Neil Young & Crazy Horse - The Phoenix Festival (2023)

OVERVIEW In 1995, Neil Young and his manager Elliot Roberts founded a record label, Vapor Records. It has released recordings by Tegan and Sara, Spoon, Jonathan Richman, Vic Chesnutt, Everest, Pegi Young, Jets Overhead, and Young himself, among others. Young's next collaborative partner was filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who asked Young to compose a soundtrack to his 1995 black-and-white western Dead Man. Young's instrumental score was improvised while he watched the film alone in a studio. The death of long-time mentor, friend, and producer David Briggs in late 1995 prompted Young to reconnect with Crazy Horse the following year, for the album and tour Broken Arrow. A Jarmusch-directed concert film and live LP, Year of the Horse, emerged in 1997. From ‘96 to ‘97 Young and Crazy Horse toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, including a stint as part of the H.O.R.D.E.

Festival's sixth annual jaunt. During the tour, the band also played at the UK’s Phoenix Festival, at Long Marston, Stratford-Upon-Avon, in the heart of Shakespeare Country.. The set the band played at Phoenix, on 19th July ‘96, was a quite spectacular event, with Young and his group pretty much on fire for their full show. They veered between notable NY rockers - like ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ and ‘Like A Hurricane’ - and slower, more acoustic numbers - such as ‘The Needle and The Damage Done’ and ‘Sugar Mountain’ - throughout their set. The show was partially broadcast on FM radio, and presented on this new CD is the entire transmission recorded some 27 years ago, on what was a quite glorious day during the British summer of 1996.

Tracklist
1 Big Time
2 Heart of Gold
3 Cinnamon Girl
4 Powderfinger
5 Slip Away
6 The Needle and the Damage Done
7 Sugar Mountain
8 Fuckin' Up
9 Rockin' in the Free World
10 Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
11 Like a Hurricane