Thursday, April 27, 2023

Stephen Stills & Neil Young - Light Up the Blues Benefit, Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, CA, 4-25-2015

As I write this in April 2023, Stephen Stills has a new archival live album out, called "Live in Berkeley 1971." I'm glad because it fills a key gap in his musical history. His first solo tour was in 1971, when he was at a peak of his musical creativity, but there have been only one or two poor sounding audience bootlegs to document this tour. So the new album is a big step up. 

I'm not going to post that here, since it's an album that now exists instead of one that should exist. However, to celebrate its release, I can post something else from Stills. A short concert he did in 2015 with Neil Young came to mind, so here it is.

Of course, Stills has played with Young lots of times, first as part of Buffalo Springfield (including a 2011 reunion tour), and then as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY). But the only time they played just as a duo was in 1976. They put out an album together called "Long May You Run." They started a concert tour together, but Young got bored and quit halfway through. They're remained close friends, even though the ups and downs of CSNY, but surprisingly have almost never played as a duo since 1976. This concert is a nice exception to that rule. 

The only other cases I know of are this same "Light Up the Blues" annual benefit in 2016, and then again just a few days ago as a I write this. Looking for a cover photo for this album, I stumbled upon the fact that there was another benefit on April 22, 2023, with not only Stills and Young playing together, but Joe Walsh joining in on a couple of songs. I hope a good recording of that emerges that can be shared. But what makes this show particularly nice is that the sound quality is pretty good. I think it's an audience bootleg, not a soundboard, but it's close enough that I wasn't sure at first.

The concert starts with an introduction by actor Brad Pitt, of all people. There were some other artists performing, including Steve Earle, Shawn Colvin, and White Buffalo, so the set was relatively short. (All of the acts joined in on the "Rockin' in the Free World" encore.) I like that Stills and Young avoided some of the usual CSNY warhorses and played relatively new songs, like "If I Don't Know," "Virtual World," and "Don't Want Lies."

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk by Brad Pitt (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
02 Long May You Run (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
03 talk (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
04 Human Highway (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
05 talk (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
06 If I Don't Know (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
07 Virtual World (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
08 Don't Want Lies (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
09 talk (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
10 For What It's Worth (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
11 talk (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
12 Bluebird (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
13 talk (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
14 Mr. Soul (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)
15 Rockin' in the Free World (Stephen Stills & Neil Young)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15175092/StllsYung_2015_LghtUpBluesBnefitPantgesTheatreHllywoodCA__4-25-2015_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

1 comment:

  1. As always, you are impeccable in your posts and the amazing things you discover and share, thank you so much! I hope that the day will come when you will post something from an American country rock band called Firefall, originally from Colorado - I think their sound has everything to do with what you like, especially their first 3 albums. A hug from your friend from Brazil.

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