Neil Young’s 2019 European summer tour with Promise of the Real will be chronicled with a double album and concert film titled Noise and Flowers, which is slated for an early 2021 release.
The nine-date tour kicked off June 29th in Odense, Denmark, just eight days after the death of Elliot Roberts, Young’s manager of over 50 years. “[Daryl Hannah] and I were on the bus, on our way to New York to catch a plane to Europe, when we got the call,” Young wrote on the Neil Young Archives. “After returning to the funeral for our beloved Elliot, we got on the plane and left for the tour.”
“During the tour, we had a poster of Elliot on a road case, right where he always stood during out shows,” he continued. “Everyone who was with us felt that this tour was amazing for its great vibe. The Real and I delivered for Elliot.”
After Denmark, the tour took Young and Promise of the Real to festivals and arena dates in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands before wrapping up with two co-headlining dates with Bob Dylan in London and Kilkenny, Ireland. The shows often stretched past the two-hour mark and mixed hits like “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” with fan favorites like “Over and Over,” “Piece of Crap” and “Field of Opportunity.” It wrapped up with Dylan and Young duetting on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
The tracklisting is unknown at the moment, although Young recently previewed the set with “Rockin’ in the Free World” from one of the gigs. “[Noise and Flowers] is truly a great collection, dripping with the soul of our band as we played for our fallen leader,” Young wrote.
Noise and Flowers joins a long line of archival projects in Young’s pipeline, including Return to Greendale, Way Down in the Rust Bucket, Carnegie Hall 1970, Road of Plenty, the long-awaited second volume of his Archive Series box set and a 50th-anniversary edition of After the Gold Rush.
