One special record store day release snuck past the distracted eyes of many vinyl fanatics on Saturday's Record Store Day. Good news however: This Third Man Records' release is still readily available on the label's website, and you don't have to fight other music nerds early on a Saturday morning to get it (before you get angry: We're among those music nerds who woke up way too early). Neil Young's covers album, which was announced earlier during 2014, was actually made available on the Friday before Record Store Day.
A Letter Home features Young and only Young performing some of his favorite tracks from a variety of eras. The performer's solo state is sue to the cramped quarters in which the album was recorded: Young took his acoustic guitar and harmonica into Third Man's Voice-O-Graph booth, a novelty device about the size of a telephone booth that records directly to vinyl. The point is that this album will give you that classic 78-rpm tone without playing your 2014 album down to dust.
To use the colorful language of Third Man: "An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever..."
Jack White himself is reported to be featured on two tracks, although no one seems to know which one. The Third Man main-man is listed as "reproducer" in the album's credits.
Young works with the works of various songwriters, from Bob Dylan's "Girl From The North Country" to Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown." Interestingly, the only writer to make two appearances is Gordon Lightfoot, who contributes "Early Morning Rain" and "If You Could Only Read My Mind."
Check out the full tracklist below:
1. "Changes" (Phil Ochs)
2. "Girl From The North Country" (Bob Dylan)
3. "Needle of Death" (Bert Jansch)
4. "Early Morning Rain" (Gordon Lightfoot)
5. "Reason To Believe" (Tim Hardin)
6. "On The Road Again" (Willie Nelson)
7. "If You Could Only Read My Mind" (Gordon Lightfoot)
8. "Since I Met You Baby" (Ivory Joe Hunter)
9. "My Hometown" (Bruce Springsteen)
10. "I Wonder if I Care as Much" (Everly Brothers)
