Neil Young made a point of listing the recording dates of the songs on American Stars 'n Bars; the dates even appeared on the LP labels.
They revealed that the songs had been cut at four different sessions dating back to 1974.
But even without such documentation, it would have been easy to tell that the album was a stylistic hodgepodge, its first side consisting of country-tinged material featuring steel guitar and fiddle, plus backup vocals from Linda Ronstadt and the then-unknown Nicolette Larson, while the four songs on the second side varied from acoustic solo numbers like "Will to Love" to raging rockers such as "Like a Hurricane." Just as apparent was the album's unevenness: side one consisted of lightweight compositions, while side two had more ambitious ones, with "Will to Love," for example, extending the romantic metaphor of a salmon swimming upstream across seven minutes.
The album's saving grace was "Like a Hurricane," one of Young's classic hard rock songs and guitar workouts, and a perennial concert favorite.
Without it, American Stars 'n Bars would have been one of Young's least memorable albums, and since it turned up the following year on the compilation Decade, the LP was rendered inessential.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Old Country WaltzNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 03:00 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 2 | Saddle Up the PalominoBobby Charles, Tim Drummond, Neil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 03:01 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 3 | Hey BabeNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 03:37 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 4 | Hold Back the TearsNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 04:20 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 5 | Bite the BulletNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 03:36 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 6 | Star of BethlehemNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 02:42 | 6 MB | 14 MB |
| 7 | Will to LoveNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 07:11 | 16 MB | 41 MB |
| 8 | Like a HurricaneNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 08:20 | 19 MB | 59 MB |
| 9 | HomegrownNeil Young | Neil Young, Crazy Horse | Play | 02:21 | 5 MB | 15 MB |
| 38 mins | 87 MB | |||||
| 38 mins | 242 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Briggs | Producer |
| 2 | Gary Burden | Repackaging |
| 3 | Bobby Charles | Composer |
| 4 | Crazy Horse | Performer, Primary Artist |
| 5 | Tim Drummond | Bass, Composer, Drums |
| 6 | Emmylou Harris | Guest Artist, Vocals |
| 7 | Jenice Heo | Repackaging |
| 8 | Karl Himmel | Drums |
| 9 | Ben Keith | Dobro, Guitar, Guitar (Steel), Vocals |
| 10 | Nicolette Larson | Guest Artist, Vocals |
| 11 | Carole Mayedo | Violin |
| 12 | Elliot Mazer | Producer |
| 13 | Ralph Molina | Drums, Vocals |
| 14 | Tim Mulligan | Digital Mastering, Producer |
| 15 | John Nowland | Transfers |
| 16 | Mo Ostin | Slack Key Guitar |
| 17 | Elliot Roberts | Direction, Director |
| 18 | Linda Ronstadt | Guest Artist, Vocals |
| 19 | Frank "Poncho" Sampedro | Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Strings |
| 20 | Dean Stockwell | Artwork, Cover Art |
| 21 | Billy Talbot | Bass, Vocals |
| 22 | Neil Young | Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Harmonica, Instrumentation, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |