Outside a pair of upcoming gigs, Neil Young has put his 2019 touring plans on hold so he can devote his attention to an ambitious slate of film projects. “We will be in the editing suites for the duration of 2019,” he wrote in a post on the Neil Young Archives website titled Archives Films Projects Takes Precedent. “Thanks for coming to our shows! We plan to be back in 2020!”
Originally, Young planned on touring with Crazy Horse later this year to promote their new album Colorado (initially titled Pink Moon), which is scheduled to come out later this year. It’s the group’s first album since 2012’s Psychedelic Pill and their first release since guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro retired and was replaced by Nils Lofgren. “We believe we have a great Crazy Horse record,” Young wrote in April, “one to stand alongside Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Rust Never Sleeps, Psychedelic Pill and all the others.” [The exact track listing for Colorado is unknown, but an image of the first side of the vinyl record posted on the Neil Young archives reveals that it contains a song titled “She Showed Me Love” that is over 13 minute long.]
The recording sessions for the new album were documented for a film which is also called Colorado. “[It shows] how the band works together to make music,” Young wrote on his website, “how the emotions of trying to get a sound go with the emotions of the songs, what the songs are about. It’s old guys; young souls still alive in old souls and the music they make together. From the engineers, to the musical instrument techs, these guys are in it non stop for as long as it takes to get the songs captured. Like wold horses, the songs, each one an individual, a unique force at play with the emotional landscape, are in control of the dynamic of capture.”
Colorado is one of 15 film projects he announced on the Neil Young Archives. Here’s a list of the others:
A Rusted out Garage. [Crazy Horse’s 1987 tour]
Greendale Live [Crazy Horse’s 2002/03 tour]
Alchemy [Crazy Horse’s 2012/13/14 tour]
Catalyst [This is a club in Santa Cruz, California Young has played many times between 1975 and 1997. It’s unclear which shows are a part of this film.]
Tokyo Budokan 76 [A 1976 show in Japan with Crazy Horse]
London Odeon Hammersmith 76 [A 1976 show in London with Crazy Horse]
Solo Trans [Young’s one-man show supporting Trans in 1983]
Stray Gators Harvest Sessions [The 1971 recording sessions for Harvest]
Greendale Live at Vicar Street [A March 2003 stop of the solo Greendale tour]
The Boarding House [A 1977 solo acoustic stand at the Boarding House club in San Francisco]
Silver and Gold [A 1999 solo acoustic tour]
Stratford Shakespearean Theater 1971 [A January 1971 solo acoustic show in Connecticut]
Solo BBC 1971 [A BBC solo acoustic show taped February 23rd, 1971]
Trans 2020 [An animated film by Micah Nelson using the music of Young’s 1982 LP Trans]
None of these film projects have release dates, but Young plans on showing them at the Hearse Theater on his Neil Young Archives website.
Despite postponing his 2019 touring plans, Young is still playing the Harvest Moon – A Gathering charity show in Lakes Hughes, California on September 14th and Farm Aid in East Troy, Wisconsin on September 21st. He’s likely to tour with Crazy Horse in 2020, though this could create a potential conflict for Nils Lofgren since Bruce Springsteen has said the E Street Band is likely to tour next year as well.