60 Years In, Neil Young Forms New Band for Album ‘Talkin to the Trees’

In June 2025, Neil Young released the new album “Talkin to the Trees.” It’s Young’s debut album recorded with the Chrome Hearts, the new band formed by the veteran rocker in 2024 after 60 years of record-making.

As the album’s release notes on Apple Music observe, “Talkin to the Trees” joins previous Young recordings “Barn” and “World Record” as part of a growing body of late-period albums. Works that affirm Young’s almost supernatural ability to continue to make art.

Young’s outrage is there on tracks like “big change” and “Lets Roll Again.” As is his tenderness on songs like “Bottle of Love” and “Thankful.” Young’s ability to make global concerns feel as personal and digressive as diary entries is present, too, on songs like “Talkin to the Trees” and “Family Life.”

The Chrome Hearts, Young’s backing group on this album, include guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony Logerfo of the band Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. With Lukas Nelson, who is Willie Nelson’s son, those musicians previously backed Young on several albums and tours.

On this album, the Chrome Hearts also include veteran Muscle Shoals keyboardist Spooner Oldham. Who first played with Young on 1978’s “Comes a Time.”

As Mark Deming notes for AllMusic, a sole constant in Young’s body of work is that he’s going to do what he feels like doing in the moment. This usually means plenty of change from album to album.

But it also often finds Young touching upon sounds that have long been his mainstays. Including country-leaning rock, noisy guitar workouts in the manner of his longtime backing band Crazy Horse and emotionally intense folk-influenced numbers.

Apple Music recalls a 1996 tour incident, documented on the live album “Year of the Horse,” in which a heckler told Young that all his songs sound the same. Young replied that “It’s all one song.”

The comeback appears to be philosophically truer the more songs Young writes.