Old Ways

1	The Wayward Wind 3:12
2	Get Back to the Country 2:50
3	Are There Any More Real Cowboys? 3:03
4	Once an Angel 3:55
5	Misfits 5:07
6	California Sunset 2:56
7	Old Ways 3:08
8	My Boy 3:37
9	Bound for Glory 5:48
10	Where Is the Highway Tonight? 3:02

Barnes & Noble

Upon its original release in 1984, following Young's much-misunderstood excursions into electro-sci fi and rockabilly, the countrified Old Ways was welcomed by fans as a return to more comfortably familiar territory. Indeed, this bucolic, largely acoustic album recalls the pastoral folk rock of Harvest and Comes a Time -- two of the artist's most commercially successful releases -- but with a more overtly trad-country leaning and a gentler, more bucolic tone that infuses tunes like "Are There Any More Real Cowboys?" (a duet with Willie Nelson), "Once an Angel," "Where Is the Highway Tonight?," and the autobiographical anthem "Get Back to the Country." Elsewhere, the more characteristically idiosyncratic"Misfits" demonstrates that Young hadn't gone completely soft and sentimental. Waylon Jennings contributes harmony vocals on six songs, and the album's players include such notables as a young Béla Fleck on banjo, along with such legendary session men as Spooner Oldham, Joe Osborne, and Hargus "Pig" Robbins. Scott Schinder

All Music Guide

In 1984, Geffen Records sued Neil Young on the grounds that he had submitted uncharacteristic, uncommercial records to the label. By the time a settlement had been reached, Young had been on the road with a country band called the International Harvesters for over a year and recorded a revamped version of Old Ways, a 1982 recording originally rejected by Geffen that was cut in the style of Harvest and Comes a Time, but with a stronger country leaning. Young depends heavily on friends, especially for vocals -- Waylon Jennings sings harmony on six out of the ten tracks, and one of the others is a duet with Willie Nelson. Though populated by cowboys and country references, Young's take on the genre is typically idiosyncratic, including a reworked version of his autobiography in "Get Back to the Country," a cover of the 1956 Gogi Grant hit "The Wayward Wind," and the uncategorizable "Misfits," which portrays astronauts watching Muhammad Ali fights on television in space. Old Ways is not a great Neil Young album and at the time of its release served to alienate him even further from his audience, but it has its moments. William Ruhlmann