Neil Young shares his first archival projects

A few months ago Neil Young announced he’d be diving into his vast archive and release Homegrown, an acoustic album recorded in 1975. As it would turn out, he has a whole lot more unreleased work in the pipeline. He had nearly 30 unreleased projects ready to go, and the fans were able to pick out which ones to release first. Today, he’s revealed the release dates for five archival projects coming over the next few months.

As detailed on his Neil Young Archives website, the veteran rocker first confirmed his previously shelved 1975 acoustic album, Homegrown, will arrive on April 18. Calling the long-teased album as “the one that got away,” Young said, “It is all analog! The purest sound. Hear the vinyl. Get a nice phonograph player. This is the record to do that on!”

Next up will be Return to Greendale, a live album captured during Young and Crazy Horse’s 2003 tour performing their rock opera Greendale in full. That will arrive on June 19, followed by the much-anticipated box set Archives Volume 2 on July 24. The live project Rust Bucket, capturing a 1990 performance with Crazy Horse, drops next, in October. Young’s slate of 2020 releases will then conclude on November 27 with Young Shakespeare. Shakespeare captures a solo performance from Young at Stratford, Connecticut’s Shakespeare Theater on January 22, 1971.

Of course, this is all in addition to Young’s recently announced After the Gold Rush 50th anniversary deluxe reissue, expected out some time in September.

As for newer material, Young re-teamed with Crazy Horse for COLORADO, but the band will not perform the songs live. Young explained that the ‘Barn Tour’ he’d teased on the site back in February would be postponed due to coronavirus concerns. “We find ourselves looking at this uncertain world, with our Crazy Horse Barn Tour booked and ready to announce the first leg,” he wrote, continuing,

“The idea of announcing the tour and putting tickets on sale is questionable and needs to be thought through. Many of our music loving fans have been waiting for almost 10 years for us to break it out and hit the road. We are all super ready to go, and the last thing we want to do is put people at risk, especially our older audience. No one wants to become sick in this pandemic.”