Promise of a ragged Neil

After a helicopter flew directly over the Ascend Amphitheatre and fire engine sirens blared on a nearby street, Neil Young almost pleaded for a break from city noises. As if on cue, a tugboat horn groaned from the Cumberland River, the crowd erupting in laughter.

There would be no further interruptions from downtown Nashville, as Young and his much younger backing band, Promise of the Real, scorched through a two-plus hour set of Young classics (Steve Earle opened but we only heard Copperhead Road when walking into the amphitheatre).

 A solo Neil Young set has long been a glaring omission in my concert-going history. I have seen him with Crosby, Stills and Nash in 2006, but aside from Ohio and Rockin' in the Free World, he skipped the classics for his awful protest record Living with War. In fairness, it’s been six years since he played Nashville, a two-night Ryman stand I just plain missed. I feared he might spend too much time on new material, given how active he’s been in protesting the Alberta tar sands and GMO giant Monsanto.

Young allayed all fears with the first piano notes of After the Gold Rush. Opening with a seven-song solo set, alternating between guitar and piano, Young went straight for cherished tunes - Heart of Gold, Needle and the Damage Done, Long May You Run, Pocahontas, and the first of many tunes from Ragged Glory, Mother Earth (Natural Anthem), came via some updated lyrics to fit the mood of Young’s recent environmental protest album. Long May You Run was especially welcome to these ears, the ode to one of Young’s dead cars and one of my favorite songs ever.

 After an odd interlude with people in hazmat suits spaying the stage, Promise of the Real joined Young for a rollicking take on Out on the Weekend, the fragile, poignant opener to Harvest. They switched from the heavier songs to a pair of softer cuts like Unknown Legend and One of These Days.

 Young chose his backing band well. Fronted by Lukas and Micah Nelson, sons of Willie, they seemed a match for Young. While not quite a replacement for Crazy Horse, Promise had the stamina and chops to keep up with the septuagenarian Young. Walk On soon blazed out of the amplifiers. Young reportedly had Promise of the Real learn 80 across his 50-year career, so the shifts between decades were not jarring.

When Young started talking about the death of a music legend, for a moment I wasn’t sure if he meant Prince or Merle Haggard. It's hard to be sure in 2016 - iconic musicians have been dropping like flies. This being Nashville, I expected Haggard, and Young complied by breaking into a spirited take on Okie from Muskogee.

Newer songs rely on a touch of deception. The guitars crunch as they always have, but the lyrics make plainer references to corporate power and environmental depredation. If you ears fuzz out, the songs blend in. I chose that approach rather than digging into the words. I Won’t Quit, a basher with rambling lyrics that Young debuted at 2015 Farm Aid, might have been the most memorable of the new songs, but it doesn’t quite recapture his classic feel.

Fortunately the set never leaned on newer songs. Harvest closer Words (Between the Lines of Age) saw the band loosen up, extended soloing pushing the run time past 10 minutes. Down by the River, never my favorite Neil track, grew on me as it evolved into a 20-minute slow-burner. With the muddy chords and his amazingly unchanged voice, Young returned to Ragged Glory with Fuckin’ Up and Country Home. Plus, no concert suffered for the inclusion of Powderfinger.

After a bow and a pause, the band came back for Roll Another Number, the last number they would roll along the Cumberland shore. Old classics, reinvigorated cuts from Ragged Glory and the relative absence of new songs shaped Young’s set into an eclectic evening capable of quenching fans casual or hardcore.