Old Ways



Old Ways is a 1985 album by Canadian musician and singer-songwriter Neil Young, released on August 12, 1985 on Geffen Records.

Background
Young has referred to this album in interviews as Old Ways II, as he had originally planned to release a country album titled Old Ways in 1983. Young's record label, Geffen, objected to this, asking Young for a "rock 'n roll" album, which Young would give them in the form of Everybody's Rockin'.

After a lawsuit with Geffen ended in the courts ruling in favor of Young, he proceeded to complete the unfinished Old Ways by writing a few additional songs to fill it out. Old Ways I would have contained many still-unreleased songs, one of which, "Depression Blues," appeared on Young's Geffen-era compilation Lucky Thirteen.

The title track and "Get Back to the Country" were released as singles with accompanying music videos, but like with his previous videos, MTV largely ignored them. The album was a near-total commercial and critical failure, and remains one of Young's smallest-selling albums to date. Despite the poor reception, he nonetheless toured Old Ways and played material from it live along with some of his old concert staples. Young received far more attention during this time for his reunion with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash at Live Aid for the first performance of the quartet together in a decade.

Track listing
All tracks composed by Neil Young, except where indicated.

Personnel

 * Neil Young: guitar, banjo-guitar, harmonica, vocal
 * Waylon Jennings: guitar, vocal
 * Willie Nelson: guitar, vocal
 * Rufus Thibodeaux: fiddle
 * Ben Keith: pedal steel guitar, dobro
 * Tim Drummond: bass
 * Karl Himmel: drums
 * Joe Allen: bass (electric & upright)
 * Ralph Mooney: pedal steel guitar
 * Hargus "Pig" Robbins: piano
 * Gordon Terry: fiddle
 * Joe Osborn: bass
 * Anthony Crawford: mandolin, vocal
 * Terry McMillan: harmonica, jew's harp
 * Béla Fleck: banjo
 * Bobby Thompson: banjo
 * David Kirby: guitar
 * Grant Boatwright: guitar
 * Johnny Christopher: guitar
 * Ray Edenton: guitar
 * Gove Scrivenor: autoharp
 * Farrell Morris: percussion
 * Marty Stuart: mandolin
 * Carl Gorodetzky: violin
 * Spooner Oldham: piano
 * Larry Byrom: vocal
 * Rick Palombi: vocal
 * Doana Cooper: vocal
 * Denise Draper: vocal
 * Gail Davies: vocal
 * Betsy Hammer: vocal
 * Pam Rose: vocal
 * Janis Oliver-Gill: vocal
 * Mary Ann Kennedy: vocal
 * Kristine Oliver-Arnold: vocal
 * Leona Williams: vocal
 * Strings:
 * Carl Gorodetsky, leader
 * George Binkley
 * John Borg
 * Roy Christensen
 * Virginia Christensen
 * Charles Everett
 * Larry Harvin
 * Mark Hembree
 * Lee Larrison
 * Betty McDonald
 * Dennis Molchan
 * Pamela Sixfin
 * Mark Tanner
 * David Vanderkooi
 * Gary Vanosdale
 * Carol Walker
 * Stephanie Woolf
 * JT Cantwell: Assistant Engineer

Recording personnel

 * Neil Young - producer
 * Ben Keith - producer
 * David Briggs - producer
 * Gene Eichelberger - engineer
 * Keith Odle - second engineer
 * Clark Schleicher - recording assistant
 * J.T. Cantwell - recording assistant