American Stars 'n Bars

The many songwriting styles of Neil Young existed as a patchwork bound by blue jean heartland country rock, personal maelstrom, and a career at a critical impasse on '77's American Stars 'N Bars. Fresh off a divorce and with a couple completed records in the can, Young's second thoughts about releasing songs written about intimate feelings of pain and loss led him to scrap the works that would later become his intensely personal Homegrown and compile a more familiar-feeling whiskey-soaked twangy rock and roll record.

Shakey enlisted Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson who performed as The Bullets to record an entire fiddle-rich A-side of quintessential Young country ballads like "The Old Country Waltz" and the boot-scoot shuffle "Hey Babe." The B-side showcases arguably the finest guitar playing in Neil Young's career from the mythic riffs on "Like A Hurricane" to the unfastened sprays of electric scruff on "Homegrown."