In 1992 Neil made a series of short solo tours of the USA, relying heavily on a mix of the new material to be released late in the year on "Harvest Moon" and old favourites. However Neil often pulled out surprises, some tracks unreleased at that time ("Train of Love", "Depression Blues", "Stringman"), some still unreleased ("Homefires", "Hitchhiker", "Love Art Blues"). Sometimes he performed released tracks that had rarely ever been performed live ("Cripple Creek Ferry", "Campaigner", "Broken Arrow"), some normally were played with the Horse ("Don't Cry No Tears", "Mansion On The Hill", "Fuckin Up"). Sometimes he swapped instruments ("Like A Hurricane" played on acoustic guitar, "Helpless" on organ). Once he even performed a cover version - Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". This is a compilation of these rare songs, some were only performed one or twice on the tour - all were performed less than 10 times.
"Now you're just yelling out for the most obscure songs you can think of. Here I'll do an obscure one, you want an obscure one. There's a reason for it being obscure though." Introduction to "Love Art Blues" (1992-11-22 - Minneapolis)
Sound quality is variable, but with the exception of one or two tracks is in the very good to excellent range. Except where an analogue source is indicated, lineage is
DAT audience master -> DAT -> PC audio capable DDS drive -> Wave - > flac
1) Train Of Love (1992-02-14 - New York) (A1)
2) Depression Blues (1992-02-17 - New York)
3) Campaigner (1992-02-18 - New York)
4) Look Out For My Love (1992-02-19 - New York)
5) The Old Laughing Lady (guitar) (1992-03-20 - Boston)
6) Helpless (piano) (1992-03-20 - Boston)
7) Stringman (1992-03-20 - Boston)
8) Fuckin' Up (1992-03-20 - Boston)
9) Homefires (guitar) (1992-03-22 - Philadelphia)
10) Down By The River (1992-03-23 - Philadelphia)
11) Like A Hurricane (guitar) (1992-03-24 - Philadelphia)
-------------------------------------------------
12) Ohio (1992-05-17 - Cleveland)
13) Homefires (piano) (1992-05-17 - Cleveland)
14) Are You Ready For The Country? (1992-05-17 - Cleveland)
15) World On A String (1992-05-18 - Cleveland)
16) Love Is A Rose (piano) (1992-05-18 - Cleveland)
17) Cripple Creek Ferry (1992-06-25 - Holmdel) (AM)
18) On The Way Home (1992-06-25 - Holmdel) (AM)
19) Cortez The Killer (1992-06-26 - Columbia)
20) Hitchhiker (1992-06-26 - Columbia)
21) Mansion On The Hill (1992-09-13 - St Louis) (AM)
22) Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (1992-09-18 - Salem) (A1)
23) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1992-09-21 - Los Angeles)
24) The Old Laughing Lady (banjo) (1992-09-21 - Los Angeles)
-------------------------------------------------
25) Cinnamon Girl (1992-09-22 - Los Angeles)
26) Cowgirl In The Sand (1992-09-22 - Los Angeles)
27) Speakin' Out (1992-09-22 - Los Angeles)
28) Roll Another Number (1992-09-22 - Los Angeles)
29) Homegrown (1992-09-23 - San Diego)
30) Don't Cry No Tears (1992-09-25 - Costa Mesa)
31) Field Of Opportunity (1992-09-26 - Las Vegas)
32) Already One (1992-09-26 - Las Vegas)
33) Lotta Love (1992-09-26 - Las Vegas)
34) Broken Arrow (1992-11-15 - Milwaukee) (A2)
35) I Am A Child (1992-11-15 - Milwaukee) (A2)
36) Helpless (organ) (1992-11-19 - Chicago) (AM)
37) Love Art Blues (1992-11-22 - Minneapolis) (AM)
Notes
The tour started in the North West in January, but Neil stuck rigidly to a set list and nothing is included here.
In February Neil played 5 nights in front of a rowdy audience at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Here a few real surprise songs were played, all of which were played only once on the tour. "Train of Love" made its debut appearance on the 14th, later to be released on 1994's "Sleeps with Angels". Neil first attempted "Depression Blues" on 13th and on the 17th the song was played in full for the only time ever, although it was later released on the Geffen compilation "Lucky Thirteen". "Campaigner" made a rare (its only ever?) appearance on piano the next day. "Look Out for My Love" had only previously been played live a few times in 1988.
In March it was the turn of Boston and Philadelphia to get 3 shows each. A restless audience in Boston on the 20th forced Neil to abandon the new songs and change the set list. "The Old Laughing Lady" and "Helpless" were played only sparingly on this tour. The beautiful "Stringman" made one of its rare appearances since its debut in London in 1976, although it was belatedly released on 1993's "Unplugged". Neil tells the audience that "Fuckin' Up" is a lot like "Sugar Mountain"! Moving to Philidelphia the show on 22nd gives us the unreleased "Homefires", only played twice in 1974 before this tour. The 23rd saw "Down By The River" played after the spoken intro from New Orleans 1984. On the 24th a hauntingly lovely "Like A Hurricane" was played on acoustic guitar for the first (and only?) time since a solitary performance in 1976 - Neil played this on pipe organ for the rest of the tour.
May found Neil in Cleveland and Detroit. "Ohio" was naturally played and "Homefires" moved to the piano, followed by a stomping "Are You Ready For The Country?" A real rarity was "World On a String" played for the first time since the Tonight's The Night Tour and the first time solo, although it too was to appear on "Unplugged". "Love Is A Rose" which featured heavily on the tour as a banjo medley with "Dance, Dance, Dance" was played rather strangely on the piano.
Neil played 5 shows on the East Coast in June and played a few rare oldies with a varying degree of success. At Holmdel "Cripple Creek Ferry" was attempted, a song that had only been sung live once (or twice depending on you source) before in 1973. At the end he said he'd have to learn it but only ever appeared again once in 1997. He also performed "On The Way Home" for the only time on the tour. The next night in Columbia Neil attempted "Cortez The Killer", a song that had only made a couple of acoustic performances in 1983, but it was cut short after one verse and we would have to wait another 7 years for it to reappear. Neil had more success with "Hitchhiker" - a previously unknown 70s drug song whose melody had been lifted for "Like An Inca" - on all 5 nights, only for it to be forgotten again for ten years.
September saw the longest tour of the year. St Louis was treated to a unique solo version of "Mansion On The Hill" on the piano. At Salem Neil played a once in a blue moon cover version, although Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" was also performed with the MGs at Bobfest later in the year. On the first night in L.A. Neil appropriately played "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and "The Old Laughing Lady" Moved to banjo. The second night saw rare outings on the tour for "Cinammon Girl", "Cowgirl In The Sand", "Speakin' Out" and "Roll Another Number". "Speakin' Out" was performed half a dozen times in September, the only times it has been performed live since 1973's Tonight's The Night Tour. "Homegrown" made its second and last appearance of the tour at San Diego and Costa Mesa was treated to a unique solo performance of Zuma's "Don't Cry No Tears". Las Vegas saw the only performance of the tour of "Already One", along with rare outings for "Field Of Opportunity" and "Lotta Love".
November found Neil playing the final shows of the year in the Midwest and produced some of the biggest surprises. "Broken Arrow" was played for the first time since 1970 at the second show in Milwaukee, where a rather more common Buffalo Springfield track "I Am A Child" made its only two appearances of the tour. Even now Neil continued to experiment and there were two performances of "Helpless" on pipe organ and the unreleased "Love Art Blues", its only outings since the 1974 CSNY tour.