The idiosyncratic NEIL YOUNG, known for his unique nasal 'off key' vocal approach, is one of the most distinctive singer / songwriters to break the American mainstream. Young's ardent yearning for experimentation has seen his career go off track commercially on occasion but his undoubted songwriting genius has always managed to pull back a renaissance of appreciation. Generally Young's appeal has lain with the Country "Heartland" Folk Rock audience although he has been unafraid to tackle Hard Rock, Electronica, New Wave and Rockabilly. Most often backed by the CRAZY HORSE band Young's live shows have become legendary, not only for the politically charged enthusiasm of Young himself but for a long line of over the top stagesets involving gargantuan amps and cabs.

The March 1972 'Harvest' album, number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic bolstered by a US number 1 single 'Heart Of Gold', would prove to be the zenith of Young's career to date although during the 90's Young once again found himself on the ascendancy.

Born in Toronto on 12th November 1945 Young was musically raised in Winnipeg. Young's formative years would involve membership of such club acts as THE JADES, THE STARDUSTERS, THE ESQUIRES, THE CLASSICS, 4 TO GO and the HIGH FLYING BIRDS. Debut recordings saw an inclusion on the September 1963 single 'The Sultan' / 'Aurora' by instrumental act THE SQUIRES. 1964 found Young as a member of the MYNHA BIRDS. This outfit, which included in it's ranks one 'Ricky James' Matthews and Bruce Palmer, cut a solitary recording for the Canadian division of Columbia subsidiary V Records the 'Myhna Bird Hop'. The MYNHA BIRDS were signed up to Motown Records but were let go after two flop singles in a scandal involving Matthew's apparent dodging of the military draft. By 1966 the lure of Los Angeles had seen Young and Palmer famously travelling down to California using a Pontiac hearse as transport.

Young's next move was to unite with STEPHEN STILLS to found Country Folk Rockers BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD. This band's influence on later generations of artists would be huge although during their brief chaotic existence, in which Young opted out on numerous occasions, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD struggled to attain lasting commercial rewards. The constant in fighting eventually saw Young split away for good in order to carve out a solo career in the Spring of 1968. NEIL YOUNG's eponymous 1969 debut, produced by Jack Nitzche, failed to chart although it did encourage positive press reviews. A back up band, dubbed THE ROCKETS but re-billed as CRAZY HORSE, was located on a solo Canadian trek in 1969 and were brought in for the sophomore gold sales status 'Everybody Knows...This Is Nowhere'. Young's band comprised of guitarist Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot, Bobby Notkoff on violin and drummer Ralph Molina. This second effort found Young back on the album charts, a status he would retain with each successive for the next 30 years. However, his burgeoning solo status would not hinder a 'superstar' union later that year as part of CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG, an alliance between DAVID CROSBY of THE BYRDS, GRAHAM NASH of THE HOLLIES and Young's erstwhile BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD colleague STEPHEN STILLS. The subsequent album 'Deja Vu' naturally hit no. 1 in America.

The third NEIL YOUNG album, September 1970's 'After The Goldrush', a top ten in both the UK and USA fuelled by radio hits 'Cinnamon Girl' and 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart', would engender huge critical acclaim internationally. The esteemed NILS LOFGREN had been added on second guitar for these recordings. The track 'Southern Man', with it's pointedly barbed lyrical poke at bigotry, created a stir and a public retort from famed Southern Rockers LYNYRD SKYNYRD who delivered 'Sweet Home Alabama' in defiant response. Young would grace the top of the Billboard album charts again in April of 1971 with CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG's live outing 'Four Way Street'. Young would also contribute to DAVID CROSBY's 1971 solo project 'If Only I Could Remember My Name'.

For the seminal 'Harvest' opus Young convened a fresh backing band THE STRAY GATORS as CRAZY HORSE ventured into their own recordings. Young's band now included steel guitarist Ben Keith, bassist Tim Drummond and drummer Kenny Buttrey. Also onboard for the sessions, besides utilising the London Symphony Orchestra, would be JAMES TAYLOR, LINDA RONSTADT, DAVID CROSBY, STEPHEN STILLS and GRAHAM NASH. The single 'Heart Of Gold' struck no. 1 in the States paving the way for Young's first, and so far only, no. 1 album.

The acoustic concert favourite 'The Needle And The Damage Done' would become all the more poignant when CRAZY HORSE band member Danny Whitten died of a heroin overdose in August of 1972. Mere months later Young's friend and road crew member Bruce Berry suffered the same fate. The singer's response to these tragedies was to pen the sombre 'Tonight's The Night' record but, once recorded, Young opted to hold it's release. The sessions included a live take of 'Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown' which included Whitten on lead vocals and a directly named lyrical reference to Berry in the title track. The CRAZY HORSE band had been recalled for 'Tonight's The Night' album but following recording both Ben Keith and NILS LOFGREN made their exit, the latter for a solo career and high profile membership of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's band. Pulled in as replacement on guitar would be Frank Sampedro.

Young's endeavour to enter the film world would receive a battering. 'Journey Through The Past', a morose, harsh affair in keeping with Young's mindset at the time, was savagely attacked by critics to such a degree the film never made it to general release. A soundtrack album did surface which for fans of Young proved valuable with variants on previous material, orchestrated pieces and one new song. A live album 'Time Fades Away' furthered the momentum upfront of a new studio recording 'On The Beach' in July of 1974. Previous to the album release Young had just participated in a reformation of CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG. 'The previously shelved 'Tonight's The Night' would also find it's eventual commercial release.

The 'Zuma' album, so titled after Los Angeles Zuma Beach, would arrive in November of 1975 creating controversy in Spain as the 7 minute 'Cortez The Killer' epic, which displayed one of Young's more extravagant guitar solos, was deemed to have objectionable lyrical content by the then reigning General Franco fascist government. Young united with STEPHEN STILLS once again creating the STILLS-YOUNG BAND resulting in the 'Long May You Run' album.

NEIL YOUNG, after bailing out midway through a national tour with Stills, resumed his solo career with the successful 1977 outing 'American Stars n' Bars', which besides hosting the live favourite 'Like A Hurricane' featured the backing vocals of LINDA RONSTADT and NICOLETTE LARSON, and October 1978 'Comes A Time' records. In between these recordings Young had laid down another projected album, the Country Rock flavoured 'Homegrown', but would for the second time in his solo career shelve the tapes. A worthy compilation, 'Decade', also hit the stores compiling work from Young's career to date with BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG along with solo work.

1979 proved a heady year for Young with both June's 'Rust Never Sleeps' and the spin off 'Live Rust' issued in November both being acclaimed as classics. Novelly Young had recorded newly penned songs recorded live on his Autumn 1978 dates to capture their initial burst of energy for 'Rust Never Sleeps'. A major radio hit, the single 'My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)'- written about Johnny Rotten of the SEX PISTOLS, soon became a standard concert opener. Indeed, Young was one of the very few established Rock artists not to shy away from the Punk explosion and his lack of timidity drew him new respect.

In 1980 Young launched the acoustic and overtly politically targeted 'Hawks And Doves' which saw the return of Ben Keith to the fold. Other musicians involved would be bassists Tim Drummond and Dennis Belfield, drummers Greg Thomas and Levon Helm with fiddle on hand courtesy of Rufus Thibodeaux. The early 80's was marked by experimentation with 1981's Hard Rock centred 'Re-Act-Or' and 1983's 'Trans', the latter his first album for new label Geffen and a brave exercise in Electronica even to the degree of having Young's distinctive vocals masked by a vocoder. Although alienating a degree of his established fan base this new move would bring in new converts. What the general public would be unaware of was that Young was devoting much of time his time to nursing his disabled son, the lyrical content of his albums around this time, which so confused fans, reflecting this preoccupation. Geffen Records seemingly did not understand either and even took legal steps to redress the balance, claiming Young's recent work was deliberately unrepresentative.

In typical fashion Young would then do a musical right turn for his next project NEIL YOUNG & THE SHOCKING PINKS delivering a September 1983 record 'Everybody's Rockin' chock full of 50s Rock n' Roll staples. In another change of direction in 1985 Young teamed up with Country & Western legend WILLIE NELSON for a one off single on Columbia 'Are There Any More Real Cowboys?'. The same year Young, along with the cream of the Canadian Rock scene at the time, appeared as part of the Ethiopian famine relief combo NORTHERN LIGHTS benefit song 'Tears Are Not Enough'. Famously these sessions produced the quote "That's My Style Man" when producer David Foster requested Young to deliver a line in key.

It would be back to the solo trail for the Countrified 'Old Ways' album, actually a set of earlier 1982 recordings rejected first time around by Geffen. The album included guest sessions from Country greats WILLIE NELSON and WAYLON JENNINGS.

1986's Pop orientated 'Landing On Water' was recorded as a minimalist trio with famed session guitarist Danny Kortchmar and drummer Steve Jordan, before reuniting with CRAZY HORSE for 1987's 'Life', once again a set of live recordings- this time from the 'Rusted Out Garage' tour, polished up in the studio. In general the late 80s, whilst retaining a loyal support on the touring circuit, would find Young's albums appearing in the lower reaches of the Billboard charts. The singer would switch from Geffen back to his former label Reprise for a left field exploration utilising a full brass section billed as NEIL YOUNG & THE BLUENOTES producing 1988's 'This Note's For You'. By the close of the year CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG had re-activated for the 'American Dream' album.

A new glow of appreciation for Young's work came with semi acoustic 1989's 'Freedom' and the hard biting anthem 'Rockin' In The Free World' which received valuable international exposure. Young was now beginning to be recognised as an inspiration to a fresh generation of artists and as such a tribute album 'The Bridge' arrived the same year. Back with CRAZY HORSE 'Ragged Glory' and the live 'Weld' set, culled from a groundbreaking tour that saw SONIC YOUTH as support, furthered the pace of Young's renewal. The accompanying 'Arc' album, a one track feedback and distortion sound sculpture piece directly motivated by Young's experiences with SONIC YOUTH, was delivered as an accompaniment to 'Weld' and also made available separately.

In 1992 Young opted to return to mellower roots and offer up the concluding chapter to 1972's 'Harvest' with the 'Harvest Moon' record. Featuring many of his long time collaborators, including Ben Keith, Tim Drummond and LINDA RONSTADT- not to mention his daughter Astrid Young from the Metal band SACRED CHILD, 'Harvest Moon' put Young back into the upper reaches of the charts once again. An acoustic set 'Unplugged' ensued and Young would also have music included as part of the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks hit movie 'Philadelphia'. Young could also be located guesting on NILS LOFGREN's 'Crooked Line' album and, the following year, contributing his talents to RANDY BACHMAN's 'Prairie Town'.

This rise in fortunes was furthered by the 1994 'Sleep With Angels' album which succeeded in a top ten placing in America and scored even higher in the UK at no. 2. However, it was to be the following year's 'Mirror Ball' which drew attention as it was soon learned Young's backing band for this record was none other than the multi platinum Grunge darlings PEARL JAM. The Seattle band would remain unaccredited on the album for contractual reasons.

The 'Broken Arrow' album rekindled the alliance with CRAZY HORSE and a resulting promotional tour spawned a movie and double live CD 'The Year Of The Horse'. CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG would be the next port of call, with a new album 'Looking Forward' and the band's first tour in over twenty years. Young would hit the solo trail in 2000 with 'Silver And Gold', the album cover depicting a photo of the singer as shot on a toy camera. A two night stand at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado would be captured on the 'Road Rock' live album and 'Red Rocks Live' DVD.

2002 saw a resumption of live work with CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG. Meantime new act NO MEANS NO would rework 'Hey Hey My My' as part of the soundtrack to the Canadian movie 'Fubar's'. Young returned to solo work in 2003 with the conceptual album 'Greendale', a story based upon a family living in the fictitious town of the same name.