bread 'n butter

Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 is the third installment in the Neil Young Archives series. The first two albums were Live at the Fillmore East and Live at Massey Hall 1971. The Fillmore show was a shorter set with the newly formed backing band Crazy Horse in tow. With his new band on board that concert showcased the "rock" side of Neil Young where as, the Massey Hall show was all Neil acoustic and in his sad singer/songwriter mode. Both albums are worth the price for any Neil Young fan, and the Sugar Mountain set displays a whole other side of Neil that most people probably haven't seen/heard.

Sugar Mountain was actually recorded before both of the other concerts in the series and it is made up of highlights from two solo-acoustic shows he did in 1968, before he was a bona fide solo star. As a result of his not-yet-cemented rock-god status, and probably partially due to the venue, these recordings capture Neil Young as relatively bashful, yet engaging. He often goes into digressive storyteller mode between songs, waxing lyrical on his previous small-time jobs and talking about how long his hair has grown. The conversational tone is endearing, but the music here is just as good. Many of the songs are taken from his tenure with Buffalo Springfield and all are just Neil and an acoustic guitar. Sugar Mountain is an intimate look into the development of Neil Young as a solo artist and a refreshing glimpse into his unassuming personality that is often overshadowed by the fact that he's Neil-fucking-Young!

Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 is out 12/2 on Reprise. You can stream it in it's entirety at NPR.