After serving nearly a decade in Dead and Co. and sharing the stage with everyone from Eric Clapton to the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, and Jeff Beck, there are not many situations likely to overwhelm John Mayer. But when he came onstage for “Rockin’ In The Free World” at the end of a scorching Neil Young and Stephen Stills set at the Harvest Moon – A Gathering charity show in Lake Hughes, California, the longest they’d played together since Buffalo Springfield’s short-lived 2011 reunion tour, the look on Mayer’s face clearly read, “Holy fuckin’ shit.”
It was a sentiment shared by Young fans throughout the past hour as they watched Stills and Young rip through CSN/CSNY, Stills-Young Band, and Buffalo Springfield classics, including one they hadn’t played together in an astonishing 57 years. Because Stills is long retired from the road, it was the kind of performance that could only take place at a charity show for a truly worthy cause like The Painted Turtle, a summer camp for children with life-threatening and chronic illnesses. (Some funds also went towards The Bridge School, which educates children with severe physical and speech issues.)
The event took place on the picturesque grounds of the Painted Turtle. It was a brutally hot daytime show with temperatures hovering around 92 degrees for much of the running time. Misting fans were set up throughout the site, there was plenty of free water, and spectators were given cardboard fans and neon-colored parasols to stay cool. (Fans who attended the 2019 incarnation featuring Young, Norah Jones, and Father John Misty said this one was chilly by comparison.)
The festivities kicked off with Marimba, led by Dr. Ric Alviso, an ethnomusicologist at Cal State Northridge. They spotlight popular music from Africa and Latin America, and their set featured joyous renditions of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” “La Bamba,” and, surpsiringly, “Kids” by MGMT. They were followed by Hawaiian folk-pop singer/songwriter Lily Meola, who was accompanied by guitarists Bee Kennedy and Melissa Fuller. The trio performed Meola originals like “Heartbreak Rodeo” in addition to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound.”
Fans rushed the stage for John Mayer’s solo acoustic set, which was his first performance since Dead and Co. wrapped up their Las Vegas Sphere residency back in August. He was in a playful mood as he opened with “Who Says” and “Something Like Olivia” before asking for requests. A bold fan in front called out the Grateful Dead deep cut “The Eleven” and he briefly attempted to make it happen before moving into the safer territory of “In The Blood” from 2017’s The Search For Everything. Later in the set, he tried to please a fan who called out “New Deep” from Continuum even though he hadn’t gone near it since 2013. He didn’t get through much of it before giving up.
With the clock ticking, he explained he was going to break out a song more of the crowd was likely to know. “I’m going to play one you’re going to hate,” he said, pointing to the folks in front, “because this is very super-fan’d out here. But the people in the back are going to love this one. You guys can take a bathroom break since you’ll go, ‘I’ve seen 5,000 of these.’ But this will be very special for people who have maybe seen one-and-a-half on average.”
He was talking about his 2006 hit “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room,” which was indeed greeted by squeals of recognition. He then closed out the brief set with an emotional “Waiting on the World to Change,” explaining that it spikes on Spotify whenever the world situation grows especially dire. “Back in June/July, this song was doing terrible, which made me very happy,” he said. “But now it’s spiking again. I’m making considerable income, and I don’t like that.”
Neil Young and Stephen Stills were the two final acts of the evening, and nobody knew in advance how this would play out. The answer became clear when they walked out together alongside bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony Logerfo, and kicked into the title track to their 1976 collaborative album Long May You Run. This wasn’t going to be two distinct sets, but rather a rare chance to see the former bandmates journey together through their collective past.
They followed “Long May You Run” with “Human Highway,” the title track to CSNY’s aborted Deja Vu follow-up that Young eventually released on Comes a Time. “The worst four words you can hear in a live performance are ‘here’s a new song,’” Stills told the crowd. “But this is actually a new version of an old song that took two centuries to write. It’s called ‘Hung Upside Down.’”
The true aficionados in the audience knew he was talking about a tune from Buffalo Springfield Again that Young and Stills hadn’t played together since the group’s heyday in 1967. It was a somewhat ramshackle rendition, but anyone would be a bit rusty after not playing a song for 57 years. (If you’re into stats, this shattered the record for the longest gap between performances in Young’s career. The previous record-holder was the 48 years he took between live takes of “If I Could Have Her Tonight.”)
“Helplessly Hoping” is a tough song to pull off without the pristine harmonies of Crosby and Nash, and Stills doesn’t have the pipes he had back in the Sixties and Seventies, but he attempted it anyway. Let’s just say Nash and tour-mate Judy Collins do a better job of it on their ongoing tour.
Young took over lead vocals for “Field of Opportunity” before telling the crowd how he first met Stills. “I was playing in a band called the Squires,” he said. “Stephen showed up with his band the Company and the 4th Dimension in Fort William, Ontario, where we were playing. That’s where we met and where we started playing back in…back in a while ago.”
Young went further back into “a while ago” for the nostalgic “Helpless” about his childhood in Omemee, Ontario. Stills was on piano for that one, recreating parts he played on the original recording in 1970. He returned to the guitar for a singalong rendition of “Love The One You’re With” before Young welcomed Meola, Fuller, and Kennedy back out to sing background on “Heart of Gold,” “Harvest Moon” and “For What It’s Worth.”
They closed out the set with a blazing “Bluebird” and an extended guitar duel that proved what incredible chemistry Stills and Young still have together after all these decades. It’s a shame Richie Furay couldn’t have been invited onto the bill to to make this a proper Buffalo Springfield reunion. Hopefully that happens in the not-too-distant future. The 2011 reunion tour was painfully short, and many fans didn’t have any opportunity to see it.
Stills stayed backstage while Young kicked off the encore with the On The Beach classic “Vampire Blues,” and then reemerged alongside Mayer for a wild “Rockin’ In The Free World” to wrap up the show. Mayer wisely stayed on the sidelines and let Young and Stills handle the leads until the very end when they pointed to him and let him briefly rip out a killer solo. The sun was finally setting by this point, and the sweaty crowd shuffled to the parking lot with big smiles on their faces.
The Stills/Young saga that started “a while ago” has gone through many twists and turns over the past six decades, and quite a few “eat a peach” moments where it appeared hopelessly fractured. But the power of their friendship and genuine love for each other always put the broken pieces back together. Watching them joyously rock out in 2024 is a happy ending that CSN/CSNY didn’t get a chance to enjoy. Let’s hope it lasts at least a little bit longer.