A Letter Home is the 33rd studio album by Canadian / American musician Neil Young. It was released on April 19, 2014 on Record Store Day by Third Man Records. The entire album, which consists of covers of classic songs by artists Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Gordon Lightfoot and others, was recorded in a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth at Jack White's Third Man Records recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Of this method, White said, "we were obfuscating beauty on purpose to get to a different place, a different mood."[2] The opening spoken-word track, and other spoken lines throughout the album, were addressed to Edna "Rassy" Young, Neil's mother who died in 1990.[3][1] A message on Young's website described the album as "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".[4][5]
A Letter Home | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 19, 2014 | |||
Studio | Third Man Recording, Nashville, Tennessee | |||
Genre | Folk rock, lo-fi[1] | |||
Length | 39:25 | |||
Label | Third Man | |||
Producer | Jack White III, Neil Young | |||
Neil Young chronology | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 70/100[6] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The A.V. Club | B[7] |
MusicOMH | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork | 6.3/10[10] |
The A.V. Club considers A Letter Home one of the best albums of the first half of 2014, calling it the "most surprising record by a guy who's built his career on surprising you".[11]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "A Letter Home Intro" | 2:16 | |
2. | "Changes" | Phil Ochs | 3:56 |
3. | "Girl from the North Country" | Bob Dylan | 3:32 |
4. | "Needle of Death" | Bert Jansch | 4:57 |
5. | "Early Morning Rain" | Gordon Lightfoot | 4:24 |
6. | "Crazy" | Willie Nelson | 2:16 |
7. | "Reason to Believe" | Tim Hardin | 2:47 |
8. | "On the Road Again" | Willie Nelson | 2:23 |
9. | "If You Could Read My Mind" | Gordon Lightfoot | 4:04 |
10. | "Since I Met You Baby" | Ivory Joe Hunter | 2:13 |
11. | "My Hometown" | Bruce Springsteen | 4:08 |
12. | "I Wonder If I Care as Much" | The Everly Brothers | 2:29 |
Bonus tracks from box set singles:
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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13. | "Blowin' in the Wind" | Bob Dylan | |
14. | "Crazy (alternate take)" | Willie Nelson |
The box set includes:
The 7th 6" disc of this set features a version of Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" backed with an alternate take/arrangement of "Crazy"
Documentary Film Crew
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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