Genre: Album
Grade: A
Notable People: Neil Young
Title: Songs for Judy
Review: This is the sixth in on ongoing series of re-issues from Neil’s voluminous catalog. Recorded at a live show in 1976, it captures Neil in all his glory and has EVERYTHING I would want to have on it from that period. Lots of certifiable gems, a good mix of more obscure ditties and 3-4 I had amazingly never heard before-from his incarnation (one of dozens) as a singer-songwriter/minstrel. This is not the Neil Young of Crazy Horse and garage band ennui…but the soft, thoughtful and incredibly lyrical Neil. He plays his trademark acoustic guitar licks (you can recognize many songs after two bars), quite a bit of piano, his unusual banjo stylings and a few gems on the grand Wurlitzer keyboard. He is clearly stoned, having a great time and more chatty then he’ll ever be again. The album is named as such because Judy Garland was apparently at the show. This is unadulterated cheap thrills…a master of his genre at his unspoiled peak. Wow….look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies….