Following initial rumors of a “duets” album featuring Neil Young and Jack White, listeners were silenced with a statement from Young assuring that this was not the case.
Jack White’s Third Man Records label has been instrumental in the recording of Neil Young’s new covers-album – A Letter Home. Highlighting analog equipment and using a 1947 Voice-o-Graph, fans of both White and Young have been expecting an announcement of collaboration between the two recording purists.
During a discussion with Billboard magazine,Young has confirmed that White will in-fact appear on two tracks of A Letter Home. The covers album concept was apparently birthed from a recording session at Third Man during which Young performed Bert Jansch’s “The Needle of Death” on Record Store Day 2013.
Young shared his thoughts on the songwriting and recording process of his upcoming project, as well as his new book and his MP3-rivaling audio player Pono (introduced at 2014’s SXSW festival).
– via Billboard:
“It’s not ready for prime time yet. It’s not really a release yet, but it’s a very unique record. It’s like a time capsule. It doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard that was made recently. And some great songs, some beautiful music.”
…
“They’re songs that I love, songs that changed my life, songs that made it so that I understood what someone else was saying to me, songs by greater writers.”
Third Man has described the release as: “An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever.”
Listeners are expecting a release announcement for A Letter Home as soon as this spring.