The unique way Neil Young played Graham Nash his landmark album: “More barn!”
There are a number of wild stories attached to Neil Young. A singer who nonchalantly battled Spotify based on his beliefs about Joe Rogan also apparently hot-wired a hearse with Jimi Hendrix and shared a band with Rick James. Among the many legends surrounding him, one stands out: the moment Young introduced his now-iconic album Harvest to his bandmate in Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the talented Graham Nash. It’s a story so extraordinary that, for a long time, it seemed almost too good to be true.
The story involves Nash and Young listening to Harvest in perhaps the most unusual setting imaginable—on a small boat in the middle of a lake. For years, it sounded like the stuff of legend, but in 2016, Young finally confirmed it was true, making the day for fans who had long cherished the tale. Nash himself has often recounted the memorable moment he listened to Harvest with Young for the firs tie. It’s not just the significance of the album itself that made the experience unforgettable, but the unusual setting in which Young chose to unveil it. The curious and now legendary manner in which Young shared the album with Nash has since become etched into the annals of rock and roll history.
The story goes that Young casually asked Nash if he wanted to listen to his new solo record, which included the iconic track ‘Heart of Gold’. Naturally, Nash got up, expecting to head into the studio, as any good friend would. He likely anticipated the typical experience—sitting among the haze of cigarette smoke at the mixing desk, enduring a loud playback of the album. However, Young had something entirely different in mind.
Nash explained to NPR: “He said, ‘Get into the rowboat. I said, ‘Get into the rowboat?’ He said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to go out into the middle of the lake'”. Casually, the pair row out into the middle of the lake, with Nash expecting Young to pull out a walkman or cassette player to play the album and perhaps kick back in a more relaxed setting.
“Oh, no,” confirms Nash. “He has his entire house as the left speaker and his entire barn as the right speaker. And I heard Harvest coming out of these two incredibly large loud speakers—louder than hell. It was unbelievable.”
Not doing things by halves, Young had roped in some professional help too: “Elliot Mazer, who produced Neil, produced Harvest, came down to the shore of the lake and he shouted out to Neil, ‘How was that, Neil?'”
“I swear to God, Neil Young shouted back, ‘More barn!'”
This legend has followed Young for decades and gained even more traction when it was shared as an anecdote in the 1991 Crosby, Stills & Nash album CSN. The moment was so iconic that a devoted Young fan, Brad Brandeau, even created a shirt to commemorate the experience. This quirky tale has since become a beloved part of rock and roll lore, immortalising the unique bond between Young and his bandmates.
In 2016, promoting his then-new record Earth, Young spoke with Huff Post, who were keen to confirm the story. Young offered some wonderful news in that respect, “Well it’s funny, it’s just a little thing that happened one day, and it keeps growing and getting crazier,” Young mused with the nonchalance of a man involved in some of rock and roll’s crazier stories.
Normally, this is the moment when the legend gets refuted, but luckily, “I had the left speaker, big speakers set up in my house with the windows open. And I had the PA system — that we used to rehearse and record with in the barn where I recorded ‘Alabama’ and ‘Words’ and a couple other things — over there playing the right-hand channel. So, we were sitting in between them on a little lake, and that’s what we were doing.”
The barn has long gone down in history for housing the recordings of young, as he and the band find the casual setting a more comfortable spit and sawdust spot to share creatively. An already glorious scene of creative and eccentric splendour, the publication pushes on the anecdote’s punchline. His response to whether he uttered the words “More Barn!”? A laugh and a classic response, “Yeah, I think it was a little house heavy.”
