Neil Young

Shakey has released some obscure treats from his early days, but Sugar Mountain is a revelation. Recorded not long after the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, here Young is a 22-year-old kid discovering himself before an intimate crowd at Ann Arbor's Canterbury House. He's a tad nervous, yet tells a ton of jokes while unveiling future classics ("Birds," "The Loner") and reworking some Springfield fare, the best of which just might be a "Mr. Soul" that's slowed down and stripped to its essentials.

For many years "Sugar Mountain" was a coveted non-LP B side — a Neil Young ballad about
childhood's end written before he was out of his teens and taped during this solo
engagement shortly before the release of his first solo LP. The song was a rare flick of
retrospect. Young charges forward here, playing half of the imminent Neil Young in
pristine, tremulous-vocal form and reclaiming six of his Buffalo Springfield songs,... More >