Neil Young - "Prairie Wind"

His father died, he had brain surgery, his daughter started her final year of college, and he's celebrating his 60th birthday, all the space of a few short months. So, you'll pardon Neil Young for producing an intensely personal, inward-looking album.

This album is a far cry from rough hewn guitar sound -- with wardrobe to match -- that earned Neil Young the title "godfather of grunge." In fact, that journey is musically documented on Prairie Wind, Young's 43rd solo album and his first release of new material since 2003's rock opera, Greendale.

In comparison to Young's large body of previous work, Prairie Wind is most like 1972's Harvest and the follow-up 20 years later, Harvest Moon, but with even greater depth of feeling and degree of personal reflection. And there are musical elements used in new ways for this artist: horns, strings, and a gospel choir.

It's interesting to listen to this album as if you didn't know all that was going on in Young's life during the time he was writing and recording it. Even if you didn't know that the song was about the farm house he grew up in, and the plastic ukelele his father gave him, Far From Home weaves the story in a captivating way. In fact, about half of the songs on the album deal with life on the prairie on which Young was raised, and to which the album title refers.

Family ties, childhood memories, and the passage of time are the themes of all of the album's 10 tracks. One senses that the arist is coming to terms with a new stage in his life, and, in a sense, tying up all of his emotional loose ends.

This album is part of what seems to be a growing trend by artists at similar stages of their lives and careers -- most recently Eric Clapton with Back Home and Paul McCartney with Chaos and Creation In the Backyard -- of producing albums that are personal, poignant, and musically mature, produced more for the artists' creative and emotional fulfillment than strictly for commercial success.

When you listen to this album, go someplace quiet, close your eyes, and conjure up your own personal memories, hopes, and dreams. Mr. Young will make the experience a rewarding one.

1. Painter
2. No Wonder
3. Falling Off the Face of the Earth
4. Far From Home
5. It's A Dream
6. Prairie Wind
7. Here For You
8. This Old Guitar
9. He Was the King
10. When God Made Me

Songs by Neil Young

Ben Keith - pedal steel guitar
Spooner Oldham - keyboards
Rick Rosas - bass guitar
Chad Cromwell - drums
Karl Himmel - percussion