Stripped down to their musical skivvies, so to speak, Neil Young's songs lose none of their emotional potency. A listen to Nils Lofgren's new album of Young covers bears that out.

On The Loner, released July 22 on the Vision Music label and available via the nilslofgren.com Web site, it's just Lofgren at home alone, haunting Young classics with just his ghostly voice accompanied solely by either gentle, resonant acoustic guitar workings — including some powerful strumming — or tender piano meditations. Almost uncomfortably intimate, The Loner, an homage that includes Lofgren's versions of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," "Long May You Run," "Harvest Moon" and "I Am A Child," to name a few , was recorded live without any sort of production enhancements.

Interestingly, the genesis for this project did not come from Lofgren, surprising when you consider that the E-Street Band member, as a teen, cut his session-work teeth on Young's 1970 landmark LP After The Gold Rush.
 
"I would have never thought of it," says Lofgren. "I had a Christmas break from the E-Street Tour, which I was thrilled to be out with. I spent the last 14 years without a record company, and I put music out on my Web site, at nilslofgren.com — this and other things. There's free downloads. I started a beginner's guitar school, a lot of things there. But the last 10 years or so, I guess the most popular items have been an acoustic live CD and a live acoustic DVD, and my manager, Anson, pointed this out and suggested I consider singing my favorite Neil Young songs in an acoustic format. And that led to the record. I certainly never would have thought of that on my own."

Lofgren and Young go way back to Topanga Canyon. After working on After The Gold Rush and contributing bits and pieces to Crazy Horse's debut, Lofgren left Young to concentrate on his band Grin. When Grin failed to get off the launching pad, Lofgren rejoined Young for work on the Tonight's The Night album and played on Young's 1983 Trans tour. After that, he joined Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band.

As for The Loner, Lofgren had a lot of material to choose from, but he pared it down to 15 tracks.

"I spent a couple weeks singing 25 or 30 songs of Neil's without recording anything, no production, [I] just literally woke up early in morning, sang for a few hours to my dogs and cats, and after two weeks, it seemed like some of the songs stopped sounding like good karoake and made a transition into something more special as a performer," says Lofgren. "So, once I felt like I had a dozen or so of those, then I turned on the tape machines and went out into the studio, set everything up, and I also realized that the only chance this had of working was if it was completely live, no production, no overdubbing — just me and one instrument doing the performance, and with those as the rules, I came up with 15 songs that felt right. So, I'm honored to have had this stroll down memory lane and just share this new CD."

A visit to nilslofgren.com can yield much fruit. The site offers free downloads and Lofgren's Guitar School that's designed especially for beginners and those who've come to believe they'll never play the instrument.

"A lot of teachers make it very complicated, and sometimes you have to work for years before you really enjoy yourself, and learning an instrument is hard," says Lofgren. "It's gymnastics for the hand, and it's going to frustrate you. So, what I do every lesson is try to show people something they can do with one finger today that feels and sounds like music to them and [allows them to] play along with me. Because after all, the planet is crazy, people are pressed for time, they have kids, sick parents, crazy bosses, hectic schedules, lot of pressure and the theme of this school is: Look, if you only want to practice 10 minutes on the hard stuff before your hand cramps up and you get frustrated, stop at that point, but don't put down the instrument. Spend five or 10 more minutes doing the one-finger stuff that feels and sounds like music but takes no practice. Jam along with me on the tape and then walk away. Then, maybe tomorrow, maybe you'll come back and say, 'I'll do the hard stuff for 20 minutes today, and then I'll go have some fun.' But the theme is, let's have fun now, let's have it every day, to navigate learning and keep you engaged, and I have a lot of tips and shortcuts I've learned through 10 years of classical accordion studies and 40 years on the road as a rock musician, I'm just trying to share those things in the beginner's guitar school at nilslofgren.com.

To listen to a podcast of our interview with Nils, visit www.goldminemag.com. And watch for a story on Lofgren and his memories of working with Neil Young on After The Gold Rush in a future issue of Goldmine.