Neil Young International Harvesters

The International Harvesters are a band Neil Young toured with in 1984 and 1985, often referred to as Neil Young & The International Harvesters. However, Neil Young International Harvesters is the preferred spelling, as found on the CD sleeve of the 2011 compilation of live recordings from this tour: A Treasure.

In 1983 Young wanted to release an album called Old Ways with Geffen Records. They refused to release it, telling Young it was “too country”. He had also recorded some rockabilly songs, which Geffen did like, so they asked him to explore that genre a bit more. Hence the album Everybody’s Rockin’ by Neil Young & The Shocking Pinks.

The International Harvesters are basically The Shocking Pinks, but with the addition of Rufus Thibodeaux and a few other country-style artists. The International Harvesters tour was actually more succesful than Young had maybe hoped for, but it didn’t stop Geffen Records from suing Young for making “uncommercial and uncharacteristic albums”.

In 1985 he released a reworked version of Old Ways with the International Harvesters. The album again leaned a lot towards country and even though it wasn’t a bad album, it did manage to alienate Young from his audience even further at the time.

The (original) International Harvesters consisted of Neil Young (piano, guitar, harmonica, banjo, mandolin), Anthony Crawford (guitars, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, vocals), Spooner Oldham (piano, organ), Ben Keith (pedal steel), Karl ‘Junkyard’ Himmel (drums), Tim Drummond (bass) and Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle).