Young reaches back to find way forward

The territory is old because of the vintage of many of these American folk songs. Some melodies go back two centuries.

The album includes American folk songs that kids for generations have memorized because they learned them in elementary school music class or sitting around a campfire. Perhaps the most venerable and oldest of these songs are “Oh Susannah,” “Clementine,’ “Tom Dooley” (a Kingston Trio hit in 1958) and “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” (here presented with the alternative title “Jesus’ Chariot.”)

Lest we forget the famous sing-along anthem “This Land is Your Land,” enhanced by the unexpected voices of a children’s choir. In terms of age, this song is not among the oldies of folk music. Folk singer Woody Guthrie composed it in 1940. Perhaps Young included it because this year, 2012, is the 100th anniversary of Guthrie’s birth.

Another selection, “Wayfarin’ Stranger,” was a signature song of Burl Ives,. It’s a spiritual/folk song that apparently dates from the early 19th century.

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There also are four cuts that will make the listener wonder how they fit thematically on this album. One is the British national anthem “God Save the Queen,” which later had its lyrics reworked to go along with its Americanized title of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”

Another is the 1950s doo-wop hit “Get a Job,” originally done by The Silhouettes. Young and the band seem to be laughing their way through it. They’re having too much fun. So will you.

The third in this group is “Gallows Pole,” a blues tune that Led Zeppelin recorded. And the fourth is “High Flyin’ Bird,” the Elton John-Bernie Taupin song that Jefferson Airplane popularized.

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Young said that after the band finished recording “Americana,” he wrote a batch of songs for their next CD.

“The songs are too long. There are lot of instrumentals, lots of excursions, but they’re real songs. It has one song that’s 26 minutes long. It begs for a better sonic world,” the magazine quoted Young as saying.