Rediscovered Neil Young Album from 1977 Shines a Spotlight on Bass Legend Joe Osborn
Neil Young has been digging through his enormous archive of recorded music and releasing tons of hidden gems. Next up on the docket is Oceanside Countryside, a lost album recorded in 1977. The record, which will release on February 14th, is described as a sister album to 1978’s Comes a Time due to its country-rock sound and sharing three songs.
“This analog original album was recorded in 1977 and unreleased. These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings in the order I planned for the album,” Young explains. “I sang the vocals and played the instruments on ‘Oceanside’ in Florida at Triad studios and Malibu at Indigo studio. I sang the vocals and recorded with my great band of friends, Ben Keith, Joe Osborn, Karl T. Himmel, and Rufus Thibodeaux at Crazy Mama’s in Nashville on Countryside. I hope you enjoy this treasure of an Analog Original recording, recorded by Tim Mulligan, as much as I do. Listening to it now, I think I should have put it out back then.”
Session bass icon Joe Osborn handled half of Comes a Time, and similarly fits right in on Oceanside Countryside. At the time, Osborn had moved to Nashville after a decade of hitmaking in Los Angeles for The Mama’s and the Papa’s, The Carpenters, Johnny Rivers, Ricky Nelson, Simon and Garfunkel, and many more.
Osborn shared his wisdom with us in a 2012 Stories Behind the Songs interview, where he recounted 10 songs from his catalog.
“Young players ask me, “How do you think of all those things to play?’ And this is one of my lessons that I repeat over and over again: The song will tell you what to play if you listen,” he said. “You get your ideas from either the melody or the vocal phrasing gives you rhythmic ideas.”
Hear Osborn sitting in the pocket on “Field of Opportunity”:
Young’s longtime drummer Tim Drummond also appears on the song “The Old Homestead.”
Oceanside Countryside will be out on February 14th on vinyl and streaming services (Apple Music and Amazon Music).
Oceanside Countryside Track List:
- Sail Away
- Lost in Space
- Captain Kennedy
- Goin’ Back
- Human Highway
- Field of Opportunity
- Dance Dance Dance
- The Old Homestead
- It Might Have Been
- Pocahontas
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
