Music Review: Prairie Wind (Reprise) by Neil Young
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2005/10/01/1244242-cp.html
(AP) - Neil Young's Prairie Wind is a gentle-sounding, acoustic-based album that packs an emotional wallop. It rightfully is being cast as the third in a trilogy of albums that started with Harvest in 1972 and continued with 1992's Harvest Moon.
The spectre of death hangs over Prairie Wind, influenced no doubt by the diagnosis Young received around the time of its recording that he had a potentially deadly brain aneurysm.
Luckily for music fans, Young survived and now the album takes on more of a tale of survival than loss.
Really, Young does just about everything right on Prairie Dream.
The lyrics are simple and heartfelt. The music is melodic and emotional. Together, they are classic Young and are likely to make Prairie Wind one of his most loved albums.
Just as the title suggests, Prairie Wind has an open, airy feel about it. The other musicians - Spooner Oldham on organ, Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar and Chad Cromwell on drums - provide a strong, familiar backbone.
Many of the songs seem like farewell notes - to loved ones, his father and even his guitar.
It wouldn't be much of a stretch to interpret Here For You as being sung from the perspective of someone who's already passed on. "Just close your eyes and I'll be there," Young sings.
On Far From Home, Young makes a rollicking request to be buried on the prairie, not far from home, where the buffalo used to roam.
The final tune, When God Made Me, is more a hymn than a rock song. With the Fisk University Jubilee Singers in the background, and Young at the piano, the song tackles some of the eternal questions that face many even when death is not imminent.
It may be one of the most beautiful things Young's ever written.
(Reviewed by Scott Bauer)
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