Reflections, fragile and true

Neil Young

“Prairie Wind” (Reprise)

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“IT’S a long road behind me / And I miss you now.”

Those aren’t the most profound lines Young has ever written, but he sings them with such warmth in “The Painter,” the opening track of his new album, that they are an irresistible invitation to the evocative collection.

The beauty of the song is that Young’s images are rich and flexible enough to be about missing a particular person or chapters in his life. In the rest of the CD, which will be released Sept. 27, he reminisces about both the people and the chapters.

The album’s gentle, acoustic-centered tone is so in keeping with two landmark Young albums, “Harvest” and “Harvest Moon,” that it’s a wonder he didn’t slip “Harvest” into the title here as well. “Prairie Harvest”? “Harvest Wind”?

Young wrote these 10 songs after traumatic moments in his life, including the death of his 87-year-old father and his own brain aneurysm, which required emergency treatment last March.

He recorded them in Nashville with some longtime musician friends, including guitarist Ben Keith, keyboardist Spooner Oldham and singer Emmylou Harris.

Despite the many guests, the album is so personal that all you hear is Young, whether it’s a sweet ode to his children (“Here for You”) or a reminiscence about childhood dreams and family singalongs (“Far From Home”). In “This Old Guitar,” he speaks about the troubadour’s muse.

The highlight is the spiritually minded “When God Made Me,” a song about higher ideals and brotherhood that may be his “Imagine.” Joined by the Fisk University Jubilee Choir, Young sings:

Was he thinkin’ about my country

Or the color of my skin?

Was he thinkin’ about my religion

And the way I worshipped him?

Did he create just me in his image

Or every living thing?

When God made me.

If Bob Dylan has been for years our best guide to exploring the complexities of human experience, Young may be the songwriter who expresses most eloquently the simple ties that bind us all.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.