Neil Young, Crazy Horse assemble in 'Barn,' tackle mountain of problems on 'positive' album

Neil Young is still dismayed about lack of action on climate change, divisiveness in America and the approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But that has not stopped him from making music. He tackles many of those issues in the songs on "Barn," his new album, out now, recorded with the band Crazy Horse.

But many of the songs are upbeat. On the first of the album's 10 tracks, the tranquil flowing "Song of the Seasons," Young sings, "We're so together in the way that we feel that we could wind up anywhere." And on the barroom-piano-fueled "The Shape of You," Young exclaims, "You've changed my life for the better, wore my love like your favorite sweater."

Young, who married Daryl Hannah three years ago, is in a happy place, personally. His summer 2021 reunion with the members of Crazy Horse was a gift; he has collaborated on and off with the band since 1969's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere."

"I'm just thankful to still be here, and I'm very happy that we made this record, and I feel great about the band," Young says. "We've been together for a long time over 50 years. And for us to be able to go and make a record in this great old barn … was just a pleasure, and the songs came fast."

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After a strict COVID-19 testing regimen, Young and the band – drummer Ralph Molina, bassist Billy Talbot and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren – gathered at the titular barn in the Rocky Mountains in mid-June. Several years ago, Young and Hannah had come across the 19th-century structure, which had served as a stagecoach stop, and had it reconstructed with the help of a local builder who specializes in restorations.

"I was always thinking, 'Well as soon as we get this done I'm going to play music, and it's going to be great and it really is great,' " Young says. The barn's walls, constructed with logs from "huge Ponderosa pines," yield "incredible" sound, he says.

Longtime co-producer, mixer and engineer Niko Bolas captured the organic process from a mobile recording truck parked nearby. Hannah documented the happenings, too, in an accompanying film, also called "Barn," which shows the musicians in the rustic setting as they work out the tunes and play them, many of the songs captured in a single take.

The "Barn" songs, most of which Young had written before connecting with Crazy Horse in Colorado, run from personal to political. In the rocking "Heading West," he recalls a boyhood drive with his mother as they left Toronto after his parents' breakup to relocate in Winnipeg.

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Young, 76, who was born in Toronto, became an American citizen in January 2020 and voted in the 2020 presidential election, "I cast my vote, and now I got my man," he sings in the blistering "Canerican."

Historically, he says, America has been a country that allowed many voices, but "lately, an atmosphere of anger and contempt has been fostered by various factions in power.".

"We have climbed our way out of it, but it hasn't gone away. It's right on the edge of being there and coming back. So we really have to be vigilant. If somebody really believes in America, they have to vote. … And respect your fellow Americans, no matter how they vote."

The raw, energetic "Human Race" addresses climate change, and Young asks, "Who's gonna tell the children of destiny, that we didn't try to save the world for them?"

The clamorous song is of a piece with Young's previous work with Crazy Horse, which whom he says he has a "cosmic connection." "If I'm playing with them, somehow I'm opened up," Young says.

An early member of Crazy Horse, Lofgren played on Young's 1970 release "After the Gold Rush" and 1975's "Tonight's the Night" and reconnected on 2019's "Colorado" to replace longtime guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, who has retired.

Lofgren, who is also a solo artist and member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, "is a great guitarist and a great pianist … who has a lot of depth and a lot of finesse," Young says. "For one thing, we play so simply that if somebody has finesse, you're going to hear it right away, it's going to stand out because we just played bare-bones."

Lofgren's guitar interplay with Young is at the forefront on "Welcome Back," an eight-minute-plus ballad about the nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "There is no post-COVID right now. We've got a whole 'welcome back' thing," says Young, who doesn't have any touring plans. "Give me a break. This is misinformation. It is totally wrong. We are not over this. We're not anywhere near over it."

A two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee – for his solo work in 1995 and with Buffalo Springfield in 1997 – Young does plan on releasing volume three of his archives, a 13-CD or 10-Blu-ray Disc package of unreleased music and films from 1976 to 1987, in mid-2022.

Despite all the problems, "Barn" closes with the hopeful "Don't Forget Love," which advises, "When you are angry and you're lashing out, don't forget love."

And that's the sentiment Young ends the interview with. He considers the album "a very positive record presented in a positive way. There are some real topics that we're living with, but we don't have to be negative about those."

"We can just be real and then keep on moving. Don't forget love."

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Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Neil Young says new album 'Barn' cites issues, but is 'positive'