Stephen Stills held his first Light Up the Blues benefit in five years on Saturday at L.A.’s Greek Theater and joined his longtime friend and bandmate Neil Young for most of his headlining set at it.
Young’s 11-song set was his longest performance since he toured Europe with Promise of the Real in 2019, Since that time, he’s only made a handful of public appearances, playing just a few songs at each. His old friend and bandmate Stills joined him on his last eight songs — which consisted of five from Buffalo Springfield, one from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a Young solo number and the set closing “Long May You Run” from the short-lived Stills-Young Band.
The two were backed by Promise of the Real, who did a brief set of their own. They were also joined by another of the performers, Joe Walsh, who played lead guitar on “Mr. Soul.”
Others who played during the evening were Sharon Van Etten, Stills’s son Chris, and Promise of the Real frontman Lukas Nelson‘s father, Willie, and Judy Collins, who joined Stills for a cover of the Traveling Wilburys‘ “Handle With Care.”
There were also two tributes to the late David Crosby: Crosby’s son James Raymond joined Stephen and Chris Stills on “Wooden Ships” and, via video, Graham Nash introduced a 2013 performance of Crosby’s “Guinevere” by the two of them plus jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
Light Up the Blues is a fundraiser for the charity Autism Speaks
REUTERS PHOTO
