Neil Young - The Times

 

This EP is made up of live recordings that Young did in his home as part of The Fireside Sessions during the Covid pandemic. Once again, this simply features Neil and his guitar for a mere 7 songs, including a cover of "The Times They Are A-Changin'", all of which are politically charged, as this was the painfully horrible Trump era. He even updates his Bush protest song "Looking For a Leader" (from his Living With War protest album) for this unfortunate'n'disastrous period of American history.

He starts things off with a surprisingly full-sounding version of "Alabama" - to the point where I initially thought there were others on this track, although it appears to be just Neil and his guitar - he could fill a tune all on his own! "Campaigner", with the infamous line about Nixon having soul, is given a nice reading, "Ohio" is still powerful in an acoustic setting, he gives a tribute to Dylan with "The Things They Are A-Changin'", complete with a harmonica solo which is more melodic than Dylan original performed! His bluesy, footstompin', harmonica-fueled update of "Looking For a Leader 2020" is, in my opinion, the centerpiece of this EP, with its lyrics of hope in a world gone mad. It's tough to follow that one, but he brings out "Southern Man", with harmonica taking the place of the wild, electric solos on the original, but otherwise sounding pretty damn strong, and he closes with a number that I'm not familiar with called "Little Wing" (not the Hendrix song, obviously)  that is a pretty ballad, but also seems a bit unfinished and loose, without a lot of structure - certainly the odd song out of this collection.

Although I love Young's electric madness, I've also been a fan of his acoustic work for as long as I can remember, so I'm going to dig stuff like this. It certainly could have been longer, though, especially considering that it was obviously a low-budget recording. Regardless, again, fans will certainly want it.