Neil Young + Crazy Horse = guitar-rock heaven

by Steve Newton on January 25th, 2012 at 5:02 PM

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Cheer up, fans of raunchy guitar music. Sure, the first single from the much-anticipated Van Halen album stinks, and the Black Sabbath reunion has been tainted by the news of Tony Iommi's lymphoma, but all is not lost. Neil Young & Crazy Horse have made a new album. And another one is in the works.

At least that's the word according to a post on Young's fansite Thrasher's Wheat, which says that he shared the news when he was at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend. If it's true that Crazy Horse is back on the dusty trail, I'm one happy camper.

When Young hooks up with guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina, serious sparks fly. Off and on, since 1969's stunning Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, the no-frills quartet has made some of the finest guitar-rock albums ever, including 1975's Zuma and 1990's Ragged Glory The live discs Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust, and Weld aren't too shabby either.

I wasn't too crazy about their last studio album together, the 2003 rock opera Greendale (which Sampedro wasn't on), but as long as Young can still plug in that black Les Paul with the whammy bar, there's hope of killer tunes to come.

Here's three Crazy Horse oldies to help you keep the faith as well.

You can follow Steve Newton on Twitter at twitter.com/earofnewt.

Comments

2 Comments

Carl Spackler

Jan 25, 2012 at 7:44pm

A well needed dose of good news! Cheers Newt!

Big Fan

Jan 26, 2012 at 12:39am

Clarification: Crazy Horse has always had Ralph on drums and Billy on bass. But the original guitarist was Danny Whitten, who played on "EKTIN" and "After the Gold Rush." Danny died of a heroin overdose and his death informed much of Neil's music throughout the 70's. Nils Logren played on "Tonight's The Night," except for the Fillmore track with Whitten. Both of Danny and Nils made significant, personal contributions to Neil's music. Starting with "Zuma," Frank (Poncho) Sampedro has been the second guitarist/keyboard player ever since.