Neil Young’s official website seems to be hinting at an upcoming Neil Young & Crazy Horse live album, called Alchemy.

A short news item says “The third episode of A Rust Trilogy, which began with Rust Never Sleeps in 1978, and continued with Weld in 1990, now concludes with Alchemy in 2012. Things have changed, yet they stay the same. Alchemy, like Rust and Weld, finds the boys at another stage of life’s journey. Time has taken its toll, yet the spirit seems unstoppable.”

(Neil Yung & Crazy Horse Alchemy as pictures on his website)

Rust Never Sleeps was an album recorded live in front of an audience, but wasn’t the typical “live album,” as all of the songs were new (at the time), including “My, My, Hey, Hey (Out Of The Blue)” and “Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black).” The album was followed by a more traditional live record, Live Rust, where Young & Crazy Horse played songs from their latest album, plus classics from his catalog. Weld is a full-on, all electric live album recorded during the tour for Ragged Glory.

Apparently not included as part of this trilogy is the 1997 Neil Young & Crazy Horse live album, Year Of The Horse, which served as a soundtrack to the film of the same name: a documentary on the group directed by Jim Jarmusch.

Young & Crazy Horse have been touring a bit lately after about a decade apart, having played Farm Aid and The Global Festival as well as other festivals and their own headlining shows.  They’re scheduled to be on tour in North America through early December, and apparently Young has been so pleased with the performances that he’s ready to put out another live album with the band. Their next studio album, Psychedelic Pill, will be released on October 30; it’s their second studio album of the year, following Americana, which was released in June.

– Brian Ives, CBS Local