I guess if you are touring, and worried about missing your wife, then you might as well just go the whole hog and take the family out on the road with you. Pegi Young is opening for Neil Young's current live shows, and the surname should be a big giveaway as to her identity. Nepotism aside, Pegi has been on the road with her husband before, as a backing singer, but the release of her self titled debut album gives her a good reason to branch out on stage on her own.Sessions recorded in Nashville and Northern California form the backbone for the album, which sees many members of her husband's band including bass player Rick Rosas, keyboard player Spooner Oldham and even Neil himself on a handful of tracks. Originally, it was conceived as a covers album, but in the studio guitarist Anthony Crawford encouraged her to draw on her own reserve of songs accumulated over the years. Some of the songs go back years, 'Key To Love' written when Pegi was in her early twenties, a languid, dreamy piece with some luscious steel guitar. 'Heterosexual Masses', despite its modern themes, also dates from the early 1970's, inspired by events that took place in the very bar where she first met Neil Young.Indeed, it is on the better tracks that Neil Young appears, particularly on 'Love Like Water', an Eastern sounding number with electric sitar buzzing and bouncing in the background. Lyrically, nothing particularly new is explored ("your love to me is like water ”“ I can't live without it", hardly the greatest insight in the world) but the music itself is fresh despite the old school (nothing digital) approach to recording. If anything, the album seems to be pre-occupied with sadness, songs like 'Fake' and 'White Line In The Sun' possessing a feeling of bruised tenderness, and longing. Despite the involvement of her husband and his entourage, this is far from a vanity project ”“ it is a reasonably accomplished album in its own right and there will be much to enjoy for those lucky enough to have tickets for her spouse's concerts. 67%Links Pegi Young [official site] [myspace]