Neil Young’s career can only be classified as unclassifiable. Each new dusty path he’s taken us on has been joyously unpredictable. As an artist, he’s risen to prominence as a musician, filmmaker, producer, director, author, activist, humanitarian and visionary who’s helped advance the formats with which we listen to music.
Young’s recording career began with The Squires in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1963. After moving to Los Angeles in the mid-60’s to find success with the band Buffalo Springfield, Young focused his attention on a solo career and found popularity that began with a steady stream of classic albums including 1970’s After the Gold Rush and 1972’s “Harvest.”
Young’s musical career has yielded numerous awards and accolades including an Oscar nomination, induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (for his solo work and as a member of Buffalo Springfield). In 2010, he won his first GRAMMY, and in 2011 he won his second. In 2010, he received the GRAMMY’s MusiCares Person of the Year award for his artistic and philanthropic accomplishments. Neil Young & Crazy Horse were nominated for a 2013 Grammy Award on for “Best Rock Album” for their album “Psychedelic Pill,” released by Reprise Records on November 19th, 2012.
Young has shared his passion for visual mediums by directing films and releasing them through his production company Shakey Pictures. Young’s filmography includes Rust Never Sleeps (1979) and the documentary CSNY/Déjà vu (2008). In June 2012, Sony Pictures Classics released Journeys, Jonathan Demme’s third film documenting Neil Young’s music (following Heart of Gold and Trunk Show).
Young remains an indefatigable recording and touring artist with several projects in the works at present. 2015’s “The Monsanto Years,” Neil’s 36th studio album is a collaboration with Lukas and Michal Nelson, Willie Nelson’s sons, and Lukas’ band Promise of the Real. His 2016 album,”EARTH,”flows as 13 live songs about the nature of life on our shared planet, spanning the breadth of Neil Young’s music. In this rocking revelatory cellular experience Neil Young + Promise of the Real and the audience are unexpectedly joined by a legion of Earth’s living things.
