Neil Young continues to dig deep into his archives to entertain us with special mementos from his illustrious career. His most recent offering is a previously unseen acoustic performance of “Cowgirl in the Sand,” filmed at the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Connecticut, on January 21st, 1971. The unearthed footage is available to view now, via the Neil Young Archives – here.

The gig Connecticut gig followed Young’s massive homecoming show at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada which was released as an official live album back in 2007. Retrospectively, Young has conceded that, despite Massey Hall being his personal favourite, it perhaps wasn’t the star of the run. “I [recently] found that I liked the Stratford show even better than Massey Hall, even though Massey Hall was the emotional high point of my life.”

Young was planning a US tour with Crazy Horse this year that will now have to be postponed until after the coronavirus shutdown. Instead, he’s been using the downtime, to create an online series of digital concerts, directed by his wife, actress Daryl Hannah. The Fireside Session series favours beloved album cuts over the obvious hits from his vastly expansive catalogue. 

His third instalment of the ongoing series spotlights homemade renditions of wonderful tunes, including “New Mama,” “World on a String” from Tonight’s The Night, “See The Sky About to Rain” from On The Beach, Buffalo Springfield tune “I Am a Child” and a piano-led version of “Throw Your Hatred Down” from Mirror Ball, an LP he made in collaboration with Pearl Jam in 1995. Watch via the Neil Young Archives – here.

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