Neil Young & Joni Mitchell ‘Lost’ 1968 Recordings Surface

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Neil Young and Joni Mitchell

A trove of live concert recordings by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others, dating to 1968, has been discovered in Michigan. The long-missing reel-to-reel tapes were recorded at a student ministry at the University of Michigan, according to a new report in Rolling Stone.

According to the report, other unearthed recordings of other artists, all in the singer-songwriter vein, include live sets from Odetta, Tim Buckley, Dave Van Ronk and David Ackles.

“The Michigan History Project recently acquired the recordings, with the non-profit organization now seeking a record label interested in releasing the concerts,” says the article, which quotes Michigan History Project president Alan Glenn: “We learned of the existence of the tapes about six years ago. They were in the possession of a private collector. Then they disappeared, and we were afraid they were gone for good. But a few weeks ago they resurfaced, much to our surprise and relief. Now our first priority will be to get them transferred to a digital format, then make sure that the original analog tapes are safely archived.”

The recordings were all made with the permission of the performers, but the fate of them is up in the air at the present time. In order for the recordings to be released, arrangements would have to be made with the record companies or management firms that hold the rights to recordings by these artists.

Rolling Stone says that the recordings are all high-quality. Engineer Chris Goosman says, in the article, “These from Canterbury House aren’t audience-recorded bootlegs but first-rate soundboard captures made on professional equipment. It’s an amazing collection with the rare combination of being well-recorded and also well-preserved, and that makes it even more historically significant.”

The article points out that Young “performed three concerts, November 8th through 10th, 1968, at the Canterbury House, with the November 9th and 10th concerts featuring prominently on the archival release Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968; the November 8th concert remains unreleased. It’s unclear which date(s) the Michigan History Project is in possession of.”

Further details are not given on the recordings of Mitchell (who released her first album in 1968) and the others.

Listen to “The Loner” from the Canterbury House in 1968