Covered: Neil Young: Alternates, Volume 3: 2007-2016 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the third volume out of four containing alternates to the "Covered" volumes made for the songs of Neil Young.

As with the other volumes in this series, the song selections were almost entirely made by guest poster Fabio from Rio. I just made a few small suggestions. So thanks again to him for his work on this.

I've already said pretty much all I wanted to say in Volumes 1 and 2 in this series, so look to that for more commentary. Also, Fabio wrote some liner notes, which are included in the download zip. (But they're the same notes for all four volumes.) 

This album is one hour long.

01 Bandit (Liam Titcomb)
02 Sugar Mountain (Harpoondodger & Pat Robitaille)
03 Long May You Run (Chris Seldon)
04 Wonderin' (Nils Lofgren)
05 Coupe de Ville (Jens Severin & Helpless)
06 I Am a Child (Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka & Lucy Kaplansky)
07 Words [Between the Lines of Age] (Chip Taylor)
08 You and Me (Trappers Cabin)
09 On the Way Home (America)
10 Lost in Space (Cosmo D)
11 Shots (Max Spada)
12 Can't Stop Workin' (Minus 5)
13 Hangin' on a Limb (Hall - Eserstam)
14 Country Home (Ragged Glory Holes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HkT8kKJb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/tNUkYbG4WCAjmCj/file

The cover image is from 2005.

Covered: Neil Young: Alternates, Volume 2: 2001-2007 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the second volume out of four, of alternates for Neil Young's "Covered" series. As I explained in my write-up for Volume 1, guest poster Fabio from Rio did most of the legwork finding cover versions for the original ten volumes, but I had most of the say in picking which ones were ultimately chosen. So these four alternate volumes are kind of Fabio's "revenge," because he did the picking. There were only one or two songs I pointed out I didn't think were that strong.

There's not much else to say. As with Volume 1, about half the songs are different versions of covers chosen in the original ten volumes, and about half the songs are ones that only show up in these alternates volumes. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 Dreamin' Man (Freebo)
02 Pressure (Ned Whattakiller)
03 This Note's for You (Royal Cat Club)
04 Pocahontas (Johnny Cash)
05 On the Beach (Radiohead)
06 Let It Shine (Ad Vanderveen)
07 Falling from Above (Jamey Darnold)
08 Hawks and Doves (Scott Miller & the Commonwealth)
09 Red Sun (Charlie Macon)
10 Without Rings (Scott Sandi)
11 The Needle and the Damage Done (Jorane)
12 Families (Gil Michaels)
13 Helpless (Elk City)
14 Cortez the Killer (Carrie Rodriguez with Tim Easton)
15 Ohio - Find the Cost of Freedom (Dalia)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ySf9gd4c

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/BLbNlIQ1jzvddqu/file

The cover image is from 1991 or thereabouts.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Denver Coliseum, Denver, CO, 5-12-1970

Here's something I'm very excited to post. I put many, many hours of work into this, but I think it paid off. This is an audience bootleg of a special Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) concert that sounded pretty rough. But now, after some editing, I believe it sounds almost as good as a soundboard from the era. However, be warned that sometimes the sound quality is still rough sometimes. But you should have heard what it sounded like before. It's vastly improved.

This also was on the most pivotal concerts in the history of CSNY. So let me give some background. In March 1970, the CSNY album "Deja Vu" was released. It was a massive hit right away. Rolling Stone magazine would later put it on their list of the top 500 albums of all time. It would eventually sell eight million copies in the U.S. alone.

CSNY had toured in late 1969 into January 1970, but then they took an extended break. This Denver concert was supposed to be the first one of a big nationwide tour after that break to promote "Deja Vu." However, there was trouble brewing behind the scenes. CSNY needed a bassist and drummer to play live. So far, those roles had been filled by Greg Reeves on bass and Dallas Taylor on drums. But mere days before this concert, Reeves was fired by Stephen Stills. Stills later claimed that this was "because [Reeves] suddenly decided he was an Apache witch doctor." That sounds like a weird excuse, but it seems there's some truth to it. For instance, Nils Lofgren later said that during one of the sessions for Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" album in 1970, Reeves appeared covered head to toe in gold paint. Young explained the bassist was "doin' his Indian thing." And Reeves himself later said that members of CSNY "thought I was trying to put spells on them" due to his strong interest in Native American shamanism. He also dyed his hair red and did many other strange things.

But that wasn't the only reason he was fired. It seems there were some musical issues as well. Still later said that Reeves "freaked too much on the bass and no one could keep up because [he] did not play one rhythm the same. He could play bass imaginatively, but he has to be predictable as well." Furthermore, Reeves also wanted to sing some of his songs during CSNY concert. Stills thought that was "ludicrous, only because the songs weren't great. We'll sing any song if it's great, but not just because it happens to be written by our bass player."

Reeves was replaced by Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuel. Stills had just been using him as his bassist when he was recording his first solo album that year. But Reeves was fired late in rehearsals, so CSNY didn't have much time to rehearse songs with Samuel before their tour began. Furthermore, the band members were having other problems. Their massive success was leading to ego trips and lots of drug use. Also, David Crosby's girlfriend Christine Hinton died in September 1969, and it took him a long time to get over it. For instance, he was prone to just breaking into tears at random times during the recording of the "Deja Vu" album. On top of all that, eight days before this concert, four students were killed by the U.S. government's national guard at Kent State. It caused a nationwide uproar. It also led Neil Young to write the classic song "Ohio" in the days just prior to this concert.

So tensions were steadily rising for CSNY, and it all blew up around the time of this concert. The first half of the concert was all acoustic. That went pretty well, mostly. One issue was the sound system the band had paid to use for their entire tour was used for the first time, and it was terrible. If you listen to this recording, you can hear strange sounds in the background from time to time, much like fireworks going off. David Crosby even commented on those sounds and apologized for them before one of the songs in the acoustic set. But this continued occasionally for the rest of the concert. Furthermore, there were problems with the monitors, which means the band members had trouble hearing what the others were playing. You can hear Neil Young complain about that during the acoustic set as well.

But things got a lot worse during the electric set. The problems with the sound system and the monitors continued, and were magnified in the full band setting. Furthermore, Samuel was struggling to keep up with all the songs he had just learned days earlier. 

Drummer Dallas Taylor later explained: "The tour had been booked during all of this chaos. And it was a multi-million dollar tour. And so [Samuel] came out, but we didn't get a chance to rehearse with him. By then, the Charles Manson [murder trial] stuff was going on; it just went very dark, very quickly. I think with the cocaine coming into the world, it just went dark and evil. So [Samuel], God bless him, he didn't get a chance to learn the songs."

Samuel himself later said, "I'd never been on stage with monitors before. I didn't even know who I was on stage with. Dallas I knew a little bit from [working on Stills' solo album], so we just had to bluff our way through. Neil was very uncomfortable because Stephen and I had played together a lot more."

Neil Young was so frustrated that he walked off the stage before the end of the second to last song, "Everybody I Love You." If you listen to the banter after that song, you can hear the other band members asking each other what happened to Young. Probably, they cut the concert a little short when Young didn't return during their final song.

Things then got even worse after the concert was over. The rest of the tour was immediately cancelled. Young was so upset that he threatened to leave the group. Taylor later said, "After the show, I got this phone call from Neil. He asked would you consider continuing the tour without Stephen? I didn't think about it: no." 

The next day, the band flew to Los Angeles. A crisis meeting was held with all the band members, plus record company executives and managers, like David Geffen, Ahmed Ertugun, and Elliott Roberts. Only Taylor had to wait outside. At the end of the meeting, he was told that he was fired. Taylor later said, "By then, it was about Neil taking over as leader, controlling the band. He was mad that Stephen fired Greg Reeves, 'cos he loved Greg. It's like third grade stuff. ... Neil said, well, if I have to work with Stills, then Dallas has to go, 'cos he knew I was allied. I mean, it's crazy stuff."

Indeed, during the recording of the "Deja Vu" album, Stills was taking copious amounts of cocaine for the first time. This led to him working in the studio for many hours a day, sometimes even going 24 hours or more without stopping. The only other person who could keep up with him was Taylor, who was also taking lots of cocaine. Whereas Young felt a connection to Reeves, probably helped by their shared interest in Native American culture. For instance, the very moment Stills fired Reeves, Young was there in the same room, and immediately told Reeves that he still wanted him to play bass on his solo album, "After the Gold Rush." 

So, almost certainly, Young didn't want Stills fired, and/or knew that wasn't a realistic demand. The two of them would later say multiple times that they were close friends, and they've had many musical projects together over the years. But, by making that initial demand, it allowed Young to get the compromise of getting Taylor fired, which reduced Stills' influence over the whole band.

Johnny Barbata was hired to play drums instead. Additionally, the cancelled tour dates were rescheduled. After two weeks of more rehearsals, the tour resumed. At first, things went okay. But soon, personality conflicts came to a head again. Stills, in particular, got even more carried away with cocaine and alcohol abuse, which led to megalomania. After a concert in Chicago in early July, Crosby, Nash, and Young decided to fire Stills. The tour staggered on for two more concerts before mercifully coming to an end. 

Nash then helped put together a double live album, "Four Way Street," which was released in 1971 and was a big seller. But CSNY was effectively finished, excepting a couple of spontaneous reunion concerts, until a 1974 tour. (And that tour is a whole other story, with even more problems.)

Decades later, Stills had this to say: "I just wish we could have held it together a little longer. But there were petty ego jealousies going on. Nash and I weren't talking. Neil wanted to be on his own. I had my solo album to finish. But we still could have done that and kept CSNY going. But we threw it all away for very fallacious reasons, I can see now. I mean, we were standing on the verge. And all of the freedom we wanted for our own personal careers would have still been available to us. But we couldn't put [aside] the trivial going on between us. If a voice of reason could have cleared that fog, we could have realized our full potential and CSNY would be mentioned in the same breath with the Beatles and the Stones. We also could have become rich enough to be creative. But I was the biggest fool. I thought the managers would come up with some strength. They didn't. So we lost it all, right there, that day, to indulgence. We lost it all." 

Ironically, just one day after this concert, and the same day the band fired Taylor, CSNY was told that "Deja Vu" had just reached the Number One spot on the U.S. album chart. So Stills is right to lament what might have been if they could have stayed together. 

So that's the story, the context of this concert. But I also want to talk a little bit about the song list, because it was an extraordinary one for the band. The previous CSNY concert was in January 1970, and none of them had done solo concerts, except for Young doing a few concerts with Crazy Horse in February and March. All four of them wrote a lot of new songs and began working on solo albums. Plus, there were some songs from "Deja Vu" that none of them had ever performed in concert before. This meant that lots of songs were performed to the public for the very first time, including many that were still unreleased. I did some research using the setlist.fm website. Here are all the songs that got their world premiere at this concert. The ones with asterisks were still unreleased at the time:

Tell Me Why*
Man in the Mirror*
Only Love Can Break Your Heart* 
We Are Not Helpless* 
Love the One You're With*
Carry On
Chicago*
As I Come of Age*
Southern Man*
Everybody I Love You

That's pretty incredible, considering how many of those songs have gone on to be considered classics! 

Furthermore, this was the first time CSNY performed "Everybody's Been Burned," a Byrds song written by Crosby, as well as "Bluebird," a Buffalo Springfield song written by Stills. I don't count those as premieres though, since they were performed live previously by the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. However, this was the sole time "Everybody's Been Burned" was performed in a CSNY concert, and one of only two times "Bluebird" was performed in a CSNY concert. (However, Stills wrote another song, "Bluebird Revisited," that was kind of an update of that song, and he did perform that in concert some.)

Oh, and another exceptional thing about this concert is that this was the one and only time "Everybody I Love You" was performed live by CSNY. Perhaps later there were bad feelings about that song, since it was the one where Young walked off the stage? I don't know. But also note that the lyrics of the song are actually quite different from the version on the "Deja Vu" album. Additionally, this was the only time "We Are Not Helpless" was performed in a CSNY. The song was written by Stills, but he also only performed it three more times in solo concerts all the rest of his long music career. 

Okay, this is turning out to be a long write-up, sorry. But now I have to address the sound quality issue. When I first heard this the bootleg of this concert, I noticed a lot of big problems. For instance, there was a tremendous amount of hiss. But I also sensed that most of them were fixable problems, and it was a better audience recording than most. (I've included a text file with the download zip that explains some about the origins of the recording.) I also was impressed that this was a complete recording, including all the cheering and banter between songs. For some reason, there are a lot of partial recordings of CSNY concerts from 1969 and 1970, and/or recordings where the banter wasn't recorded. (Tapers often did that in that era to save tape.)

The first thing I did was run all the songs through the MVSEP program to get rid of hiss. And boy, was there a lot of hiss! I've rarely ever seen that much hiss get cleaned up. So that was a big improvement right there. The next problem was there was a lot of reverb/ echo, especially on the vocals. So I ran all the songs through MVSEP again, first separating out the vocals and then running a dereverb filter on them. That helped a lot too.

But then I decided to go further, and really clean up the vocals. Since this was an audience recording, there was a lot of talking from people near the taper. In fact, at one point, one could hear a conversation where someone asked the taper if they were taping the concert, and then, finding out they were, asking if they could get a copy. So there was a lot of crud like that. I listened to each song carefully, and erased any vocals that came from comments in the audience instead of band members. I was able to get rid of most of it. However, sometimes people were talking at the exact same time band members were talking. I tried running songs with that problem through yet more filters which are supposed to separate talking from singing. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. 

In the end, some talking remains, for instance on the song "On the Way Home." But most of that is fairly low in the mix. For the more egregious remaining cases of audience members talking during singing, I used vocals from the CSNY concerts that year and patched them in. Typically, that was just for a line or two. For instance, in "Teach Your Children," someone in the audience had a coughing fit for about ten seconds while Nash was singing. So I got rid of that with the patching method. Really, every song here deserves to have "[Edit]" in their titles, due to all the line by line editing I did. But I've only marked the ones where I patched in bits from other songs. Oh, and I also got rid of some dead air between songs, especially guitar tuning. I also cut out some talking from audience members during quiet times between songs, if that was the only way to get rid of it.

In conclusion, this was a pretty disastrous concert. Nash even publicly said this after the concert, to explain the tour date cancellations: "The music was rubbish and we knew it. We had to cool ourselves out before we could get back again." But, in my opinion, most of the trouble happened in private, before and after the concert. The actual music was pretty good. That's especially true for the acoustic set, before the problems with playing with a full band with an unprepared bass player and bad monitors and sound system happened. 

And it certainly is a historic concert, with so many classics being heard in public for the very first time, and rare songs, as well as all the band drama. If you're a CSNY fan, I would consider this a "must have," even though some sound quality problems remain.

I can't resist ending with one more quote, this time by Young, summing up how the band broke apart in 1970: "[It was] because we had no idea what we were doing. It's not because there was anything wrong with anybody in the band. It was just, what we were confronted with made us be... it changed us. It changed us. The crowd. The adulation. The roaring sound. It changed us." 

And ooooooone more quote... this one from British music critic Barney Hoskyns: "I don't think it would have been possible for CSNY in 1970, 1971, to go on much beyond that. A break-up was inevitable. You've got four young guys, two of whom are certainly out of their heads on cocaine [Crosby and Stills]. It's petty stuff. These are guys who were not very grown up. And they're not very good at talking to each other. And resolving stuff."

This album is an hour and 50 minutes long. 

01 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes [Edit] (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
02 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
03 Teach Your Children [Edit] (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
04 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
05 On the Way Home (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
06 Helpless (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
07 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
08 Everybody's Been Burned (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
09 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
10 Tell Me Why [Edit] (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
11 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
12 Man in the Mirror (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
13 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
14 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
15 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
16 Black Queen (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
17 Bluebird [Edit] (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
18 We Are Not Helpless - America's Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
19 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
20 Love the One You're With (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
21 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
22 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
23 Pre-Road Downs (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
24 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
25 Carry On (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
26 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
27 So Begins the Task (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
28 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
29 Chicago (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
30 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
31 Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
32 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
33 As I Come of Age (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
34 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
35 Southern Man (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
36 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
37 Everybody I Love You (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
38 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
39 Long Time Gone (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CRbuc6Rc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/T9pNrz1WmydF5Tc/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, on June 12, 1970. The original version was black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Covered: Neil Young: Alternates, Volume 1: 1966-2001 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Back in March 2026, I posted no less than ten volumes of the "Covered" series for Neil Young. Surely, you'd think, that's enough. Ten volumes is more than any of the other dozens of artists in the "Covered" series. But no, there's more! In making those ten albums, guest posted Fabio from Rio did most of the hard work, collecting hundreds of different cover versions, and presenting them to me in an organized fashion. But I did most of the selecting of which songs made the final cut. This, by contrast, represents Fabio's choices for the best of the rest. I had a little say, but just a song or two here and there where I suggested a different version or something like that. 

Fabio found enough for four volumes of "Covered" alternates. Here's the first one. Across these four volumes, about half the songs are different versions of songs that were included on the previously posted ten Neil Young "Covered" volumes. But the other half are songs that didn't feature on those volumes at all.

Fabio has written some liner notes, which are included in the download zip. But since these volumes are more like an addendum to those earlier ten volumes, he wrote just one essay for all four volumes, without song-by-song explanations.

For some musical acts in the "Covered" series, they had a lot of hits, and the choices of which covers to pick is pretty straight forward - the hit versions. But with Neil Young, it was much more subjective, since there have been tons of covers, but very few hits. So one person's trash is another person's treasure. You may well like some of these better. 

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Guess Who)
02 Down to the Wire (Yellow Hand)
03 Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Carpenters)
04 Down by the River (Buddy Miles)
05 Til the Morning Comes (Francoise Hardy)
06 I Believe in You (Linda Ronstadt)
07 Hold Back the Tears (Jessi Colter)
08 Revolution Blues (Band of Blacky Ranchette)
09 Already One (Aaron Springfield)
10 Human Highway (Jim Witter & Cassandra Vasik)
11 Borrowed Tune (Marc Jordan)
12 Pushed It Over the End (Rich Hand)
13 Big Time (Black Crowes)
14 The Old Laughing Lady (Stereophonics)
15 Motion Pictures (Mercury Rev)
16 Mellow My Mind (Hederos & Hellberg)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kra1ih4k

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/yfTyPoRmZ7KvcBd/file

The cover image is from 1969 or 1970. It was taken from a black and white photo of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Laughter, Love and Music, Bill Graham Memorial, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 11-3-1991, Part 4: The Grateful Dead with John Fogerty

Here's the fourth and last out of four volumes of the 1991 Bill Graham memorial concert, called "Laughter, Love and Music." This one mainly features the Grateful Dead. However, there's a section in the middle where John Fogerty sang four songs while backed by the Dead. 

But there's more. Neil Young also showed up to sing lead vocals on a song, again backed by the Dead. He sang the Bob Dylan song "Forever Young." I believe the only other time he sang this song in concert was at the Bridge School Benefit that same year. Furthermore, John Popper of Blues Traveler played harmonica on one song. And for the concert finale, the Dead left the stage so Joan Baez could sing "Amazing Grace," with backing vocals by Graham Nash and Kris Kristofferson.

The Grateful Dead were extremely close to Bill Graham, from the very start of their career. He took control of the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1966, the first year of the band's existence. They would go on to play concerts managed and promoted by Graham probably hundreds of times.

In my write-up for Volume 1 of this concert, I mentioned a quote from Bob Weir of the Dead, who called Graham "the most important non-musician in music." Here also is a quote from band member Jerry Garcia: "Bill was our power guy, he's the guy that made rock and roll into an art-form. He loved dickering with agents and managers, that's what was fun for him. Bill himself was larger than life and an amazing guy. I've just missed the friend."

And here's a quote from band member Mickey Hart: "Bill always took great pride in everything he did. Whether it was The Fillmore or the Winterland, you could see him before the show, with his watches and his clipboard, making sure the chairs were right… He was a saloon keeper, he was a proprietor at the beginning – that's what his license said, 'saloon keeper.' He took great pride in bringing people into an environment, making them feel really great, then making sure they got safe. He was like a warrior promoter, and he really cared, he would sit up at night and dream this stuff. It wasn't like he just went to work and punched a clock; he was driven."

Typically, the Dead played whatever they wanted to play, without much thought about time limits or the specific circumstances of the concert. But for this concert, they came pretty close to playing an abbreviated "best of." They kept the overall length of their set short, compared to their usual standards of playing two or three hours, while skipping the usual long "Space" and "Drums" solos. And they played some of their best known songs. They even finished with "Touch of Grey," their sole Top Ten hit in the U.S. I'm not saying that was a good thing or a bad thing; I just think it's interesting.

The most memorable part about their set, however, had to be the songs sung by John Fogerty. In 1989, Fogerty sang a few songs backed by some members of the Dead, though it wasn't the full band. You can find that recording here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/12/in-concert-against-aids-oakland_19.html

That collaboration probably led to this one two years later, where he was backed by all of the Dead. These two concerts turned out to be the only two times Fogerty and the Dead played on stage together. (There were no more opportunities after Jerry Garcia died four years later.) This was also only the fourth time he played any of his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs at a formal concert after a long hiatus. Due to a legal dispute with his record company, he didn't play them from 1972 until 1987. After this, he began playing them on a regular basis. 

This album is an hour and 27 minutes long.

61 talk (David Graham)
62 Hell in a Bucket (Grateful Dead)
63 China Cat Sunflower (Grateful Dead)
64 I Know You Rider (Grateful Dead)
65 Wang Dang Doodle (Grateful Dead with John Popper)
66 talk (Grateful Dead)
67 Born on the Bayou (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
68 Green River (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
69 Bad Moon Rising (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
70 talk (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
71 Proud Mary (John Fogerty & the Grateful Dead)
72 Truckin' (Grateful Dead)
73 That's It for the Other One (Grateful Dead)
74 Wharf Rat (Grateful Dead)
75 Sunshine Daydream (Grateful Dead)
76 talk (Neil Young & the Grateful Dead)
77 Forever Young (Neil Young & the Grateful Dead)
78 Touch of Grey (Grateful Dead)
79 talk (Joan Baez)
80 Amazing Grace (Joan Baez with Graham Nash & Kris Kristofferson)
81 talk (David Graham)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/G1KUGAmb 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/S3aMhOemSjAIHE3/file 

The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows John Fogerty in front, with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead in back, with glasses and a beard.

Laughter, Love and Music, Bill Graham Memorial, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 11-3-1991, Part 3: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Here's the third out of four volumes of the 1991 Bill Graham memorial concert, called "Laughter, Love and Music." This one features Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY).

Bill Graham was pivotal to the career of CSNY, so it was fitting they were one of the headlining music acts for his memorial concerts. He was involved in most of the really key concerts for the band, from Woodstock to Live Aid. In 1970, when CSNY was just starting out, he called them "America's Beatles." That quote got a lot of mileage and really helped them. But probably his most important role was in 1974, when he organized their big reunion tour. 

Graham Nash told a interesting story relating to Graham in his autobiography "Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life." It relates to an episode at one of their Fillmore East shows in New York City in 1970. After a three-hour show and two encores, the band was in their dressing room, refusing to come out while the crowd was cheering for more. Nash wrote, "Bill Graham slipped a note under our door. It said: 'Your audience awaits you.' 'We’re not coming out, no matter how much you pay us,' Neil told Bill. The next thing we knew, a hundred-dollar bill came sliding under the door. As soon as Neil saw that, he shouted, 'Not enough!' Seven more hundred-dollar bills came sliding through at regular intervals. We were all laughing our asses off about it. Neil scooped those bills up and we went out to do another encore." 

That showed the lengths Bill Graham would go to in order to make sure the audience went away fully satisfied. I would guess that any other concert promoter would have figured two encores was plenty after a long concert, and kept all the money.

CSNY got together for a reunion album in 1988, "American Dream." But they only played about five concerts together from 1988 to 1990, all of them benefit concerts. Graham's death caused them to reunite again, after over a year of not performing together. It would be their last concert as a foursome until they went on tour in 2000. In this concert, they skipped the songs from their reunion album and stuck to their classics.

This album is 43 minutes long.

46 talk by emcee (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
47 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
48 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
49 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
50 Love the One You're With (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
51 Long May You Run (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
52 Long Time Gone (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
53 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
54 Southern Cross (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
55 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
56 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
57 Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
58 talk (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
59 Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
60 talk by emcee (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Le4MDZsb

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/KA7dtrXCoVKLj0i/file

I have to admit I cheated with the cover. I couldn't find any good photos of CSNY together at this concert, and even only a couple of bad ones. They were spread too far apart on the stage. But I did find a good one of Neil Young and David Crosby on stage at this exact concert, so I used that one. I also found a good one of just Stephen Stills, also at this exact concert. So I cheated by using Photoshop to paste Stills into the image between Young and Crosby. Sorry if that bothers anyone, but I liked it better that way.

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 10: 2023-2026

Finally, here's the tenth and last volume for the Neil Young "Covered" series. A big thanks again to Fabio from Rio for doing most of the work to put these together.

Before I go to Fabio's notes about the songs, I want to mention something. My rule here was to include only one cover version of each song (and no versions performed by Young himself). We kept to that, except for two songs, "Heart of Gold" and "Cortez the Killer," where we had two versions. Now that I'm posting this last volume, you can look over all the volumes and see just what songs we included or didn't include. Let us know if you think there are any great Young songs that we didn't include a cover for.

Also, Fabio says he's going to make a kind of "extras" album or albums, consisting of cover versions that he liked that didn't make it here. That's a good opportunity to have second covers of some songs, instead of just one. So if you have ideas of covers that you don't see here, please post them in the comments. I'm sure Fabio will look those over and take that feedback into consideration for his "extras."

One more thing. Fabio wanted this to end on a strong song Young wrote in recent years, specifically "Green Is Blue." But we didn't have a good cover version for that one. So Fabio reached out to the Neil Young "Rust" community. A person named Jeff Winter stepped up and recorded a version of that song just for this collection. So thanks to Jeff as well.

Now, here's Fabio's comments about this time period. 

More than sixty years after Neil Young first emerged in the folk clubs of Toronto, Canada, and later with Buffalo Springfield in the mid-1960s, his songs continue to travel across generations, genres, and continents. The covers gathered throughout these ten volumes show how Young's catalog has become a kind of shared musical language: interpreted by classic rock veterans, indie artists, folk revivalists, Americana performers, and even bedroom musicians recording from home studios.

In recent years this process has only accelerated. Streaming platforms, Bandcamp releases, and fan communities have made it easier than ever for musicians to reinterpret songs from every era of Young's career - from the fragile acoustic ballads of the early seventies to the politically charged songs of his later decades. At the same time, Young himself has continued to release new music and expand his archival releases, ensuring that both longtime fans and new listeners keep rediscovering the depth of his songwriting.

This final volume works almost like an epilogue to the project: a reminder that Neil Young's songs remain very much alive, constantly finding new voices and new meanings. Even when he will no longer be with us - after all, we are all mortals - as long as musicians keep picking up guitars or sitting down at a piano, these songs will continue their journey.

As a final note, I'd like to add that putting together this collection has been both a challenge and a pleasure. Revisiting more than six decades of songwriting made it clear once again how remarkably durable Neil Young's music is: the same songs can survive countless reinterpretations while still retaining their emotional core.

My thanks go to Paul for the idea, the patience, and the many suggestions along the way - and also to the worldwide community of fans, collectors and musicians (the "Rusties") who keep discovering, performing and sharing these songs. Without that ongoing enthusiasm, projects like this would hardly be possible.

Most of all, this collection is simply a tribute to one of the most distinctive songwriters of the last sixty years. As long as people continue to listen to, perform and sing these songs, Young's music won't burn out nor will it rust. And his legacy will never fade away. 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together.  

This album is an hour and six minutes long.

01 Ten Men Working (Enrico Di Bella)
02 Berlin (Jens Thomas)
03 There’s a World (Sufjan Stevens)
04 Hitchhiker (Minus 5)
05 Out of My Mind (Minus 5)
06 Crime in the City [Sixty to Zero Part 1] (Paul Besselle)
07 No More (Gil Michael)
08 One of These Days (Kassi Valazza)
09 Borrowed Tune (Chris Eckman)
10 Lookin' for a Love (Jeffrey Martin)
11 Philadelphia (Brandi Carlile)
12 White Line (Kurt Vile)
13 Cowgirl in the Sand (Anders Osborne)
14 Here We Are in the Years (Sharon Van Etten)
15 Sail Away (Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel)
16 Green Is Blue (Jeff Winter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FNWt2ezZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5h1gcKPqlUwhS7q/file

The cover photo is from 2019. 

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 9: 2020-2022

Here's the ninth volume of the "Covered" series for Neil Young. We're getting near the end, with only one more volume after this. Once again, thanks to Fabio from Rio for doing most of the work putting this together. Here's Fabio's summary of this time period:

The early 2020s brought an unexpected new chapter in the long afterlife of Neil Young's songs. During the Covid pandemic years, musicians around the world turned to home recordings, livestream performances, and online collaborations. In that environment, Young's catalog proved once again remarkably adaptable: intimate acoustic songs worked perfectly in stripped-down home recordings, while his electric epics continued to inspire roots-rock and Americana bands. At the same time, Young himself remained a visible cultural figure, both through the expanding Neil Young Archives project and through public debates about streaming platforms and artists' rights. The covers in this volume reflect that moment: a mixture of independent artists, online collaborations, and established performers revisiting songs from every phase of Young's long career. 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Razor Love (Brandon Wolfe Scott with Stacey)
02 Unknown Legend (Mandolin Orange)
03 Eldorado (Sioux 13)
04 No Wonder (Blue Raincoat)
05 Lookout Joe (Marc Ford)
06 Be the Rain (Gil Michaels)
07 I'm the Ocean (Dark Wrangler)
08 It's a Dream (Cody Simpson & Ben Harper)
09 Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze (Rust for Glory)
10 Comes a Time (Jeff & Laura)
11 When God Made Me (Ronnie Drew & Eleanor Shanley)
12 Love in Mind (Cowboy Junkies)
13 Mother Earth (Zach)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zDQePUMC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IkOROTCq0hkhVhu/file

The cover photo is from 2015. 

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 8: 2016-2020

As I write this, I’m sitting in an airplane, about to fly back to the U.S. I’m glad to see my plan to keep posting albums while on vacation has worked out. 

Here’s the next album in the Neil Young “Covered” series. There are two albums to go after this one. Once more, thanks to Fabio from Rio from doing most of the heavy lifting for these albums. Here is the intro to his notes:

By the late 2010s, Neil Young's songwriting had fully entered the digital age of reinterpretation. Covers were no longer limited to traditional tribute albums or major-label releases. Many now emerged through independent recordings, Bandcamp releases, streaming platforms, and fan communities online. At the same time, a younger generation of indie-folk, Americana, and roots musicians continued to rediscover Young's catalog, often gravitating toward the emotional honesty and melodic simplicity that have always defined his best work. Meanwhile, Young himself remained active both musically and politically, releasing albums that addressed environmental and social issues while also opening vast portions of his archival material through the Neil Young Archives project. The performances collected here reflect that ecosystem: established artists, roots musicians, and independent performers revisiting both classics and deep cuts from across his remarkable career.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 Country Girl (Sanford Markley & Paul Cronin)
02 Hangin' on a Limb (Lars Hall & Saga Eserstam)
03 Don't Be Denied (Norah Jones)
04 Long May You Run (Sarah Jane Scouten & the Paperboys)
05 My My, Hey Hey [Out of the Blue] (Keller Williams)
06 Alabama (Tedeschi Trucks Band)
07 Nothing Is Perfect (Change Partners)
08 Time Fades Away (Harrison Clock)
09 Heart of Gold (Charles Bradley)
10 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Kelley Suttenfield)
11 Vampire Blues (Rayland Baxter)
12 Sample and Hold (Joi Noir)
13 Buffalo Springfield Again (Danielle Brilo)
14 Everybody's Alone (Cajsalisa Ejemyr)
15 Through My Sails (Jeff Rosenstock & Laura Stevenson)
16 Light a Candle (Scott the Hoople)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AFArzv51

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/GG7osrRgekL0szG/file

The cover photo is from 2008.

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 7: 2012-2016

Here we go with another Neil Young “Covered” album. Since I’m still on vacation, I’ll keep this short. Once again, thanks to Fabio from Rio for putting this together. And here’s his comments:

By the early 2010s, Neil Young's influence had spread even further across musical generations. Indie folk, alt-country, and singer-songwriter circles were openly embracing the emotional directness and melodic simplicity that had always defined Young's songwriting. At the same time, the digital era had changed how tribute recordings appeared: covers increasingly emerged from online projects, independent releases, and small tribute compilations rather than traditional label-driven albums. Young himself remained highly visible during this period, releasing politically engaged records and increasingly speaking out on environmental issues, while continuing to inspire younger artists discovering his catalog for the first time. The recordings in this volume reflect that diverse ecosystem: indie reinterpretations, roots-oriented performances, and the occasional stylistic surprise.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 Goin' Back (Beth Orton)
02 Southern Pacific (Jeff Monkman)
03 Thrasher (Andy Hill & Renee Safier)
04 Prime of Life (Gov't Mule)
05 On the Beach [CFCF Remix] (Joakim)
06 Stringman (Stevie Pling)
07 On the Way Home (Ocean Colour Scene)
08 Out on the Weekend (Lee Ann Womack)
09 Revolution Blues (Gov't Mule)
10 Sea of Madness (Ida Sand)
11 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Bluebeaters)
12 Motion Pictures (Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift)
13 Silver and Gold (Frank Fischer & Lavina Williams)
14 Bandit (Melanie Age)
15 Who's Gonna Stand Up (Anne Rynne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UrGS6KRt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/c4iwuykMMALNvdc/file

The cover photo is from 1993. Peter Buck of R.E.M. was leaning up against his shoulder, but I removed him using Photoshop. 

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 6: 2007-2011

Modern technology is amazing: I’m writing this while sitting in an eco lodge deep in the Amazon jungle in Peru (with a huge rhino beetle on the floor about five feet from me). Anyway, not much time to write, but here’s another Neil Young “Covered” album, since I have more of those to post than Dionne Warwick albums while I’m on vacation.

As usual, here's the write up by Fabio from Rio:

By the late 2000s, Neil Young's catalog had entered yet another phase of rediscovery. While earlier generations of alternative rock musicians had embraced his influence during the grunge years, a new wave of indie-folk and Americana performers began revisiting his songs with quieter, more introspective arrangements. At the same time, the Internet was transforming how music circulated among fans: live recordings, tribute performances, and previously obscure interpretations were now easier to find and share among the global community of "Rusties." Young himself remained prolific, releasing ambitious projects such as "Chrome Dreams II" and "Le Noise." The covers in this volume reflect that diverse landscape - a mixture of indie artists, roots musicians and veteran performers exploring both well-known classics and deep cuts from across Young's long career.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together.  

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 Walk On (Heidi Gluck)
02 Sleeps with Angels (Astrid Young)
03 Too Far Gone (The Brooke)
04 Soldier (Tara Angell)
05 World on a String (Nils Lofgren)
06 War of Man (Ann Wilson & Alison Krauss)
07 Mellow My Mind (Simply Red)
08 Don't Cry No Tears (Nils Lofgren)
09 Human Highway (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
10 Ambulance Blues (Lisa Miller)
11 Journey through the Past (James Mercer)
12 You and Me (Trappers Cabin)
13 Cortez the Killer (Veda Hille)
14 Let's Roll (Irish Zeyez)
15 Transformer Man (Veda Hille)
16 From Hank to Hendrix (Joe Chaplain)
17 The Losing End [When You're On] (Elvis Costello) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fPC5Dxpi

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/FLXFvzMRlreZG3c/file

The cover photo is from 2006. I used the Krea AI program to improve the detail.

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 5: 2005-2007

Here’s another “Covered “ Neil Young. Since I’m on vacation, I’ll keep this short. Once again, Fabio from Rio wrote some notes, so here they are:

 By the mid-2000s, Neil Young had fully achieved something rare in popular music: he was simultaneously a living legend and an active creative force. His catalog had by then become a kind of common language shared across genres. Indie rock bands, folk revivalists, alternative country singers, and even pop performers were freely exploring different corners of his songwriting. Meanwhile, Young himself continued releasing ambitious work, from the politically charged "Living with War" to the reflective "Prairie Wind."

The covers gathered in this volume illustrate how widely his influence had spread. Younger artists approached the songs with fresh sensibilities, sometimes transforming well-known classics into intimate acoustic performances, while others revived deeper cuts that had long been favorites among the devoted "Rusties." In several cases, the reinterpretations reveal how remarkably adaptable Young's compositions are: sometimes, the same song can thrive equally well as a folk lament, a rock anthem, or a stripped-down indie confession.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and one minute long.

01 Shots (Constantines)
02 The Needle and the Damage Done (Pretenders)
03 Deep Forbidden Lake (Bentonio)
04 For the Turnstiles (Be Good Tanyas)
05 Little Wing (Elizabeth Mitchell)
06 Rockin’ in the Free World (Ann Vriend)
07 Burned (Veruca Salt)
08 Cinnamon Girl (Melissa McClelland)
09 Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black] (Hard Lessons)
10 I Am a Child (Britta Phillips)
11 Ordinary People (Steve Dahl)
12 Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown (Trews)
13 Natural Beauty (Tara MacLean)
14 Bad Fog of Loneliness (Justin Nozuka)
15 A Man Needs a Maid (Dala)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1NAGbFYv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MNwLg7EujqM3NBd/file

The cover photo is from 1982. Boy, does he look different from the cover of Volume 4! He's almost unrecognizable in this one, in my opinion. This is an actual untouched photo, no AI help this time. You can find similar ones if you look for other photos from 1982, the only year he looked like this.

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 4: 1999-2005

Here’s the fourth album in the Neil Young covered series. Once again, thanks to Fabio from Rio for doing most of the work. I also want to mention that I have a long list of songwriters that I want to make Covered albums for. Many of the biggest ones, like Dylan, Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richard’s, Ray Davies, etc… are still to come. I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten around to Young for a couple more years. But Fabio’s involvement and energy brought this one to the front of the line.

Here are Fabio’s comments about the time period of this volume:

By the turn of the millennium, Neil Young's songwriting had become a shared reference point for several generations of musicians. Musical artists from the folk revival, alt-country movement, and indie rock scene were all revisiting different eras of his catalog - from the fragile acoustic songs of the late sixties to the electric epics recorded with Crazy Horse. During this period, Young himself remained remarkably active, releasing albums such as "Silver and Gold" and "Greendale" while continuing to tour extensively. The covers gathered here reflect that generational dialogue: younger singer-songwriters, Americana performers, and alternative rock musicians rediscovering both famous classics and some of the most obscure corners of Young's songwriting. 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

01 Piece of Crap (Slobberbone)
02 Pushed It Over the End (South Ontario)
03 Long Walk Home (MrChuck)
04 I've Been Waiting for You (David Bowie)
05 Running Dry [Requiem for the Rockets] (Steve Von Till)
06 Albuquerque (Walkabouts)
07 Pocahontas (Gillian Welch)
08 The Old Laughing Lady (Thea Gilmore)
09 Old Man (Wilson Phillips)
10 I Believe in You (Patricia O'Callaghan)
11 Helpless (k.d. lang)
12 Barstool Blues (Maria McKee)
13 Broken Arrow (Kate Rogers)
14 Last Trip to Tulsa (Leo Koster)
15 Roll Another Number [For the Road] (Mike McClure)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xP2bMEgi

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/F0bJfmxhH1onFkG/file

The cover photo is from 1975. The original was in black and white. I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to improve details. 

I got a complaint that the cover image was ruined by AI. I don't think so. Here's the unaltered black and white original. As I've said elsewhere, I typically only use Krea AI to make minor changes, mostly with color and contrast. If you don't like the colorization and other changes, feel free to use this version. 

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 3: 1995-1999

I had a rough start getting to Peru, but I’m finishing my second full day here and I’m having a good time. Since Fabio from Rio wrote the notes as well as doing most of the work putting these albums together, once again, here’s Fabio:

By the mid-to-late 1990s, Neil Young was enjoying one of the most respected phases of his long career. After the grunge generation had embraced him earlier in the decade, Young reinforced that connection with the raw "Mirror Ball" album collaboration with Pearl Jam in 1995 and continued releasing strong albums that balanced electric noise with acoustic reflection. At the same time, a new wave of alternative, indie and Americana artists began rediscovering older corners of his catalog — not only the famous songs, but also deep cuts from albums like "Zuma," "Tonight's the Night," and "On the Beach." The covers collected in this volume reflect that moment: a mixture of roots musicians, indie rock artists and cult performers exploring both the best-known and the more obscure sides of Young's songwriting.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.  

01 After the Gold Rush (Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris)
02 Words [Between the Lines of Age] (Lifter & Campfire Girls)
03 Wrecking Ball (Emmylou Harris)
04 Don't Cry (Kristen Barry)
05 Grey Riders (Sand Rubies)
06 Campaigner (Snares & Kites)
07 This Note's for You (Colourful Dreams)
08 Down to the Wire (Grip Weeds)
09 When You Dance I Can Really Love (Continental Drifters)
10 Expecting to Fly (Sonya Hunter)
11 Danger Bird (27)
12 Tonight's the Night (Chris Cacavas)
13 Harvest Moon (Elliott Smith)
14 Midnight on the Bay (Red House Painters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qLPCQWr1

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/594QHjU6ivBQQa4/file

The cover photo is from 1969. The original was in black and white. I colorized it with the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. 

I got a complaint that I ruined the cover with AI. Here's the unchanged original, after it was colorized. (I didn't keep the black and white version.) In my opinion, the changes are minimal but improve the image quality. But you may feel differently.

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 2: 1990-1995

Phew! I had a hell of an adventure getting to Peru yesterday. Perhaps I’ll vent and explain what happened when I have some time. But I’m here and things are back on track, which is what matters. Anyway, here’s some more Neil Young. I’ll try to post another Dionne Warwick album next, when I have a chance.

The rest of the notes here are written by Fabio from Rio. Take it away Fabio:

By the early 1990s, Neil Young was experiencing a somewhat surprising cultural resurgence. After a creatively uneven decade in the eighties, he had his own creative revival starting at the end of that decade. Around the same time, a new generation of alternative rock musicians began openly citing him as a major influence. Bands associated with the emerging grunge and indie scenes embraced both the raw guitar power of albums like "Rust Never Sleeps" and the emotional directness of his acoustic work. Young himself responded by reconnecting with heavier sounds and younger audiences, eventually earning the affectionate nickname "the Godfather of Grunge." The covers collected in this volume reflect that moment of rediscovery, when artists from alternative rock, indie folk and roots music revisited Young's catalog and helped introduce it to a new generation of listeners.

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together. 

This album is an hour and five minutes long.  

01 Powderfinger (Cowboy Junkies)
02 Cortez the Killer (Matthew Sweet & the Indigo Girls)
03 Interstate (Sand Rubies)
04 Heart of Gold (Lawrence Gowan)
05 Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Amanda Marshall)
06 Tell Me Why (Hemingway Corner)
07 Harvest (Jeff Healey Band)
08 Pardon My Heart (Malcolm Burn)
09 Barefoot Floors (Nicolette Larson)
10 Fuckin' Up (Pearl Jam)
11 Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Breits)
12 Tired Eyes (Cowboy Junkies)
13 Down by the River (Indigo Girls)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CP1Df3ec

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/LOfGFvSDjqXA0te/file

The cover photo dates from 1967. I used the Krea AI program to improve some details. Note that when I first posted this album, I used a cover image that got some complaints. I decided I could do better, and found a different photo. I replaced it about two weeks later. 

Various Artists - Covered: Neil Young, Volume 1: 1967-1989

I'm leaving for a vacation to the Amazonian region of Peru tomorrow. I'll be gone for nearly two weeks. But while I'm gone, I'm going to try to keep posting. I have two big music projects that I have all set up. So pretty much all I need to do is hit "publish" on my cell phone to post each album. We'll see how it works out. Given that I'm going to a pretty remote area, I might be out of Internet contact for days at a time. So cross your fingers. 

Anyway, this is one of the two projects: a "Covered" collection for one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Neil Young. This one was mostly done by musical friend Fabio from Rio. That includes writing really great liner notes. 

--- 

This is certainly one of the most daunting projects I've worked with Paul yet, and certainly the biggest and most demanding "Covered" collections at the "Albums That Should Exist" blog ever, at least at the time of writing these liner notes. 

I assume Neil Young needs no introduction. Everybody (or at least everybody who has not lived in an offline bunker for the last half century) knows that Neil is one of the most important rock artists of the last sixty years. He has been influencing generations of musicians since the 1960s, resulting in literally thousands of covers and tributes, officially and unofficially available on studio albums, tribute records, live performances, and YouTube uploads.

Our aim here was not to include every Neil Young composition (that would easily result in more than 25 volumes), but to present a good representation of his output, including not only the all-time hits but also deep cuts, some officially unreleased songs cherished by long-time fans (the so-called "Rusties"), and at least a few lesser-known but equally strong compositions from more recent years, since Neil has never stopped composing, performing and recording.

We would like this project to become "The Best Neil Young Cover Collection Ever" - not out of personal vanity, but as a tribute to the quality of the songs and artists featured. For that reason, we walked the proverbial extra mile in order to select what we believe are some of the best performances of each song. In some cases, this was quite difficult to determine and remains subject to endless debate, since certain songs have literally hundreds of different versions recorded by dozens of artists. Subjectivity inevitably played a part, since our personal tastes (mine and Paul's) may have resulted in some biased selections. However, we tried whenever possible to focus on performances that are widely recognized as among the best or most representative interpretations of a given song. At the same time, we also looked for unusual readings that might give a different or fresh spin to familiar melodies.

My initial selection comprised about 230 different songs, and I listened to more than a thousand performances (1,072 to be exact) in order to prepare the first short list, which was later shared with Paul. For some songs there were literally dozens of available covers, so our main challenge was deciding which one to include. For others, it was surprisingly difficult to find a strong version. In some cases - particularly with more obscure tunes - we had to resort to unofficial recordings, including some provided by the Rusties community, where both amateur and professional musicians share their interpretations.

Since my initial selection would result in too-long a collection even for die-hard fans standards, Paul made editorial cuts, excluding some songs (which I accepted with stoic dignity), but also requesting the inclusion of some of his personal favorites, which I happily complied. In the end, we settled on a 10-volume collection with about 150 tracks, with very little repetition (only two songs - "Heart of Gold" and "Cortez the Killer" - appear in more than one version, in different volumes). 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together.

I also want to add that these albums are ordered by the years the covers were recorded, not the years the songs were first recorded by Neil Young. So if you don't see songs you want included, please wait. There are no less than TEN albums! And for instance, some songs from this time period don't show up until the last one. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It (Gallery Production)
02 Sugar Mountain (Joni Mitchell)
03 Everybody, I Love You (Happy Day)
04 Round and Round (Bernie Schwartz)
05 Southern Man (Merry Clayton)
06 Birds (Linda Ronstadt)
07 Ohio (Isley Brothers)
08 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Jackie DeShannon)
09 See the Sky about to Rain (Byrds)
10 New Mama (Stephen Stills)
11 Love Is a Rose (Linda Ronstadt)
12 Mr. Soul (Cher)
13 The Loner (Stephen Stills)
14 Lotta Love (Nicolette Larson)
15 Look Out for My Love (Linda Ronstadt)
16 Like a Hurricane (Roxy Music)
17 Are You Ready for the Country (Jason & the Scorchers)
17 Winterlong (Pixies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oE16d9b7

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Y8RaicNK2j2Donc/file

The cover photo is from 1966 or 1967. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to add detail.  

Farm Aid, Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN, 9-20-2025, Part 11: Neil Young

We're getting near the end of the albums I'm posting from the 2025 Farm Aid benefit concert. This is the 11th out of 12 albums I'm posting from it. This one is a set by Neil Young, backed by his latest band, the Chrome Hearts.

Young was 79 years old at the time of this concert, and frankly he was looking it, but he was still singing and playing lead guitar very capably. Most of the songs were older classics. However, he played one new song, "Big Crime," which was released in a live version earlier in September 2025. It is a scathing criticism of President Trump's many illegal actions.

This album is 38 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Neil Young)
02 Big Crime (Neil Young)
03 Rockin' in the Free World (Neil Young)
04 Long Walk Home (Neil Young)
05 talk (Neil Young)
06 Be the Rain (Neil Young)
07 talk (Neil Young)
08 Southern Man (Neil Young)
09 Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black] (Neil Young)
10 Old Man (Neil Young)
11 talk (Neil Young)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aHFCtB3s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xqiq9XCMK5KsHct/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2012

Here's another MusiCares tribute show. This one celebrates Paul McCartney's music career. It's a bit short as far as these types of concerts go, but what's here is very good.

The usual format for these kinds of tribute concerts is a series of stars sing covers by the performer being honored, then there's an acceptance speech, and then the performer plays a couple of songs at the end. That's how this one went as well, except Paul McCartney performed two songs at the beginning as well as three at the end.

Actually, he did one more: a cover of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" performed as a duet with Diana Krall. However, this is sourced from a DVD, and that wasn't included, so I don't have it here. Also, Katy Perry sang "Hey Jude," and the Foo Fighters sang "Jet," and those aren't here either, for the same reason. If anyone has those missing songs, please let me know and I'll be happy to add them in. 

Additionally, Cirque du Soleil started the concert with a medley of "Get Back," "Hello Goodbye," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." But I edited that out because it was a visual performance done to the record versions. 

What's here is pretty great though, which isn't shocking considering McCartney was one of the best and possibly the most commercially successful songwriters of all time. Particularly interesting is the finale, a version of the Beatles medley "Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End" with McCartney, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl dueling on guitars.

As mentioned above, this has been officially released on DVD. However, there have been no audio releases. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Magical Mystery Tour (Paul McCartney)
03 Junior's Farm (Paul McCartney)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Alicia Keys)
06 Blackbird (Alicia Keys)
07 talk (emcee)
08 No More Lonely Nights (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 talk (emcee)
10 And I Love Her (Duane Eddy)
11 talk (emcee)
12 Oh, Darling (Norah Jones)
13 talk (emcee)
14 I Saw Her Standing There (Neil Young)
15 talk (emcee)
16 The Fool on the Hill (Sergio Mendes)
17 We Can Work It Out (Coldplay)
18 Yesterday (James Taylor with Diana Krall)
19 talk (James Taylor)
20 For No One (Diana Krall with James Taylor)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Neil Portnow)
23 talk (Paul McCartney)
24 My Valentine (Paul McCartney, Diana Krall & Joe Walsh)
25 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (Paul McCartney)
26 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
27 talk (Paul McCartney) 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KaZyTRqs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MaVF1LXhP4bCOhQ/file

The cover photo is from the finale of this exact concert. From left to right on guitars: Joe Walsh, Paul McCartney, and Dave Grohl. 

Various Artists- MusiCares Tribute to Neil Young, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-29-2010

So far, I've posted three MusiCares tribute concerts. I recently got a request to post this one honoring Neil Young sooner rather than later, so here it is. I still have five more to post after this, so look for those eventually as well.

Tons of talented stars showed up to sing their favorite Neil Young songs. There's a lot of great music here. Unfortunately, there's also some that's missing. This comes from a DVD of the event. Generally speaking, only a small crowd of the rich and famous attend these MusiCares concerts, so bootlegs of them are very rare. We know from media accounts that three songs were performed that weren't included on the DVD. Those are:

"Long May You Run" by Stephen Stills & Sheryl Crow 
"Comes a Time" by Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin & Lucinda Williams
"A Man Needs a Maid" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

If anyone has any of those so I can add them, please let me know. I found a video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song recorded on a cell phone and posted on YouTube, but the sound quality is terrible. I'm guessing a lot of the banter between songs was cut out as well. Actor Jack Black was the emcee, but he's not really heard at all in the recording.

Typically, the person honored in these tributes performs a couple of songs at the end of the concert. But while Neil Young was there, and gave a short speech, it seems he didn't perform any songs. 

Here's a good account of the concert by someone who attended:

https://tinnitist.com/2023/08/11/back-stories-neil-youngs-musicares-tribute-jan-29-2010/

And Rolling Stone Magazine published a bunch of photos from it, here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/musicares-person-of-the-year-tribute-to-neil-young-210831/red-hot-chili-peppers-2-19005/

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 Down by the River (John Mellencamp & T-Bone Burnett)
02 Mr. Soul (Ozomatli)
03 Don't Let It Bring You Down (Jackson Browne)
04 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Lady Antebellum)
05 Tell Me Why (Norah Jones)
06 Broken Arrow (Wilco)
07 Harvest Moon (Josh Groban)
08 Revolution Blues (Everest)
09 Cinnamon Girl (Dierks Bentley & Booker T. Jones)
10 Ohio (Ben Harper)
11 Rockin' in the Free World (Keith Urban, John Fogerty & Booker T. Jones)
12 The Losing End [When You're On] (Elvis Costello)
13 Lotta Love (Jason Mraz & Shawn Colvin)
14 The Needle and the Damage Done (Dave Matthews)
15 Heart of Gold (James Taylor)
16 Helpless (Elton John, Leon Russell, Neko Case & Sheryl Crow)
17 Human Highway (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 talk (Neil Young)
19 Rockin' in the Free World [Reprise] (Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BNxSXgS9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/UhnFSv0eArgOnvZ/file

The cover is from this exact concert. From left to right: Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, and James Taylor.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Bruce Springsteen, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-8-2013

A few days ago, I got a request to post the MusiCares tribute concert to Bruce Springsteen. I'm happy to do so, because I've been meaning to post more of these MusiCares concerts soon anyway. So here you are.

MusiCares has been holding annual tribute concerts since 1991. They cleverly have these concerts in Los Angeles, where the Grammy Awards take place, and hold them only a couple of days apart from the Grammies. That way, many musical stars are in town and able to participate. I've only posted one such album so far, the tribute to Brian Wilson in 2005. But I have seven more to post after this. Thus, today I've created a MusiCares Tribute label to help you find them all.

Bruce Springsteen is a very big name in music, and lots of other big names paid tribute to him here, including Elton John, Neil Young, and Sting. This was a particularly long concert as far as these MusiCares tributes go. It's easily the longest of all the ones I've found so far, which is fitting since Springsteen concerts are known for their length. Springsteen himself played five songs at the end, which again is more than usual. 

This comes from a DVD. It hasn't been released on any audio format. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is two hours and 16 minutes long. 

01 talk (Jon Stewart)
02 Adam Raised a Cain (Alabama Shakes)
03 Because the Night (Patti Smith)
04 Atlantic City (Natalie Maines, Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite)
05 American Land (Ken Casey)
06 talk (Jon Stewart)
07 My City of Ruins (Mavis Staples & Zac Brown)
08 talk (Jon Stewart)
09 I'm on Fire (Mumford & Sons)
10 American Skin [41 Shots] (Jackson Browne & Tom Morello)
11 My Hometown (Emmylou Harris)
12 One Step Up (Kenny Chesney)
13 talk (Jon Stewart)
14 Streets of Philadelphia (Elton John & Raphael Saadiq)
15 Hungry Heart (Juanes)
16 Tougher than the Rest (Tim McGraw & Faith Hill)
17 The Ghost of Tom Joad (Tom Morello & Jim James)
18 talk (Jon Stewart)
19 Dancing in the Dark (John Legend)
20 Lonesome Day (Sting)
21 Born in the U.S.A. (Neil Young)
22 talk (Jon Stewart & Bruce Springsteen)
23 We Take Care of Our Own (Bruce Springsteen)
24 Death to My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
25 Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
27 Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen)
28 talk (Bruce Springsteen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fXM5GV8j

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/B96M5E8MDQxu5O4/file

For the cover, I wanted a photo of Springsteen from this exact concert. But of the photos I saw, he was generally alone or with just one other person nearby, so I went with a group photo from this concert instead. From right to left: Zac Brown, Emmylou Harris, Ben Harper, Jackson Browne and Patti Scialfa. There were some distracting things in the background, so I used Photoshop to remove them.