Earlier this summer, it was announced that the Neil Young tribute project would expand with two additional volumes. The Heart Of Gold series now includes Vol. 2 – Out Of The Blue and Vol. 3 – Into The Black, following last year’s Heart Of Gold: The Songs Of Neil Young Volume I. They are slated for release on November 6. We’ve already heard King Princess’ interpretation of “Helpless” and Jaco Rosa’s rendition of “After The Gold Rush.” Today, Modest Mouse and My Morning Jacket unveiled their contributions to the set.
Modest Mouse collaborated with the Chicago-based outfit Califone on “Barstool Blues,” which appears on Vol. 3 – Into the Black. Young initially cut the track in 1975 for his seventh studio album Zuma. In a press release, Isaac Brock expressed enthusiasm about joining the project and explained how he first planned to cover a different Young tune:
Getting to do a cover of one of Neil’s songs on a project like this matters both because it gets to be helpful for an important cause like The Bridge School, and because it’s actually attached to the person whose song we are covering. It’s really… well, it’s a stressful honor. The stakes seem a little higher. I like that.
I had initially chosen and started working on a cover of “Cortez The Killer” before I realized that, in order to pull this off the way I’d like to, it was going to take me a thousand hours. Then it struck me: there is a song that I like just as much and find personally more relatable, “Barstool Blues.” This was a song I could really sink my teeth into.
On top of being such a catchy song, it was something that I felt more of a mental and emotional connection to than ‘Cortez’ anyway, which I have more of a “historical” emotional connection to.
The next challenge any time you cover a song you’ve heard so many times is that it can be difficult to find a way not to make your version too close to the original. After all, why would anyone need that?
I figured it out. I made it go Kraut.
What a wonderful project to be included on.
My Morning Jacket, meanwhile, took on “Like A Hurricane,” a track Young wrote in 1975 but first appeared on 1977’s American Stars ‘N Bars. The band tracked the performance with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and producer Ross Hogarth in New Orleans, with the take laid down live at Marigny Studios.
Listen to both below.
Proceeds from the albums benefit The Bridge School, the nonprofit founded by Neil and Pegi Young to support people with severe speech and physical impairments. Heart Of Gold: The Songs Of Neil Young, Vol. 2 – Out Of The Blue and Heart Of Gold: The Songs Of Neil Young, Vol. 3 – Into The Black are set to arrive on November 6. You can pre-order them here. Also, check out our 2025 feature in which eighty artists picked their favorite Neil Young songs.
