Neil Young & Stephen Stills Break Out Buffalo Springfield Rarity After 57 Years & Jam With John Mayer

Former Buffalo Springfield and CSNY bandmates Neil Young and Stephen Stills once again shared the stage together on Saturday at the “Harvest Moon” benefit concert and performed “Hung Upside Down” for the first time since 1967. Guitarist John Mayer was also a participant in the event and joined Young and Stills for “Rockin’ In The Free World.”

The daytime event supporting The Painted Turtle and The Bridge School was held at The Painted Turtle camp in Lake Hughes, California. Non-profit The Painted Turtle provides free camp experiences for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. The Bridge School provides free educational resources to children with severe speech and physical impairments. Neil Young and his late ex-wife Pegi Young became involved with The Bridge School in the 1980s and hosted many all-star benefit concerts in support of the organization through 2016.

Young and Stills were co-founding members of the short-lived, late-1960s rock band Buffalo Springfield and later became bandmates again in CSNY alongside David Crosby and Graham Nash. Young and Stills performed together in April 2023 at Stills’ annual benefit concert for Autism Speaks and again weeks later at Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday celebration.

For their “Harvest Moon” performance, Stills and Young were backed by bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo of Promise of the Real who have recently backed Young in his newly formed band The Chrome Hearts. Their set began with Young’s “Long May You Run” and “Human Highway.”

Stills then handled lead vocals on “Hung Upside Down.” According to Neil Young setlist database Sugar Mountain, Buffalo Springfield performed the song twice in 1967. The obscure deep cut appeared on the 1967 album, Buffalo Springfield Again, and had not been performed by Young outside of Buffalo Springfield prior to Saturday’s bust out. The rarity was followed by Stills leading his CSNY staple “Helplessly Hoping.”

Young’s “Field Of Opportunity” and “Helpless” came next. The pair then worked up Stills’ “Love The One You’re With.”

Stills sat out the next two songs, “Heart Of Gold” and the event’s namesake “Harvest Moon,” which featured backing vocals by Lily Meola, Melissa Fuller and Bre Kennedy. The guest vocalists remained as Stills came back to join a performance of his Buffalo Springfield anthem “For What It’s Worth.”

The guest singers exited ahead of the set-closing “Bluebird,” another somewhat obscure song that appeared on Buffalo Springfield Again. The veteran rockers returned to kick off the encore with Young’s “Vampire Blues.”

“Harvest Moon” performer John Mayer, who played a solo set earlier in the day, was brought out for the “Rockin’ In The Free World” finale that also saw the return the backing singers and drew the benefit concert to a raucous conclusion. Watch audience-captured video footage of “Hung Upside Down” and more from Saturday’s benefit concert below:

Setlist (via Sugar Mountain)

Set: Long May You Run, Human Highway, Hung Upside Down, Helplessly Hoping, Field Of Opportunity, Helpless, Love The One You’re With, Heart Of Gold, Harvest Moon, For What It’s Worth, Bluebird

Encore: Vampire Blues, Rockin’ In The Free World

Notes:

• Stills sat out Heart Of Gold & Vampire Blues
• Lily Meola, Melissa Fuller & Bre Kennedy backing vocals on Heart Of Gold, Harvest Moon, For What It’s Worth & Rockin’ In The Free World
• John Mayer electric guitar on Rockin’ In The Free World