Personally after Ragged Glory and the Arc/Weld album I lost interest in Young but I still love his vintage work. Especially the years 1971-78. The 1976 tour with Crazy Horse was a series of stunning performances consisting of a full acoustic and electric set.
First of all the quality of this excellent release is beyond excpectations. I've heard many '76 recordings by many artists, including Young and the Horse, but this is superb. Beautifully balanced, clean and atmospheric. The latter is very important for an audience recording as the audience participation is part of the "atmospheric" piece. But getting that captured without the annoying comments, whistles, etc. is very tricky and getting a cooperative crowd to settle down during the quieter moments is trickier!...especially important during the acoustic part. The crowd reactions are euphoric to say the least during the start and end of each song. A little remastering could have added some depth to the performance which would had been favourable but maybe that's just my taste. It could have made it sound a little warmer. E-Street Records for example did this in an excellent way with Bruce Springsteen's "A Quiet Night in Amsterdam". You'll hear every strum on the strings, every "knock on wood" and every breath before he blows his harmonica.
The electric set opens with the stunning "Country Home" that somehow finally ended up on the before mentioned Ragged Glory. The acoustic and electric set aren't nicely spread over 2 discs, unfortunately. Instead the Black Horse opted for a different approach and spread the electric set over disc one and two and add some interesting bonus tracks.
Unfortunately, I am not a Neil Young expert but I doubt the fact that all these songs were recorded on the 76 American tour as the cover states. It suggests that all of the 1976 performed songs are here but "Razor Love" is far from 1976 and where are "White Lines", "Love Is A Rose", "Mr. Soul" and "Helpless" that were definitely done on this tour? Anyway, I usually don't care for bonus tracks but making it a complete 76 tour document would be more approriate than a mixed bag of tracks. It doesn't take away the fire of the initial content and its' worth the bucks. Maybe I am the only one but why are we still paying the same bucks for CD-R's as for genuine factory pressed CD's!?