Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Americana

As the title may suggest, this is Young and the Horse covering traditional American folk song and giving them the Crazy Horse treatment - to the point where you don't initially realize what song you are listening to! Songs that you sang in elementary school, like "Oh Suzanna" and "My Darling Clementine" are now buried under the band's beautiful distortion and the melodies somewhat turned inside out. And it's always entertaining to find out how many "children's songs" are actually about sex and/or death!

Other numbers that they twist into their own are "Tom Dula", "Gallows Pole", the Silhouettes doo-wop hit "Get a Job" (kinda different from all the rest, stylistically, but fitting for today's economy and the themes of the rest of the tunes), "Travel On', "High Flying Bird", "Jesus' Chariot" ("She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain"), "This Land is Your Land", "Wayfarin' Stranger" and "God Save the Queen" (which "My Country 'Tis of Thee" is taken from).

There is a beautiful booklet included with a brief history and background of each tune, explaining what inspired the group to cover each one and what variations they have added. This is the classic Crazy Horse sound, though no extended guitar workouts (which I kinda miss, but I guess this is more about the songs). Still, quite good and fitting for me as I have been listening to a lot more early Americana music lately!