Neil Young Comes A Time CD

Live Recording

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Neil Young (vocals, guitar, strings); Frank Sampedro (vocals, guitar); Tim Mulligan (saxophone); Billy Talbot (bass, vocals).
Additional personnel: Nicolette Larson (vocals); Grant Boatright, Bucky Barret, John Christopher, Jerry Shook, Viv Jordan, Steve Gibson, Dale Sellers, Ray Edenton (acoustic guitar); J.J. Cale (guitar); Ben Keith (steel guitar); Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle); Rita Fey (autoharp); Shelly Kurland, Stephanie Woolf, Marvin Chantry, Roy Christensen, Gary Vanosdale, Carl Goroditzet, George Binkley, Steve Wmith, Larry Harvin, Larry Lasson, Carol Walker, Rebecca Lynch, Virginai Christensen, Maryanna Harvin, George Kosmola, Martha McCrory, Chuck Cochran (strings); Spooner Oldham (piano); Joe Osborne, Tim Drummond (bass); Larrie Londin, Carl Himmel (drums); Farrel Morris (percussion).
Producers: Neil Young, Ben Keith, David Briggs.
Engineers include: Tim Mulligan, Rich "Hoss" Adler, Paul Kaminsky.
Recorded at Triiad, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Columbia, London, England; Wally Heider, Hollywood, California; Woodland & Sound Shop, Nashville, Tennessee; Broken Arrow, Redwood City, California.
Six and a half years later, Comes a Time finally was the Neil Young album for the millions of fans who had loved Harvest, an acoustic-based record with country overtones and romantic, autobiographical lyrics, and many of those fans returned to the fold, enough to make Comes a Time Young's first Top Ten album since Harvest. He signaled the album's direction with the leadoff track, "Goin' Back," and its retrospective theme augmented with an orchestral backup and the deliberate beat familiar from his number one hit "Heart of Gold." Of course, Young remained sly about this retrenchment. "I feel like goin' back," he sang, but added, "back where there's nowhere to stay." Doubtless he had no intention of staying with this style, but for the length of the album, melodies, love lyrics, lush arrangements, and steel guitar solos dominated, and Young's vocals were made more accessible by being paired with Nicolette Larson's harmonies. Larson's own version of Young's "Lotta Love," released shortly after the one heard here, became a Top Ten hit single. Other highlights included the reflective "Already One," which treats the unusual subject of the nature of a divorced family, the ironic "Field of Opportunity," and a cover of Ian Tyson's folk standard "Four Strong Winds" (a country Top Ten hit for Bobby Bare in 1965). ~ William Ruhlmann
With steel guitars, fiddles and lots of acoustic guitars, this low-key folk-rock album harks back to Young's great AFTER THE GOLD RUSH-HARVEST period, and if it doesn't measure up that's only because of the ridiculously high standards the earlier albums set. Taken by itself, COMES A TIME is a fine collection, anchored by the timeless wonderment of the title song; a cover of Ian & Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds," and the nearly indescribable "Look Out For My Love," which is either a love song, a threat or both.
COMES A TIME also features "Lotta Love," which was released simultaneously by Nicolette Larson and was a major hit for her. Larson doesn't sing on Young's version, but her background vocals distinguish much of the rest of COMES A TIME. Crazy Horse puts in an unusually low-key--but typically warm and ragged--appearance on two songs, "Look Out For My Love" and "Lotta Love."

Q (4/02, p.141) - "...The most successful of Young's country ventures..."
CMJ (1/5/04, p.6) - Ranked #8 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1979".