Genre: Album
Grade: B+/B
Notable People: Neil Young, Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, Produced by: Neil Young and Niko Bolas
Title: The Barn
Review: The album opens with a 70s reminiscent chestnut “Song of the Seasons”, and it is a classic acoustic with his trademark guitar riffs and harp and Nils’ accordion backed by the aren’t- they- dead- yet Crazy Horse rhythm section. From there it kinds of goes in a dozen directions from grunge (Neil is the grandfather of all grunge and garage bands, ya know) to blues to R&B……. feeling a bit like Neil’s 70s-80s era romp through musical genres. The band is tight and the return of Nils on guitar and keyboards, is a bonus after being away for many years (replacing the retired Frank Sanpedro, who replaced the original second guitarist- the OD’d Danny Whitten in the mid-70s). Neil just rolls on along with all his by now overly familiar themes…he’s a true Canerican (look it up- it’s one of the song titles here) ….if you are not a big fan, you won’t like this one. If you are, it’s just one more for the amazing archive of one of rocks true Machiavellian figures.