''A Letter Home'' is the 33rd studio album by Canadian / American musician

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

. It was released on April 19, 2014 on

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

Third Man Records Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan, and Soho, London—with ...

. The entire album, which consists of covers of classic songs by artists Bruce Springsteen,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...

and others, was recorded in a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth at

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

's Third Man Records recording studio in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. Of this method, White said, "we were obfuscating beauty on purpose to get to a different place, a different mood."Tingen, Paul (October 2014)
"Inside Track: Jack White"
''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved October 22, 2014. The opening

spoken-word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

track, and other spoken lines throughout the album, were addressed to Edna "Rassy" Young, Neil's mother who died in 1990. A message on Young's website described the album as "an unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever".

Reception

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

considers ''A Letter Home'' one of the best albums of the first half of 2014, calling it the "most surprising record by a guy who's built his career on surprising you".

Track listing

Bonus tracks from box set singles:

Personnel

*Neil Young - vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano *Jack White - vocals, piano on "On the Road Again"; vocals, guitar on "I Wonder If I Care as Much"

Box set

The box set includes: * 1 standard 12" LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl * 1 "direct feed from the booth" audiophile 12" LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl * Seven 6" vinyl 33 RPM discs pressed on clear vinyl * 1 standard CD * 1 standard DVD with footage from the recording * 1 32-page, 12" x 12" book * Download card to redeem the digital album of the "direct feed from the booth" audiophile version The 7th 6" disc of this set features a version of Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" backed with an alternate take/arrangement of "Crazy"

Audio production

*Reproduced by: Jack White & Neil Young *Recorded at: Third Man Records, Nashville, TN *Electro-mechanically engineered by: Joshua V. Smith & Kevin Carrico *Recorded by: Joshua V. Smith *Assisted by: Mindy Watts *Recorded to acetate by: George Ingram *Mastered by: Bob Ludwig for Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME

DVD production

*Directed by: Bernard Shakey *Produced by: Will Mitchell *Executive Producer: Elliot Rabinowitz *Post Production for Shakey Pictures at Upstream Multimedia *Edited by: Benjamin Johnson *Assistant Editor: Hannah Choe *Motion Graphics: Kris Kunz, Atticus Culver-Rease *DVD Menu Art Direction: Toshi Onuki *DVD Menu Sound Design: Will Mitchell *Hand lettering “A Letter Home”: Julian Baker *DVD Authoring: DVS Intelestream *Clearances: Marcy Gensic Documentary Film Crew *Director of Photography: Benjamin Johnson *Sound: Will Mitchell

Artwork

*Art Direction & Design: Gary Burden & Jenice Heo for R. Twerk & Co *Photo Credits: Front Cover-Will Mitchell, Back Cover- Jo McCaughey

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Personnel

– vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano *

– vocals and guitar on "On the Road Again", vocals and piano on "I Wonder If I Care as Much"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letter Home, A 2014 albums Neil Young albums Third Man Records albums Record Store Day releases Covers albums Albums produced by Neil Young Albums produced by Jack White Lo-fi music albums