Neil Young - Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, MI, 10-16-1969 (Compilation)

In the last few weeks (as I write this in August 2021), Neil Young has released an incredible acoustic concert he performed in 1969, but only through his website, neilyoungarchives.com. In my opinion, the recording of this show is one of the best recordings he ever made in his long career, so it's frustrating that it's not being officially released (at least not yet). I want to share it, because it really needs to be heard by lots of people, but I also don't want to take exclusive content from the Archives website. So I decided on a compromise. Young played three sets that night. I'm posting about half of that material here: the second set (which is the longest), plus the three other songs that were only played for the first or third sets. So one gets one version of each unique song played that night.

This show is very unique and special indeed. Young played some acoustic shows up through about February 1969, then switched to playing with Crazy House or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young for the rest of 1969 and 1970. It was only at the last couple of months of 1970 when he did another solo acoustic tour. So this concert at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was the only full acoustic show he did for well over a year and a half during a very crucial part of his career. It took place right in the middle of a CSNY tour. It was professionally recorded, with the possible intention of being released as a live album. However, that never happened, and the show was never even available as a bootleg. 

The version that has now finally appeared sounds fantastic. Young was in top form, both with his musical performance and his entertaining banter between songs. Plus, since this was the only acoustic concert he did for a large portion of 1969 and 1970, many of the songs were very rarely done by him at other times, at least not in acoustic format. For instance, this concert is the ONLY time in his long career that he's ever played his Buffalo Springfield song "Down to the Wire." It's one of just two times he played the cover "Oh Lonesome Me" prior to 2005. It's the first time he played "Country Girl" in public, one of only a small number of times he played it, and this is the only excellent live acoustic recording of it. It's the only time he played "I've Been Waiting for You" prior to 2001, and the only live acoustic version. It's the first time he played "Here We Are in the Years," and the only live acoustic version he's ever done. It's the first time he played "Everybody's Alone" in concert, and one of just of four times he's played it in public. It also was the first public performances of "Helpless" and "Dance, Dance, Dance." I could go on with other rarities, like "I've Loved Her So Long" and "Wonderin'." 

Suffice to say this is a very unique "holy grail" concert for Neil Young fans! It boggles my mind that it hasn't been officially released yet. It may well be that he will put in out as an album soon, in which case I'll take this post down. But until then, you can tide yourself over with this. And if you want to hear the rest, I strongly suggest you sign up for his Archives website. There's lots more exclusive material getting posted there, including many full concerts.

To make this a coherent listen, I put the songs from the third set ("Down to the Wire") and the first set ("I've Loved Her So Long" and "Oh Lonesome Me") at the beginning. Then the entire second set follows without interruption. I boosted the volume of his banter between songs in many cases, since that was rather low in the mix.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On October 7, 2021, I updated the mp3 download file. I didn't add or remove any songs. But it dawned on me after listening to this album some more that there was something wrong with the sound, specifically that the bass was way too prominent in the mix. Luckily, this was just with one version, and I was able to find a better version. So I redid the album using a different source. It's a really big sound improvement, so please make sure you have the updated version.

01 talk (Neil Young)
02 Down to the Wire (Neil Young)
03 talk (Neil Young)
04 I've Loved Her So Long (Neil Young)
05 talk (Neil Young)
06 Oh Lonesome Me (Neil Young)
07 On the Way Home (Neil Young)
08 talk (Neil Young)
09 Helpless (Neil Young)
10 talk (Neil Young)
11 Cinnamon Girl - The Loner (Neil Young)
12 talk (Neil Young)
13 Birds (Neil Young)
14 talk (Neil Young)
15 I Am a Child (Neil Young)
16 talk (Neil Young)
17 Everybody's Alone (Neil Young)
18 talk (Neil Young)
19 Dance, Dance, Dance (Neil Young)
20 The 1956 Bubblegum Incident - It's My Time (Neil Young)
21 talk (Neil Young)
22 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
23 talk (Neil Young)
24 The Old Laughing Lady (Neil Young)
25 talk (Neil Young)
26 I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young)
27 talk (Neil Young)
28 Here We Are in the Years (Neil Young)
29 talk (Neil Young)
30 Wonderin' (Neil Young)
31 Down by the River (Neil Young)
32 talk (Neil Young)
33 Country Girl (Neil Young)

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I made the cover art using a photo of Neil Young from 1969. I didn't see any good color ones of him from that year, so I colorized a black and white one.