A Treasure (CD)

Neil Young | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 14, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reprise
• ASIN: B004VQGGL6
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,258 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The 12-track live album, A Treasure includes songs - 5 of which are previously unreleased - recorded during Young's 1984 and 1985 U.S. tours without the support of an album, or Young's then record label due to unique and unusual circumstances. Among those, "Grey Riders" will be the first track serviced to radio. A Treasure features Young's onstage work with some of the greatest artists in the history of Country music, including the late, great Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar and Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, along with living legends Spooner Oldham and Hargus "Pig" Robbins on piano, Tim Drummond and Joe Allen on bass, Anthony Crawford on mandolin & guitars and Karl Himmel on drums, among many others. A Treasure is Young's first release since last year's Grammy and Juno Award-winning album, Le Noise. The live album captures this iconic artist during a fascinating time in his career, when he was facing criticism and lawsuits from his then current record company for exploring a more traditionally country sound. "You can call me erratic," Young said when asked at the time about his tendency toward musical shape-shifting, "but I've been consistent about it, consistently erratic." Always celebrated for his musical versatility, A Treasure, is akin to a sonic time capsule, instantly transporting the listener to the time and place when it was made. "I love this record," Young says. "I hadn't heard these takes in 25 years, but when we unearthed them co-producer Ben Keith said, 'This is a treasure.'"

Part of what makes A Treasure so compelling is the musical contributions of The International Harvesters, with whom Young was playing at the time. Many of them were already paragons within the country music world and their notoriety has only grown in the years since. "I just love to hear those guys," Young says. "They're all country music legends." Those behind the scenes also made significant contributions to A Treasure's sonic potency. Tim Mulligan mixed and mastered the tracks. At the time these songs were recorded, Bob Sterne was the tour manager, Tim Foster ran the stage, and Larry Cragg was in charge of the band's instruments.

A Treasure will be released in several formats, including standard CD, vinyl (180gm and 140gm), digital download with and without videos, and as a deluxe CD/Blu-ray package. The Blu-ray version will feature a curated selection of video that lends context and imagistic power to the tracks. "I like to look at these old live videos and listen to what I think are the best versions of these songs," Young says. "It's fun to see what we looked like when we were playing it then."

* Denotes Previously Unreleased Track

1. *Amber Jean (9/20/84) Nashville Now TV - Nashville, TN
2. Are You Ready For The Country? (9/21/84) Riverbend Music Center - Cincinnati, OH
3. It Might Have Been (9/25/84) Austin City Limits TV - Austin, Texas
4. Bound For Glory (9/29/84) Gilleys Rodeo Arena - Pasadena, TX
5. *Let Your Fingers Do The Walking (10/22/84) Universal Amphitheater Universal City, CA
6. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong (10/26/84) Greek Theater - Berkeley, CA 7. Motor City (10/26/84) Greek Theater - Berkeley, CA
8. *Soul Of A Woman (10/26/84) Greek Theater - Berkeley, CA
9. Get Back To The Country (10/26/84) Greek Theater - Berkeley, CA
10. Southern Pacific (9/1/85) Minnesota State Fair - St. Paul, MN
11. *Nothing Is Perfect (9/1/85) Minnesota State Fair - St. Paul, MN
12. *Grey Riders (9/10/85) Pier 84 - New York City, NY

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome blast from the past! June 14, 2011

By Polar Bear

Format:Audio CD

"A Treasure" is a 12 track live album recorded during Neil Young's 1984-1985 U.S. tour. Featuring 5 previously unreleased songs, it sounds amazing. Young has some incredible guests join him onstage which contributes greatly to the performance: The late Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar, Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, Spooner Oldham and Hargus "Pig" Robbins on piano, and Tim Drummond and Joe Allen on bass to name a few. Recorded during a turbulent time in his career, when he was facing criticism from his record company for producing songs with a country sound, A Treasure captures Young's live sound from the mid 1980's perfectly. "Grey Riders" has some incredible guitar work by Young, and it's shocking (and awesome) to hear it explode and become the loudest thing in the room. "Nothing Perfect" is a beautiful tribute to the American Heartland. "It Might Have Been" is a cover of an obscure single from the 1950's by Joe London that is a nice change of pace. "Flying On the Ground Is Wrong" has some killer piano played by Spooner Oldham. If you're a fan of Young's you'll love how this album brings you back in time to a special period in his history. Highly recommended!!

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Neil Young & The International Harvesters - A buried country treasure from the "difficult 80s" June 14, 2011

By Red on Black TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

Appreciating all the many facets of Neil Young over the years has been a challenging musical adventure. Its common currency that he hit a "difficult patch' in the 1980s with his label effectively disowning him and more than the odd misstep along the way. His defense at the time has nonetheless stood him in good stead for despite all the tangents taken he has admitted, " I've been consistent about it, consistently erratic." On the surface why Young's dalliance with country music through the album "Old Ways" caused the Geffen label such a problem appears odds. Young had released a similar album in 1980 with "Hawks and Doves" and Elvis Costello had successfully released "Almost Blue" his traditional country excursion in 1981. Yet Young's recording came on the back of a number of commercial failures not least the horrible vocoder experiment "Trans" and a frayed relationship with the label which saw Geffen's patience just about worn out. Young being Young and one of the world great professional contrarian's alternatively raised a large middle finger to them and carried on regardless going out on the road with the The International Harvesters in 1984 and 1985, playing venues like the Minnesota State Fair. This band was the cream of Nashville musicians and by any standards a much more accomplished set of players than Crazy Horse "the best bar band in the world". The outfit included slide guitarist Ben Keith, bassists Tim Drummond and Joe Allen, fiddle player Rufus Thibodeaux, drummer Karl Himmel, and piano players Spooner Oldham and Hargus "Pig" Robbins. These guys give greater depth to the rather underpowered country of "Old Ways" which is transformed in this recording into something with more vitality and verve....

"A Treasure" is an archive recording that contains 12 songs five of which are new, two of which bookend the album. "Amber Jean' is first up which is a lovely ode to his daughter that could have happily fitted on "Comes a Time". Alternatively the explosive closer "Grey Ryders" is like a country version of "White lines" and really rocks with the superb fiddle of Thibodeaux driving it on. As Young's angry guitar burst through this could have fit on "Ragged Glory'. In between we get a range of great songs, including a pile driving cover of "Are you ready for the country", the loose swinging country blues of "Soul of a woman" and the fabulous rocking "Southern Pacific" where you can almost feel the movement of the train. There are straight country songs here which for this reviewer is a joy since Young is a master of genre and "Let your fingers do the walking" which would a brilliant opener to a Texas honky tonk dance. He also transforms the old Buffalo Springfield number "Flying on the ground is wrong" into a lovely country lament and it is one of the albums big standouts. Young of course flirted with support for Ronald Reagan at the time and "Motor City" captures his mood of homeland values with an anti Japanese car import song which states that there are "already too many Toyota's in this town" to considerable audience applause.

For those who didn't like the "metal folk" of last years excellent "Le Noize" this will be far more familiar Neil Young territory but with enough variation and top notch country sounds to satisfy old and new devotees. It's clearly been a hidden treasure and shines a new and more favourable lens on a phase of the great mans career that has been rather cavalierly written off until now. Overall its is an excellent addition to the Young canon. Read more ›

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Document of a Strong Touring Band June 15, 2011

By Old T.B.

Format:Audio CD

Neil Young's 1985 release, Old Ways, was a stab at country music that tended to be mediocre. It may be forgotten that the band he assembled at that time, the International Harvesters, was truly phenomenal, featuring stellar players like Ben Keith, Rufus Thibodeaux, and, on some dates, Hargus 'Pig" Robbins. This band toured with Young in 1984 and 1985. And, as A Treasure amply demonstrates, Young and the Harvesters were anything but mediocre on the stage.

A Treasure collects twelve tracks from this tour from various venues. the playing is strong, and Young is in fine form throughout. A song like "Bound for Glory," somewhat nondescript on Old Ways, comes to life on this set. The inclusion of five unreleased songs -- "Amber Jean," "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking," "Soul of a Woman," "Nothing is Perfect," and "Grey Riders," -- may make this cd even more appealing to Young's fan base. "Nothing is Perfect" is a solid home-and-hearth-in-the-face-of-adversity tune in the same vein as "Depression Blues" and "This Old House" from the same time period. "Southern Pacific," from 1981s Re-ac-tor, benefits from the countrified treatment.

A Treasure is an entertaining and cohesive document of Neil Young experimenting with country stylings, working with incredible musicians, and producing live music that sounds strong and fresh twenty-five years later. Recommended.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars About that Blu-ray... June 24, 2011

By kingseyeland

Format:Audio CD

I know NY loves him some Blu-ray, but there is next to nothing on the Blu-ray disc that justifies using Blu-ray technology in this package.

In the "Tech Notes" feature on the disc, Neil says that the audio throughout is not high quality because they didn't record it that way, and most of the video footage is from analog tape, often shot in a bootleg style from the audience.

Although the opening track, "Amber Jean," is taken from a performance on "Nashville Now" and looks great (though not in HD), much of the footage of the band playing is from various concert performances. They've often synched shaky videotape footage to the song you're hearing -- often not even the exact same performance you're hearing -- and in a few cases I noticed, they've played with the frame rate to get the movements of the musicians synched to the music. So you get this kind of herky-jerky movement, and the fastest moving fiddler I've ever seen.

In more than a couple instances, the footage is that of deteriorated VHS (not HD), and often cuts out. In these cases (and there are many), Neil explains that they put the album cover up on the screen as a kind of place-holder until they have more video to show (sometimes only for a few seconds before going back to the album cover again).

From an archival perspective, this is interesting for collectors, and most of all, for Neil, who by all accounts got a real kick out of seeing himself and his old bandmates from years ago. Kudos to Neil and his people for putting this extra disc together so the rest of us could see.

But if you're expecting glorious high-definition picture and sound from this era of Neil's career, according to Neil, nothing like that exists from this era. (Nobody took any photos of this era?...) So why bother putting a Blu-ray out? Why not just do a standard DVD and keep this accessible to fans who haven't upped to Blu-ray and might not ever?

I'm not saying the material is bad or in any way uninteresting. But I sprung for the Archives box on Blu-ray because I wanted all the features and the premium sound, and I don't regret it. My Blu-ray player continues to get a workout from checking out the Archives discs and all the goodies. But the Blu-ray for "A Treasure," however, doesn't operate like that. This Blu-ray just operates like a standard DVD. You can't navigate while you listen to the music, and as far as I can tell there are no Easter eggs hidden, no articles, nothing like that, and both the sound and video aren't up to Blu-ray standards. The Blu-ray's audio is in 2.0 LPCM audio at 48kHz/24 bit/2.3 Mbps. The problem is, the source material was not recorded very well to begin with, so you're basically getting lossless sound, but not of the best source possible.

If you have a Blu-ray player and you're a hardcore Neil fan, then you'll likely enjoy "A Treasure" on Blu-ray. "A Treasure" doesn't sound like garbage by any means, and fans will no doubt be interested in seeing and hearing more from this phase in Neil's career, but a DVD would faithfully reproduce all of this, be cheaper, and more accessible to more fans including the laggards who haven't upped to Blu-ray and might not ever do so. That's something Neil and co. should've considered a bit more seriously. Read more ›