As Young began venturing into his solo career, he got a call from his old bandmate Stephen Stills about the prospect of working alongside David Crosby and Graham Nash. Although the trio had already created a phenomenal debut record, Young would come on for the album Deja Vu, adding his signature flair to the other members’ songs while turning in stellar tracks like ‘Helpless’.
Even though the band had been a humble folk-rock act on their first album, Young’s aesthetic brought an edge to their sound, sounding much more caustic whenever he strapped on his guitar. For all of the outstanding contributions that Young made to everyone else’s tracks, one of the most celebrated songs that Young ever made didn’t make the final cut of the album.
During his time with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Young got word about the Kent State massacre in 1970, where cops fired upon various student protestors. Disgusted by what he saw in print and on the news, Young documented his grief in the song, ‘Ohio’, which would become one of the many protest songs he wrote for the group.
Looking back on that era of his songwriting, Young would single out ‘Ohio’ as one of his finest moments, recalling in Classic Rock Stories, “It was really like the folk process at work. You know, that was really like music as news. It’s still hard to believe I had to write this song. It’s ironic that I capitalised on the death of these American students. My best CSN&Y cut”.
Stephen Stills and Neil Young teamed once again on stage with other fellow music legends Willie Nelson and Joe Walsh. The occasion is the sixth edition of Stills’ Light Up the Blues concert series, which was held April 22, 2023, at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, benefitting Autism Speaks.
The other performers at the show (Joe Walsh, Willie Nelson, Sharon Van Etten, Chris Stills, and Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real) stuck to about two songs each, but Young had top billing and it felt like he might give a little more.
Young and Stills then performed an 11-song set, backed by Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real. It included selections from Young's solo career, like "Comes a Time" and "Heart of Gold," one CSNY song, "Helpless," plus five Buffalo Springfield songs: "On the Way Home," "Everybody's Wrong," "For What It's Worth," "Bluebird" and "Mr. Soul," the last of which featured Walsh on guitar. The evening concluded with Young and Stills performing "Long May You Run."
Past events have included appearances by Crosby, Stills & Nash, John Mayer, Patti Smith, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Beck, the late Burt Bacharach and others. Additional acts are expected to be added to this year’s lineup in the coming weeks.
“We’ll be there to ‘Light up the Blues’ with Stephen, [his wife] Kristen and the family,” Young tells Rolling Stone in a statement, “doing or first show in four years with old friends for our autistic people around the world.”
“We are so thrilled to be able to come back and support Autism Speaks,” added Kristen Stills. “The one thing that did not change during the pandemic was the rising rates of autism prevalence in the U.S. They require more funding than ever for the research they do. Stephen and I join them in their mission to create a more inclusive world for people with autism.”
This is the sixth Light Up the Blues concert the Stills family has organized since the inaugural event in 2013. It’s grown in size and scope every time and has featured Crosby, Stills & Nash, John Mayer, Patti Smith, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Beck, Burt Bacharach, and many other big-name acts.
