Neil Young's Living With War:

Guns blazing against apathy

Neil Young may very well be the last of the old hippies--and I mean that in the best way possible. In a career spanning nearly forty years, he has never wavered from the notion that music can change the world, and he's never been overly concerned about what rewards, or lack thereof, he might reap in the process. If he had never sold a record, it wouldn't have mattered to him. Neil Young just loves those magic three chords and the magic they can unleash.

On Living With War, Young offers no apologies about his feelings toward the current turmoil in America, particularly in regards to the war in Iraq. This is not a soft, country-tinged work, nor should it be. Rather, this a blistering indictment of the Bush Administration's handling of not only the war, but its dealings with dissent at home. It's only fitting, then, that Living With War harkens back to Young's Crazy Horse days.

Deceptively simple at its surface, Young's latest work is in a league with Woody Guthrie's Depression-era classics that spoke to the everyman and gave them a voice they couldn't quite find alone. It is protest music at it's finest, and will undoubtedly be featured in movie soundtracks when they make films about these times.

Living With War goes on sale May 8, but you can hear it for free in the meantime athttp://neilyoung.com.

Trust me--it's worth a listen.

Coming up: May sweeps are upon us. Stay tuned for "The Fox, the Mouse, the Peacock and that Bigass Eyeball."