Neil Young joined forces with Danny DeVito, Herb Alpert, George Lopez, Debbie Allen, Ricki Lake, Daryl Hannah, and Kenny Ortega on Tuesday for a virtual fundraiser to benefit the Painted Turtle, a summer camp for children with serious medical needs.
The entire event is worth watching, but you can fast forward to 36:38 to see Danny DeVito introduce Neil Young’s two-song set. “He is an artist that has been inspiring people for decades with his incredible music and lyrics,” DeVito said. “Everyone, welcome to the campfire, Neil Young.”
Sitting by a fireplace at the Colorado home he shares with actress Daryl Hannah, Young performs the 1974 Homegrown tune “Love Is a Rose” and “Sugar Mountain,” a song he wrote on his 19th birthday in 1964.
In the early days of the pandemic, Young recorded a series of virtual Fireside Sessions concerts that focused on lesser-known tunes from his long career. The most recent one was posted on July 1st and concentrated on political songs like “Alabama,” “Ohio,” “Campaigner,” and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin.’”
Young has kept out of the recording studio since the creation of 2019’s Colorado. Much of his attention since that time has been on archival releases. Last month, he dropped the 10-disc box set Archives Volume II 1972-1976. He is planning many follow-ups for 2021, including a third Archives box set and an official Bootleg Series.
“Next year, more records than any other year in my history will be released,” he recently wrote on the Neil Young Archives. “I want this to happen so I can enjoy the reactions to these works. Not that I feel I am going anywhere, but there are many more things waiting in the wings.”
“Covid-19 has provided the focused time for an uninterrupted completion, bringing these records and films to all of us,” he continues. “I no longer wait for records to have a life and then release another. It’s another world now. The Archives is opening up.”
