CD Review: Live At Massey Hall

I rarely post music reviews here, but Neil Young's "new" CD release, Live At Massey Hall, is worth a mention. Actually, it is old in that it is a previously-unreleased recording of a 1971 concert consisting of just Neil and his guitar and piano.

What I really like about the CD is that a lot of the songs he performs -- e.g., Old Man, Heart of Gold, A Man Needs A Maid -- were being played to an audience which had never heard them before because they were brand new songs that had not yet been released on any album. [Before he gets into the new stuff, Neil tells the audience: "I've written so many new ones that I can't think of anything else to do with them other than sing 'em."]

So on my first listen-through, I tried to put myself in the audience's place and imagine how I would feel about the songs had it been the first time I heard them. Sometimes I go to a show where the artist is testing out new material, and I'm usually fine with that, but the new stuff is rarely received with the same enthusiasm as the artist's more-famous material. But I'm pretty sure I would have loved these "new" Neil tunes from the git-go, especially "Old Man." It was great to hear these classic tunes for the first time, if you know what I mean.

But he did play some of his "older" material. Neil's acoustic versions of "Ohio," "Don't Let It Bring You Down," "Cowgirl in the Sand," and "Down By The River" are particularly good.