Neil Young gave subscribers to his Archives project a very special Christmas present this year in the form of an eight-track archival album from 1987 titled Summer Songs. 

After first teasing the album last month, Young shared the “lost” recordings on the NYA website on Christmas Day and announced it will also appear for general sale in the upcoming months.

The album was initially recorded at the Broken Arrow Ranch in California in 1987. While it’s unclear if anyone else features on the recordings and who they might be, alternate versions of seven of the tracks appeared on later records, with the exception of Last of His Kind which has never previously been released.

“I think you will enjoy this very cool recording,” Young wrote. “American Dream feels more real than ever. How could somethin’ so good go bad so fast? Wow, that was a little sad. But things are still good down on the farm right? Not so fast.”

“To give you an idea of place and time, Farm Aid and the Bridge School Concerts had just begun their long runs,” he noted. “This group of songs had just been written and put down in the studio… I don’t remember the sessions at all!” He added: “The words of these originals are significantly different from their subsequent master album releases in many cases. Several completely new and unheard verses are found in the songs of this collection.” 

Neil Young & Crazy Horse | ‘Welcome Back’

Earlier this month, Neil Young and Crazy Horse released their 12th new studio album, Barn. Young first announced the follow up to 2019’s, Colorado back in June, with a cryptic post saying “the Horse is back in the barn, shaking off the rust”. He also previewed the release with an epic music video (above), shot in that very barn, for the album's third single, Welcome Back.  Get Barn, here. 

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