Old Ways is the fourteenth studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Canadian musician Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, released in 1985. Young refers to this album in interviews as Old Ways II, as he had originally planned to release a country album titled Old Ways in 1983. Geffen

Geffen Records

Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

 objected to this, asking Young for a "rock 'n roll" album, which Young would give them in the form of Everybody's Rockin'

Everybody's Rockin'

Everybody's Rockin' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 1983. The album was recorded with the Shocking Pinks , and features a selection of rockabilly songs . Running 25 minutes, it is Young's shortest album...

. Old Ways I would have contained many still-unreleased songs, one of which was "Depression Blues", which appeared on Young's Geffen-era compilation Lucky Thirteen.

Side one

1. "The Wayward Wind
   The Wayward Wind
   "The Wayward Wind" is a country song written by Stanley Lebowsky and Herb Newman.In 1956 versions were recorded by Gogi Grant, Tex Ritter, and Jimmy Young, of which Grant's was the biggest seller in the United States and Ritter's in the United Kingdom...
   
   " – (Herb Newman, Stanley Lebowsky
   Stanley Lebowsky
   Stanley Lebowsky was a Hollywood and Broadway composer, lyricist, conductor and music director.-Biography:...
   
   ) 3:12
2. "Get Back to the Country" – 2:50
3. "Are There Any More Real Cowboys?" – 3:03
4. "Once an Angel" – 3:55
5. "Misfits" – 5:07

Side two

1. "California Sunset" – 2:56
2. "Old Ways" – 3:08
3. "My Boy" – 3:37
4. "Bound for Glory" – 5:48
5. "Where Is the Highway Tonight?" – 3:02

Personnel

• Neil Young: guitar, banjo-guitar, harmonica, vocal
• Waylon Jennings
  Waylon Jennings
  Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
  
  : guitar, vocal
• Willie Nelson
  Willie Nelson
  Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
  
  : guitar, vocal
• Rufus Thibodeaux
  Rufus Thibodeaux
  Rufus Thibodeaux was an American Cajun music fiddler.Thibodeaux played guitar from age six and fiddle from age twelve. He played in local dance halls at 13, and joined Julius Lamperez's Cajun band in 1949. He worked extensively as a studio musician for J. D...
  
  : fiddle
• Ben Keith
  Ben Keith
  Bennett Keith Schaeufele , better known by his stage name Ben Keith, was an American musician and record producer...
  
  : pedal steel guitar, dobro
• Tim Drummond
  Tim Drummond
  Tim Drummond is an American bass guitarist who has toured and recorded with many notable artists including Conway Twitty, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Ry Cooder, J. J. Cale, Lonnie Mack, Miles Davis, B.B...
  
  : bass
• Karl Himmel: drums
• Joe Allen: bass (electric & upright)
• Ralph Mooney: pedal steel guitar
• Hargus "Pig" Robbins: piano
• Gordon Terry
  Gordon Terry
  Gordon Terry was an adept American bluegrass and country music fiddler and guitarist. He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Fiddlers Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
  
  : fiddle
• Joe Osborn
  Joe Osborn
  Joe Osborn is an American bass guitar virtuoso, notable for his work as a session musician in Los Angeles and Nashville during the period from the 1960s through the 1980s. Osborn's work is widely admired by fellow musicians.Osborn began his career working in local clubs, then played on a hit...
  
  : bass
• Anthony Crawford: mandolin, vocal
• Terry McMillan
  Terry Lee McMillan
  Terry Lee McMillan was an American country musician who played harmonica and percussion. In 1973, he became a member of Eddy Raven's band in Nashville, and worked with Raven until 1975. He then started working with Chet Atkins playing harmonica with his touring show. Later, he toured with Jerry...
  
  : harmonica, jew's harp
• Béla Fleck
  Béla Fleck
  Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
  
  : banjo
• Bobby Thompson: banjo
• David Kirby: guitar
• Grant Boatwright: guitar
• Johnny Christopher: guitar
• Ray Edenton: guitar
• Gove Scrivenor
  Gove Scrivenor
  Gove Scrivenor is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Scrivenor is an autoharp player, and includes the instrument in many of his songs...
  
  : autoharp
  Autoharp
  The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
  
  
• Farrell Morris: percussion
• Marty Stuart
  Marty Stuart
  John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
  
  : mandolin
• Carl Gorodetzky: violin
• Spooner Oldham
  Spooner Oldham
  Dewey Lindon "Spooner" Oldham is an American songwriter and session musician. An organist, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and at FAME Studios on such hit R&B songs as "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett and "I Never Loved a Man" by Aretha...
  
  : piano
• Larry Byrom: vocal
• Rick Palombi: vocal
• Doana Cooper: vocal
• Denise Draper: vocal
• Gail Davies
  Gail Davies
  Gail Davies is an American country music singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of country singer Tex Dickerson....
  
  : vocal
• Betsy Hammer: vocal
• Pam Rose: vocal
• Janis Oliver-Gill: vocal
• Mary Ann Kennedy: vocal
• Kristine Oliver-Arnold: vocal
• Leona Williams: vocal
• Strings:
  • Carl Gorodetsky, leader
  • George Binkley
  • John Borg
  • Roy Christensen
  • Virginia Christensen
  • Charles Everett
  • Larry Harvin
  • Mark Hembree
  • Lee Larrison
  • Betty McDonald
  • Dennis Molchan
  • Pamela Sixfin
  • Mark Tanner
  • David Vanderkooi
  • Gary Vanosdale
  • Carol Walker
  • Stephanie Woolf

Chart performance

Chart (1985)	Peak position
Canadian RPM Top Albums	31
U.S. Billboard 200	75
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums	24