Inside our latest free Uncut CD: The Gold Rush – The Songs Of Neil Young

The new December 2025 issue of Uncut comes with a very special free CD: The Gold Rush – The Songs Of Neil Young.

The compilation features 15 of Young‘s classics and deep cuts reinterpreted exclusively for Uncut in tribute to Shakey’s 80th birthday.

There’s some ragged, glorious rock from Kurt Vile & The Sadies, J Mascis, Alan Sparhawk‘s Tired Eyes and MJ Lenderman & The Wind; there are tender ballads from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Joan Shelley & Nathan Salzburg, Drive By Truckers‘ Mike Cooley, and Sharon Van Otten & The Attachment Theory; and there are wilder, more experimental versions from Orcutt Shelley Miller and Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection.

Plus it all kicks off with a stunning eight-and-a-half-minute “Ambulance Blues” from Phosphorescent.

See below for the full tracklisting and more…

ORDER A COPY FROM US HERE

1 Phosphorescent
Ambulance Blues
We begin this – if we say so ourselves – stellar new tribute to Neil Young with one of his most totemic songs. As the closer to 1974’s On The Beach, it’s certainly an ambitious track to take on, but Phosphorescent nail their own version without losing the magic of Young’s recording. Here, Matthew Houck is on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Jo Schornikow is on organ, Jack Lawrence handles the bass, and Dominic Billett the drums, while Rich Ruth’s electric guitar echoes the fiddle line of the original before lifting off into starry space.

2 J Mascis
On The Way Home
Recorded at his home studio by Mascis alone, this is a fiery version of the opener to Buffalo Springfield’s final album, 1968’s Last Time Around. As found on various live albums, from Massey Hall 1971 to The Riverboat 1969, this was a favourite of Young’s in his early acoustic guise; here, though, Mascis makes it sound like a lost Dinosaur Jr track with peals of echoed electric guitar. Ear-bleeding country, indeed, in tribute to its originator.

3 Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Helpless
Recorded on the road in the UK – during soundcheck at Newcastle’s Boiler Shop, to be exact – this is an expansive, beautiful version of one of Young’s most covered works. Van Etten’s vocals are as luminous as ever, backed by Devra Hoff’s bass, Jorge Balbi’s drums, Teeny Lieberson’s synthesizer and backing vocals and Shanna Polley’s guitar and harmonies – support act Angie McMahon is also drafted in on vocals to bolster the rich refrain at its close.

4 Mike Cooley
Albuquerque
Patterson Hood and Jay Gonzalez contributed to our album of Dylan covers, 2021’s Dylan Revisited, with a peerless version of “Blind Willie McTell”; here, a different Trucker has taken on this dark ballad from ’75’s Tonight’s The Night. Featuring just his acoustic guitar and vocals, Cooley’s version of “Albuquerque” is melancholic and magical, the sparse arrangement perfectly highlighting the desolation in Young’s lyrics: “I’ve been flyin’ down the road/And I’ve been starvin’ to be alone…”

5 Kurt Vile With The Sadies
White Line
Some of Young’s most devoted fans team up here, with Philly’s Kurt Vile and Toronto’s The Sadies trying their hand at this raw take on the Ragged Glory highlight. There are a clutch of different Young versions of the song flying around, including a noisy ’75 recording and an acoustic take with Robbie Robertson, which surfaced on Homegrown. Vile and The Sadies take something of a middle ground, with Travis Good’s distorted guitar offset by Vile’s twinkling, phased acoustic and the steady, light touch of rhythm section Mike Belitsky and Sean Dean.

6 Margo Cilker
Comes A Time (feat. Humbird)
The Californian singer-songwriter seems to have picked the perfect song for her craft here: an optimistic hymn in hard times, the lilting country title track of one of Young’s most welcoming, lushest records. Nicolette Larson’s backing vocals elevate the original, and here Humbird aka Siri Undlin provides harmonies, with Rose Cangelosi on drums, Jeremy Ferrara on electric guitar, Eric Heywood on pedal steel and Forrest Vantuyl on bass.

7 Chris Eckman
Borrowed Tune
The former Walkabouts leader and now solo artist presents a gorgeous and eerie take on this sparse piano ballad, his acoustic guitar and vocals shrouded by the electric guitar, effects and synth of engineer and musician Alastair McNeill. Already desperate and despairing, this Tonight’s The Night cut is given even great mystery and charm in Eckman’s version.

8 Coca Leaves & Pearls feat Chris Forsyth
Lookout Joe
Another Tonight’s The Night song, this rollocking bar-band delight was recorded three years earlier, and here is given a new lease of life by Chris Forsyth’s Young tribute group. As can be heard, they’re faithful to the original arrangements, but give the songs a fluid spin of their own that won’t be a surprise to those familiar with Forsyth’s other work. He’s on guitar and vocals, with John Murray on guitar, Joey Sullivan on drums and Jordan Burgis on bass, Wurlitzer and backing vocals.

9 Joan Shelley & Nathan Salsburg
Little Wing
Like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings before them, Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg are masters at interpreting the songs of others as well as their own – just check out their “Dark Eyes” on our Dylan Revisited comp. Here they turn their acoustic craft to this fragile, compact Young composition, originally recorded in January 1975 and first appearing on 1980’s Hawks & Doves, before seeing inclusion on 2020’s Homegrown release.

10 Orcutt Shelley Miller
A Man Needs A Maid
All of this indie-rock supergroup – pioneering guitarist Bill Orcutt, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and bassist and vocalist Ethan Miller – are fans of Young’s work, and it shows: this is a fiery but tender version of the Harvest track. With the original recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, Orcutt Shelley Miller replace the bombast of the strings and horns with sweeping synth strings and the thorny barrage of Orcutt’s lead guitar.

11 MJ Lenderman & The Wind
Lotta Love (Live)
Recorded at the London Roundhouse on August 15 this year, Jake Lenderman and his band The Wind pay a beautifully loose tribute to Young with this take on the Comes A Time song. The track was originally recorded with Crazy Horse in October 1976, and the band – Lenderman, Colin Miller, Landon George, Ethan Baechtold and Jon Samuels – perfectly channel Neil and the Horse’s mix of relaxed vibes and quicksilver electric guitar.

12 Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection with Rich Ruth & Annie Williams
See The Sky About To Rain
With its prominent pedal steel, it’s no wonder that the second track from On The Beach was the chosen piece for crack steel player Spencer Cullum: however, the Nashville-based Englishman turns it into a hushed, tender and experimental recording, something like Robert Wyatt lifting off into the stratosphere on a pillow of Fripp-like guitar tones (courtesy of Rich Ruth, making his second appearance on an On The Beach track here) and burbling, Eno-esque synths.

13 Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Cortez The Killer
Will Oldham has referenced Young a couple of times before – the cover of 2009’s Beware, for instance, is a lovely tribute to Tonight’s The Night’s own gloomy artwork – but he really pulls off something special with this acoustic, home-recorded version of the Zuma epic. Here Oldham’s on his back porch, wind chimes swaying, transforming the essence of Young and Crazy Horse’s mighty original into something deeply personal.

14 Kassi Valazza
One Of These Days
In yet another case of an artist performing a song as if it was written for them, comes Valazza’s version of this song from Young’s 1992 LP Harvest Moon. Featuring just the Arizonan singing and strumming her Gibson acoustic, it’s something special. Valazza performed this track as part of The state51 Conspiracy’s Factory Sessions: to watch the full performance and more visit youtube.com/@state51.

15 Tired Eyes
Words (Between The Lines Of Age) (Live)
Alan Sparhawk has been playing with a host of groups since the end of Low: there have been collaborations with Trampled By Turtles, of course, and his work in Derecho Rhythm Section, Damien, Feast Of Lanterns and more. But he’s also been paying tribute to Young in Tired Eyes, a four-piece who have been playing out for a good few years now. It’s a pleasure to end the album on this epic from a Tired Eyes performance at St Paul’s Turf Club, with Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, Kraig Johnson on bass, Glen Mattson on drums and Rich Mattson on guitar.

ORDER A COPY FROM US HERE