Tag Archives: Jack White

Video: Neil Young Releases ‘A Letter Home’ With No Pre-Release Hype

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I first reported in mid-January of this year that Neil Young’s next album would consist of all covers and that he was “collaborating” with Jack White.

I speculated that songs on the album would likely include Phil Ochs’ “Changes,” Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe.”

Today the album, A Letter Home, was released with none of the usual pre-release hoopla, and it includes all of those songs, plus Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown,” a second song by Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Only Read My Mind,” plus songs by the Everly Brothers and Willie Nelson.

Jack White not only recorded the album on his 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl record recording booth at Third Man Records in Nashville, but he’s released the album on Third Man Records, is credited along with Young as the album’s co-producer (actually it says on the back cover “Reproduced by Jack White and Neil Young) and plays on two tracks.

“[It’s] a phone booth,” Young told Spin. “It’s all acoustic with a harmonica inside a closed space, with one mic to vinyl … It’s a funky old machine, it sounds like Jimmy Rogers or something.”

For Record Store Day tomorrow, the album will be available on vinyl in limited quantities at select record stores around the country.

TRACKLIST:

01 “Changes” (Phil Ochs)
02 “Girl From The North Country” (Bob Dylan)
03 “Needle of Death” (Bert Jansch)
04 “Early Morning Rain” (Gordon Lightfoot)
05 “Reason To Believe” (Tim Hardin)
06 “On The Road Again” (Willie Nelson)
07 “If You Could Only Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot)
08 “Since I Met You Baby” (Ivory Joe Hunter)
09 “My Hometown” (Bruce Springsteen)
10 “I Wonder If I Care As Much” (Everly Brothers)

Here are live performances of some of the songs.

“Reason To Believe” at Farm Aid 2013:

“Changes” at Carnegie Hall 2014:

“Early Morning Rain” at Farm Aid 2013:

“Since I Met You Baby” at Farm Aid 2013:

“Needle of Death” at Carnegie Hall 2014:

“If You Could Read My Mind” at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, 2014:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Video: Weezer Cut Version of ‘Susanne’ at Third Man Records

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Weezer record “Susanne” at Jack White’s Third Man Records vintage recording booth.

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Video: Watch Neil Young Record ‘Needle Of Death’ in Jack White’s 1947 Voice-o-Graph Machine

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Neil Young recording “Needle Of Death.”

Last year Neil Young went down to Nashville and recorded the Bert Jansch song “Needle of Death” at Jack White’s Third Man Records in the 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine.

Apparently Young recorded the song for the Celebration of Bert Jansch at The Royal Festival Hall on December 3, 2013. The video of Young cutting the track was shown at the event.

The video was online briefly, then pulled.

Now it’s back. Watch it while you can.

And here’s a version of the song from Jan. 6, 2014, Carnegie Hall:

“Needle of Death,” Jan. 7, 2014, Carnegie Hall:

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Audio: Bob Dylan & Jack White Do ‘Ball and Biscuit’ — Mar. 17, 2004

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Collage via Antiquiet website.

You might recall a decade ago when Jack White joined Bob Dylan on stage at the State Theater, Detroit, MI to perform “Ball and Biscuit.”

Or maybe not.

In any case they share vocals and White rips off some smoking guitar.

White has said about Dylan, “He’s very good at making sure you don’t know him.”

White told the Wall Street Journal how he came to play onstage with Dylan:

“That was just by accident. I went and saw him play in Detroit and he said to me, “We’ve been playing one of your songs lately at sound checks.” I thought, Wow. I was afraid to ask which one. I didn’t even ask. It was just such an honor to hear that. Later on, I remember I went home and I called back. I said, “Can I talk to the bass player?” I called the theater. I was like, “Did Bob mean that he wanted me to play tonight? ‘Cause he said some things that I thought maybe – maybe I misconstrued. Was he meaning that he wanted me to play with him tonight? I don’t want to be rude and pretend that I didn’t hear or something like that.” So turned out yeah, we played together that night. He said yeah, come on, let’s play something, and we played “Ball and Biscuit,” one of my songs. It’s not lost on me that he played one of my songs, not the other way around.”

– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post –

Neil Young Recorded ‘A Letter Home’ in Jack White’s ’40s Vinyl Recording Booth

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Neil Young recorded his entire upcoming album, A Letter Home, in Jack White’s 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl record recording booth at Third Man Records in Nashville.

Young calls the the album “retro-tech,” and says the album “sounds like Jimmie Rogers or something.”

“Well, A Letter Home is going to be very confusing to people because it is retro-tech,” Young told Spin’s Garrett Kemps. “Retro-tech means recorded in a 1940s recording booth. A phone booth. It’s all acoustic with a harmonica inside a closed space, with one mic to vinyl. Directly to vinyl.”

Young told Rolling Stone the album is now “likely” to be released in the spring.

“It’s an amazing time capsule. From nothing, to nowhere,” Young told Rolling Stone’s Gavin Edwards. “No one knows why. It’s a good piece, a real nice piece. I look forward to people getting it, especially in light of what I’m doing now. It’s coming out pretty soon.”

Young said that Jack White plays on two of the tracks. The album is being released on White’s Third Man Records.

In December 2013, the Neil Young website Thrasher’s Wheat had these quotes from a source: “It is an album of covers. In it, as anticipated, he pays tribute to other renowned singer-songwriters. There are 12 tracks on it. There are no Neil Young originals…”

I’ve speculated that the album will include “Needle of Death,” as well as Phil Ochs “Changes” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe,” songs that Young played at the 2013 Farm Aid concert.

On Neil Young’s and Third Man’s websites the album was described as “An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever……”

– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post –

Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter Campaign Raises Over $900,000 on Day One

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Neil Young’s PonoMusic Kickstarter campaign went live today and as of this evening 2,798 people had contributed over $900,000, more than $100,00 over Young’s goal of $800,000.

Way to go Neil!

There’s a promotional video below that includes testimonials from Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Dave Grohl, Emmylou Harris, Jack White, David Crosby, Rick Rubin, Mike, D., Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and many many more.

You can check PonoMusic out and get a PonoMusic player for $300 (the $200 discount players sold out fast) right here.

Or watch the video below:

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Neil Young’s ‘A Letter Home’: an Album of ‘rediscovered songs from the past’

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Third Man Records logo.

The next Neil Young album, A Letter Home, will feature “rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology,” according to posts that appeared today on both the “Coming Soon From Third Man Records” area of Jack White’s Third Man Records website and the Neil Young website.

Here’s the text from both sites:

A LETTER HOME
January 22, 2014
Third Man Records unearths Neil Young’s “A Letter Home.”
An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever…… Homer Grosvenor

Young spoke briefly to Rolling Stone last night about recording the album, saying, “it’s one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had.”

When Young spoke at the 56th GRAMMY Awards Producers & Engineers Wing the night of January 21, 2014, he said something that would appear to relate to A Letter Home: “There’s something that happens with one mic. When everyone sings into one mic, when everybody plays into the same mic: I’ve just never been able to do that, with some rare instances like when I record in a recording booth from a 1940s state fair. I got that sound by closing myself into a telephone booth. And I notice, it sounds just like an old record. And I like the sound of old records! I’ve always loved that.”

The album is set for a March release according to Rolling Stone.

This info now officially confirms the news I broke about the album last week.

–– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Upcoming Neil Young Album to be Titled ‘A Letter Home,’ Due in March

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Photo via Neil Young’s Facebook page.

Neil Young’s next album will be called A Letter Home, and will be released in March, according to Rolling Stone’s Gavin Edwards.

Last week I reported that Young and Jack White recorded an album together, according to a source associated with the project, and I stand by that report. I didn’t say in my post anything about the two “doing a record of duets,” which was denied this morning on Neil Young’s Facebook page.

Post by Neil Young.

I also wrote in my post last week: “In December 2013, the Neil Young website Thrasher’s Wheat had these quotes from a source: ‘It is an album of covers. In it, as anticipated, he pays tribute to other renowned singer-songwriters. There are 12 tracks on it. There are no Neil Young originals…'”

Again, nothing about any duets.

As Consequence Of Sound wrote today:

This morning, though, Young’s Facebook page dismissed these “false rumors,” writing, “Neil Young and Jack White are not doing a record of duets as has been erroneously posted on various outlets. We are certain those rumours have no basis in truth.”

Now, if you’d allow me to pick apart that statement for a moment. Journalist Michael Goldberg’s initial report never mentioned a duet album. I think most people just assumed White had been recruited to produce the project, and that statement doesn’t indicate otherwise.

And here’s an interesting theory for you to chew on: Speaking with Rolling Stone, Young said the album is “one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had,” but didn’t elaborate beyond that. Could it be that Young recorded the entire project inside White’s Third Man Recording Booth? If you recall, Young recorded a cover of Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” inside the booth during Record Store Day 2013.

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Exclusive: Neil Young and Jack White Collaborate for New Covers Album

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Neil Young emerges from Jack White’s 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl record recording booth.

In April of last year Neil Young was in Nashville and he recorded Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” at the Third Man Recording Booth on Record Store Day.

What I’ve now confirmed is that Young and White have recorded an entire album together, according to a source associated with the project. The album will be released on Third Man Records, and probably Warner Bros, as well.

In December 2013, the Neil Young website Thrasher’s Wheat had these quotes from a source: “It is an album of covers. In it, as anticipated, he pays tribute to other renowned singer-songwriters. There are 12 tracks on it. There are no Neil Young originals…”

It is likely that the album will include “Needle of Death,” as well as Phil Ochs “Changes” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe,” songs that Young played at the 2013 Farm Aid concert.

Young Played “Changes” and “Needle Of Death” during his recent Carnegie Hall shows, and at Massey Hall in Toronto on January 12, 2014.

“Blowin’ in the Wind” at Farm Aid:

“Reason To Believe” at Farm Aid:

“Changes” at Carnegie Hall:

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Watch: Jack White Talks Blues, Paramount Records with Charlie Rose

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Jack White and Revenant Records’ founder Dean Blackwood on Charlie Rose discussing Paramount, the blues, and the Paramount box set, The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, that White and Revenant recently released.

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