Harvest Moon is the 21st studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released on November 2, 1992.

Recovering from a case of tinnitus that had come about after the recording of Ragged Glory (1990) and its subsequent tour (which produced the 1991 albums Weld and Arc), Young returned to the studio with Ben Keith, picking up the acoustic guitar, piano and banjo that had dominated albums such as Harvest, Comes a Time and Old Ways.

Young discussed the idea of making a follow up to Harvest in a 1992 Rolling Stone interview with Alan Light: "People had been asking me to do it for twenty years, and I never could figure out what it was in the first place.

He explains in a contemporary interview: "There's two groups of songs on the record: those that I started a long time ago and were finished in 1991 or '92, and those that were written entirely in other years.

I also composed a couple of songs last summer while on vacation with my wife and kids in Evergreen, Colorado.

"[13] "Unknown Legend" is a portrait of Young's wife Pegi, whom he met working at a diner in 1974.

Young remembers in his memoir, Special Deluxe: "Back in 1974, there was a bar up on Skyline Boulevard, California Highway 35, located on the ridge above the ranch.

The chorus was first performed during the intro to "I Am a Child" at a February 1971 solo acoustic concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

In a 2021 post to the Neil Young Archives website, Young confirms that the song is about his marriage with Pegi: "Harvest Moon is a song I wrote for Pegi, my wife of many years, who gave me two beautiful children and helped bring up my first child Zeke.

"[19]The album was recorded in late September, 1991 at the Redwood Digital studio located in a barn on Young's ranch in Woodside, California.

The group, dubbed the Stray Gators, includes pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith, bassist Tim Drummond, drummer Kenny Buttrey and pianist Spooner Oldham, as well as vocalists Nicolette Larson, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.

[20] In 1992, Young toured North America playing a solo acoustic set featuring songs from the album as well as from his back catalogue.

A compilation of performances from the tour was released on the 2009 Dreamin' Man live album, containing solo renditions of each of the Harvest Moon tracks in a different order.

Music website Classic Rock Review named Harvest Moon its album of the year for 1992.

[22] The album continued Young's commercial and critical resurgence following Freedom and Ragged Glory, eventually outselling both of those records.

Los Angeles electronic production duo Poolside recorded a cover of "Harvest Moon" for their 2012 album Pacific Standard Time American folk duo Shovels & Rope recorded "Unknown Legend" with Shakey Graves in 2015.

Los Angeles indie rock band Lord Huron recorded a cover of "Harvest Moon" in 2018 for a Spotify Singles session.

Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of TV on The Radio, performs an a cappella version of Unknown Legend in the Jonathan Demme film Rachel Getting Married.