Neil Young Delays Release Of Long-Awaited ‘Hitchhiker’ Album & Shares Title Track

As reported legendary rocker Neil Young will open his archive to unveil Hitchhiker, a previously unreleased studio album recorded live at Indigo Studios in Malibu on August 11, 1976. While a press release from Warner Bros. was previously distributed stating the 10-track, all-acoustic LP would be issued today, Hitchhiker is now due September 8. The good news is Young has unveiled the title track:

Here are further details from a statement issued by Warner Bros.:

Recorded between Zuma and American Stars and Bars as a solo album in a single session, the resultant performances are truly breathtaking and passionate. The simplicity of a single voice and guitar captured here is as pure and powerful as it gets, with only Young, [producer David] Briggs and actor Dean Stockwell in the room at the time of recording. A few of the songs would not appear on vinyl until years later. Some have never been heard, included in the original sessions for Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Dume, another unreleased record of original sessions that yielded the classic album, Zuma. When the Hitchhiker album was recorded, none of the included songs had ever been released and many of the performances of the songs were the first ever. This is truly an album of original performances.

Hitchhiker features stripped-down renditions of some of Neil’s most beloved songs and two previously unreleased tunes. Most of the tracks found on the LP would not appear on vinyl until years later. In fact the title track was not officially released until appearing on 2010’s Le Noise and as you can imagine sounds very different from the original. The album will be available on vinyl, CD and digitally.

Hitchhiker Tracklist

1. Pocahontas
2. Powderfinger
3. Captain Kennedy
4. Hawaii
5. Give Me Strength
6. Ride My Llama
7. Hitchhiker
8. Campaigner
9. Human Highway
10. The Old Country Waltz