Neil Young will release a CD, digital album and a Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set of his recent vinyl album A Letter Home, out on Reprise Records on May 27th. Young recorded the collection of covers on our refurbished 1947 recording booth at our Nashville headquarters. Imagine a very simple recording studio not much larger than a phone booth and you’ll get the idea. He describes the album as "an unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever." Recorded live to track to one-track, mono, the album has an inherent warm, primitive feel of a vintage Folkways recording,
As for the track-listing, Young chose songs that have personal meaning for him, such as British folk artist Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” (which inspired Young to write 1972’s “Needle and the Damage Done”), Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” Don Everly’s “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Home Town,” and many others.
The album begins with Neil recording a spoken letter to his late mother, informing her of his personal and present state of affairs which sets the tone and atmosphere for the duration of the album. He does this once again at the beginning of Side 2 in a way which could explain why he’s selected these particular songs to record. In essence, this presentation is, as its title implies, A Letter Home from Neil. This is a deeply personal and expressive listening experience which is as real and raw emotionally as it is sonically and yet light of touch in its form and flow.
Reprise will release the complete box set, which includes a special "direct feed from the booth" audiophile vinyl version and a DVD that captured the original electro-mechanical process, along with comments from the producers and recording engineers.
The box set includes:
- 1 standard 12” LP vinyl
- 1 “direct feed from the booth” audiophile 12” LP vinyl
- Seven clear vinyl record booth discs
- 1 standard CD
-1 standard DVD
- 1 32-page, 12” x 12” book
- Download card to redeem the digital album of the “direct feed from the booth” audiophile version
Pre-order the box set here or at Amazon. Or, get the digital version at iTunes
Yeah, no listening to this album in the car for me. Just noooooot gonna work ’cause I ended up bursting into tears at some point each time I listened to it today. I need to send a copy to my parents, I remember them playing some of these songs when I was a kid. Mom, especially, was a huge Gordon Lightfoot fan. Though she did tend to have more of a thing for Steve Stills than for Neil in CSN&Y.
The USPS held my copy of the regular edition hostage for a couple days, but I finally got to play it this evening. Ended up with tears rolling down my cheeks. It’s so beautiful in so many ways— The songs, the instrumentation and vocals, the background noises and ambient sound from the booth, the artwork, the sleeve printed on plain old cardboard with that wonderful pulpy texture. ‘I Wonder If I Care As Much’ just made me start crying again. Neil and every one of you all at Third Man should be very proud of this one. Especially you, Jack, you and your cantankerous old gadget that brought this into being. Anyone who doesn’t get the point of that booth certainly should after listening to this.
Just got my “A Letter Home” LP in the mail today. Been playing it all day. The covers are all great! Love this album. Thanks Jack, Neil and Third Man!
Thank you BlackGrease for the tip. Now cancelled my order with Amazom usa and asked for a refund from paypal from the official Neil Young website as they have taken my money without giving me a order number for the boxset. Cant wait to receive this as love Neil Young.
Thank you BlackGrease. Total cost in US dollars with shipping is about $79.
For anyone that hasn’t pre-ordered, Amazon.ca has this for about $50 cheaper than the links to Amazon US or the Neil Young site.
http://www.amazon.ca/Letter-Home-Vinyl-Box-Set/dp/B00JW2DDJM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1398371061&sr=1-1&keywords=a+letter+home+box+set
Pre-ordered! Looks like this will be a very cool set.
I’m also waiting for the 12" I ordered. This box set seems to be amazing.
Ordered the 12" the other day. Can’t wait to get it.
Anyone had problems ordering this from the Neil Young web site. I register on the site made a order and they took the money out of my paypal account but didn’t send a confirmation e-mail. Also there are no details on the paypal e-mail about the order. Also cant log onto their web site to check the order.