News from Rolling Stone this morning that Neil Young has announced that he’ll be recording a new studio album with Crazy Horse “in the near future” which will be their first new album since 2012’s ‘Psychedelic Pill’. New of the new album came via Young himself who broke it on his Neil Young Archives website in a response to a fan’s letter enquiring after his future recording plans. Young replied: “Crazy Horse is about to enter the studio with 11 new ones.”
RS report: “Neil Young revived Crazy Horse last year for a series of low-profile theater gigs in California. They were the first performances by the group without guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro since he joined in 1975. “I’m 70 and I’m retired now and want to stay home,” Sampedro recently told Uncut. “People say, ‘Isn’t it sad you’re not in Crazy Horse?’ I don’t think of it that way. I’ll always be in Crazy Horse. I’m as big a part of Crazy Horse as anyone that’s ever been in it.”
Sampedro was replaced by Nils Lofgren, who recorded with Crazy Horse on a 1971 album they recorded without Neil Young. He also played with Young and the Crazy Horse rhythm section of Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot on Tonight’s The Night and the supporting tour in 1973. “It’s been a beautiful opportunity to play with dear friends that are still alive and well,” Lofgren recently told Rolling Stone. “Look, I hope there’s more, but I’ll take it a gig at a time right now.”
Young didn’t give an exact timeline for the making of the album, though Lofgren is launching a U.S. tour in early May that will keep him on the road for a month. Young has his own tour in own tour in May that will see him play theaters in the Pacific Northwest. He’s playing solo acoustic some nights and with Promise of the Real on other nights. He heads to Europe in late June where he’ll play more shows with Promise of the Real, including gigs in London and Kilkenny, Ireland where they are sharing the bill with Bob Dylan.”
