This is a live recording of the last show of Young’s 1971 “Journey Through the Past” tour. CSNY had split up and Crazy Horse had signed their own record deal, so Young decided to go solo. At this performance he is definitely at the top of his game. Most of the songs he plays here had just been written and not yet recorded. Young had four albums under his belt but had not really hit the big time at this point and this was the material that would make him a major artist. Later, he got together with a group of country-music session musicians to record much of this new material for the album Harvest, which was released in 1972. Harvest was a huge hit and "Heart of Gold" became a number one single. It’s interesting to hear a live performance of “Ohio” only months after the May 4, 1970 Kent State massacre with Nixon still at the height of his power. ”Ohio”, which came out on the CSNY Four Way Street album in the summer of 1970, is the only previously released song on this recording. As far as I can tell, “See the Girl Dance” and “See the Sky About to Rain” have never been put out as records. “Journey Through the Past” and “Love in Mind” came out only on the now unavailable Time Fades Away in 1973.

The CD has been recreated from 35 year old vinyl, so the sound isn’t perfect and there are a couple of hiccups where scratches had to be smoothed out, but overall the recording is excellent. It was clearly done by someone in the audience with a tape recorder strapped to his chest, so you hear the crowd sounds. Fortunately, they’re a pretty well-behaved bunch. Listening to this you feel like you’re right there sitting in the audience yourself.