Hometown: Toronto, Canada
First Solo Recordings: 1969

Personnel:
Neil Young -vocals, guitar, harmonica
Ben Keith -pedal steel guitar
Donald "Duck" Dunn -bass
Spooner Oldham -paino, organ
Jim Keltner -drums
Oscar Butterworth -drums

Bands In The Family:
Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

When I first got married, my wife's grandmother advised her to "keep him guessing." Neil Young seems to have made this the guiding principle of his career, turning left whenever right made sense, and I've admired his sheer orneriness even when I haven't liked what he's done.

One turn that Young likes to make every so often takes him back to the mellow, country-tinged territory that paid off his chicken farm over a quarter century ago. From anyone else I'd think that Silver & Gold's name tells the whole story, and Young pushes goodwill to the limit when he sings a corny throw-away about how he wants to play with "Buffalo Springfield Again" mere months before the Springfield's boxed set hits the racks. But most of the time these low-key meditations on enduring love and friendship ring true because Young doesn't oversell their comfortable-as-old-slippers sentiments; he means them, but he doesn't hit you over the head with them.

I might prefer my Neil Young records wild, crazed, or just plain weird, but every once in a while it's nice to be, well, nice. Nice record, Neil.