Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain Live" sees light of day

Sunday, October 12, 2008 – Forty years after its recording, "Sugar Mountain" by Neil Young will finally see the light of day, live Michigan gigs which helped establish the singer as a solo artist.

Young's solo career launched in earnest with an engagement at The Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Mich. Having left the Buffalo Springfield six months earlier, Young brought just his guitar along to the University of Michigan facility.

The gig was a stealth booking to determine if audiences would accept Young's music in its most elemental form since he previously was in band.

The night of Nov. 9-10, 1968, he performed his music and told stories between the songs. The performances were recorded those evenings on a TEAC 2 track tape recorder, the tapes kept in storage over the intervening years.

"Sugar Mountain Live At Canterbury House 1968" will be out Nov. 25 by Reprise as part of the continuing Neil Young Archive Performance Series. The 23-track album will include recordings made on both nights. The album includes songs that were written during his Buffalo Springfield tenure as well as newly written material that would appear on future solo albums. One of the spoken word pieces is a tale of Young's hapless "day job" experience working in a Toronto bookstore.

"Sugar Mountain Live" is not slated for inclusion in the long anticipated Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963 - 1972). The 10-disc Blu-ray and DVD packages will be released early in 2009 with a specific date forthcoming.

Songs are:
1. (Emcee intro)
2. On The Way Home
3. Songwriting rap
4. Mr. Soul
5. Recording rap
6. Expecting To Fly
7. The Last Trip To Tulsa
8. Bookstore rap
9. The Loner
10. "I used to" rap
11. Birds
12. Winterlong (excerpt) and Out of My Mind - intro
13. Out Of My Mind
14. If I Could Have Her Tonight 15. Classical Gas rap
16. Sugar Mountain - intro
17. Sugar Mountain
18. I've Been Waiting For You
19. Songs rap
20. Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
21. Tuning Rap & The Old Laughing Lady - intro
22. The Old Laughing Lady
23. Broken Arrow