Neil Young: Heart of Gold: Synopsis

August 19, 2005. Nashville, Tennessee. A man is sitting alone on a stage at the Ryman Auditorium, the hallowed shrine of American music, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. He is playing and singing, though the evening’s performance is long over and the hall is now empty. When he finishes, there is no applause; he puts his guitar into its case, snaps it closed, and walks off into the shadows. Neil Young has just finished two performances of his newest album, “Prairie Wind,” to a crowd whose adoration has never waned, but some things never change: as soon as the audience is gone, Young plays one more song, this one for himself and the sheer love of the music.

“Neil Young: Heart of Gold,” a groundbreaking union of film and music ministered by director Jonathan Demme and Neil Young, is the permanent record that emerged from these two concerts at the Ryman. Young, accompanied by musicians -- strings, horns, and singers, including a gospel choir -- performed, in its entirety, “Prairie Wind,” the album Young had finished recording only months earlier. Following that, Young offered a selection of other songs, mostly from the “Harvest” and “Harvest Moon” albums, which, taken with “Prairie Wind,” together feels like a trilogy. This was not, however, just another concert of new work and past hits randomly patched together. All of the works melded into a rational whole, a connected body of work. Young not only refocused the emphasis of many of the songs he’d performed over the years, but took a fresh look at how these songs relate to one another as well. At the end of this film, many, even the most fanatical Young-devotees, will view his past work with new eyes.

“Neil Young: Heart of Gold” is filmmaker Jonathan Demme’s (“Philadelphia,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “Stop Making Sense”) intimate musical portrait of legendary singer/songwriter Neil Young, filmed on the occasion of the world premiere of Young’s “Prairie Wind” concert at Nashville’s hallowed Ryman Auditorium last summer. Young’s music provides an emotionally rich view into this unique artist’s relationship to family, friends, mortality, and the passage of time. Young is accompanied onstage by many long time musical companions, including country star Emmylou Harris, Neil’s wife Pegi Young, and bandleader/steel guitarist Ben Keith.