Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House, an early solo concert recording issued on Dec. 2, 2008, was the third in a series of archived live recordings that Neil Young started releasing from his massive vault – but actually preceded the prior two in chronology. More than even 1970’s Live at the Fillmore East or 1971’s Live at Massey Hall, this album reminds me of Stephen Stills’ Just Roll Tape sessions, which was finally released in 2007.
Each had just put Buffalo Springfield in their rear view mirrors, and were contemplating their next career move – moves that would make them both superstars. In the meantime, both Stills and Young stuck with arrangements stripped down to solo guitar trying out new songs. Some of these songs would become very well known later on.
Neil Young’s long-lost 1968 recording was a little different in one important aspect, though: he played Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House in front of an audience. Since his reputation at that time was entirely built upon Young’s time in Buffalo Springfield, several songs are drawn from those days: “Birds,” “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing,” “Mr. Soul,” “Expecting to Fly,” and “Broken Arrow.” There was also a good many tunes that later appeared on his self-titled solo debut just a couple of months after this performance, like “I Could Have Her Tonight,” “The Last Trip to Tulsa,” and “The Loner.”
There are two main things you’re likely to take away from this record. One is that it’s fascinating to listen to him speak to the audience between songs – sometimes for several minutes – telling stories in a rather earthbound, small-talk manner. It goes to reveal Neil Young as a more personable, somewhat timid human than his reputation allows. He already had some success with the band he just left, but didn’t seem sure yet that his solo career would take off.
Secondly, the songs themselves on Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House sound great even without the accompaniment of the studio versions and the perspective of fame that he was to enjoy a short time later. The one song previously released from this concert, “Sugar Mountain,” has always been played that way, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Now we know that the inner beauty of Neil Young’s other early songs shine, through unadorned, right from the beginning of his fabled solo career.
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