I yield to no one in my admiration for Neil Young as a songwriter and musician and as a person but he has a terrible voice. He does the best he can with it but it's still a terrible voice.

I think, though, that it makes his songs more accessable for other performers. A Neil Young song, being intended to be sung by Neil Young, doesn't require great vocal capabilities to be brought off successfully. Any good singer can do a song of his and improve on his version at least technically. Other good songwriters share this trait: Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson for example.