The 21st century revived
Neil Young's radical spirit and, along with it, his sense of musical adventure. These two strands converge on
Peace Trail, a rickety record written and cut in the wake of his 2016 live album,
Earth.
Neil wrote
Peace Trail quickly and recorded it even faster, pushing through ten songs in four days with the support of ace drummer
Jim Keltner and bassist
Paul Bushnell. According to
Bushnell, most of the album consists of first or second takes but
Peace Trail sounds like it entirely comprises rehearsal tapes, with the rhythm section lagging behind as they follow
Young's basic chord changes. In form, almost all of the ten songs are folky protest numbers but
Neil slashes through his hippie haze with shards of overamplified harmonica, guitar squalls, and vocoders, the modern world intruding on his melancholy reveries and subdued anger. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine