Neil Young to Release Four Lost Albums

Neil Young has revealed plans to release four lost albums that have been in storage since the 1970s as part of his upcoming 'Archives Volume 2' series. According to Young's official website, long-buried studio projects like 'Homegrown', 'Oceanside-Countryside' and 'Chrome Dreams', plus 'Odeon-Budokan Live' -- a concert album recorded with Crazy Horse in England and Japan in 1976 -- will initially be issued on vinyl from analog masters.

'Homegrown,' which Young once called "the darker side of 'Harvest'" because of its personal nature, was supplanted by 1975's 'Tonight's the Night.' Likewise, 'Chrome Dreams' was dropped in 1977 for 'American Stars 'n Bars.' According to his site, Young plans to first unveil these efforts on vinyl because "they were originally created for that format."

Although this is the second in his 'Archives' collection following 2009's 10 Blu-ray disc onslaught of music, film, pictures and interviews captured from 1963 to 1972, Young is just getting started and plans to release five volumes in the series. There is no release date information yet for this set, but Young currently has employees working full-time on it.

In related news, Young paid tribute to his late sideman Ben Keith, who played pedal steel guitar with him for nearly 40 years, during a gig in Winnipeg Tuesday night. "This is for Ben Keith," he told the audience before breaking into his classic song 'Old Man.' Keith died earlier this month at the age of 73.