/192 High Resolution for a wonderful listening experience and it did not disappoint,” Young wrote. “A great dinner was served which we all enjoyed together, celebrating!”
The album is Crazy Horse’s first project since guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro quit the group after a 43 year run. “I’m 70 and I’m retired now and want to stay home,” Sampedro recently told Uncut. “People say, ‘Isn’t it sad you’re not in Crazy Horse?’ I don’t think of it that way. I’ll always be in Crazy Horse. I’m as big a part of Crazy Horse as anyone that’s ever been in it.”
He was replaced by Nils Lofgren, who played on Crazy Horse’s 1971 self-titled LP. Two years later, he played on the Tonight’s The Night album and tour with the Crazy Horse rhythm section of Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. This new lineup of Crazy Horse first played together in May 2018 during a brief tour of California theaters and in February of this year they played for nights in Winnipeg, Canada. Young is spending the next few months playing shows in Europe and America with Promise of the Real, but he promises that he’ll hit the road with Crazy Horse once the new album is out.
