Neil Young has never been one to play by the rules, bucking trends and maintaining control over his own career ever since he found his way from Canada to Los Angeles and joined Buffalo Springfield. At age 77, one might expect the Canadian rocker to either hang it up after a prolific career or get in line with those of his peers who are still alive and deliver greatest hits shows to boomers on the casino circuit. Instead, Young has continued to release new albums on a frequent basis – sometimes multiple albums in a year – while switching between playing with young guns like Lukas Nelson’s Promise of the Real and his beloved Crazy Horse. Now, in the midst of his first tour since 2019, Young is once again doing things his way with sets of deep cuts and the occasional classic. On Tuesday, July 18th, the Coastal tour found him hitting the stage solo along with a slew of instruments at the RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater in Ridgefield, Washington.
Pretty much any living musician would consider it an honor to open for Neil Young, and for this tour that honor goes to troubadour Chris Pierce. Accompanied by his harmonica and acoustic guitar, Piece delivered a handful of tunes off his upcoming album Let All Who Will, which is due out September 1st. An early highlights included “American Silence,” a harp-driven tune with impassioned vocals and a heartland folk sound that carried a strong political undertone. Pierce focused on the topic of wage theft with his blues-soaked “Chain Gang Forth of July,” and he floored the crowd with his gospel-soul vocal howl and wild harp playing on “Static Trampoline.” He went back to previewing the new album with his closing tune “Tulsa Town,” a haunting examination of the Tulsa race massacre that combined a dark Western ballad with a sound and tone reminiscent of “House Of The Rising Sun.” By the end of his short set, Pierce had impressed the crowd and clearly raised his musical profile with a new group of fans.
Anyone expecting a normal, straightforward musical performance may have been disappointed in what transpired when Neil Young hit the stage. What he gave fans was more akin to Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway project, a sprawling and at times groovily meandering run of songs and stories that seemed to capture the journey of his life. Throughout the set, Young picked up guitars, sat down at pianos, and pondered over the best harmonica to use. On opener “I’m The Ocean,” he donned a twelve-string acoustic to deliver a more subdued yet still impressive rendition of the grungy rocker from 1995. “Home Fires” brought it back to his folkier days and felt like a heartfelt tune that could have been played in a coffee shop in the 60s – all while a faux fireplace burned cozily behind him. One of the highlights of the bohemian living room stage design was a toy train that rode in circles around the fireplace as he sang tunes like “Prime of Life.” Young would touch on material from his other bands several times throughout the night, introducing an almost antique sounding version of Buffalo Springfield’s “Burned” as “an old old old old song” before sipping his tea and following it with a version of the band’s “On the Way Home” that was dreamy and laced with subtly psychedelic touches of harp. Though Young appeared to be singing off a teleprompter at times or using printed lyrics, this didn’t take away from his road-worn authenticity and you definitely can’t blame him considering the size of his songbook. He would play “If You Got Love” on a beautifully bizarre sounding organ that he said he purchased many years ago for $800.
With such a massive catalogue, Young was bound to include at least a few songs that would be known to the more casual fans in attendance. These included “Vampire Blues” played with his electric guitar “Old Black,” “Throw Your Hatred Down” played with his 12-string, a wonky organ rendition of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul” that felt like it could have been played by Daniel Johnston, a cranked up rendition of “Ohio,” and the set-closing “Heart of Gold.” By the time Young wrapped up the evening with “Comes a Time,” he had succeeded in bringing the crowd on a journey through his career. Though many in the audience were surely itching for a fully electric Crazy Horse show or perhaps just a run through his “hits,” Young instead provided them with a reminder of where he’s been, where he’s going, and what he’s all about. For the non Neil-obsessed, parts of the show may have felt a bit indulgent, but ultimately it was a proper performance from one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
