The film opens with interviews with Young and most of his band, which includes Emmylou Harris, Young's then-wife Pegi Young, steel guitarist Ben Keith, and keyboardist Spooner Oldham. They and the other band members describe the concert and the making of Prairie Wind. The recording of the album and the filming of the concert occurred just before and after Young's surgery to correct a cerebral aneurysm, and just a few months after the death of Young's father Scott Young.
The first half of the concert consists entirely of songs from Prairie Wind, and the second half consists of acoustic songs from throughout Young's career. Young describes the inspiration behind several of his songs.
Songs in the film
The performance captured in Neil Young: Heart of Gold was filmed over two nights on August 18 and 19 2005 at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Recorded by Chad Halley and David Hewitt on Remote Recording's Silver Truck. In order to increase the length of the concert film, director Jonathan Demme asked Neil Young to supplement the songs from Prairie Wind with an encore set of older songs. Young agreed and selected songs that he had previously recorded in Nashville. The two sets are set apart by a costume change for the musicians and a different backdrop on the stage.
All songs are written by Young, except where otherwise noted.
Prairie Wind set
"The Painter"
"No Wonder"
"Falling Off the Face of the Earth"
"Far From Home" – Young introduces the song by telling a story about his father giving him an Arthur Godfreyukulele when he was about seven years old and working on a chicken farm.
"Old Man" - introduced with Young explaining the inspiration for the song[3] being "an old gentleman named Louis Avila," who was the caretaker of the ranch Young purchased when he first became successful.
"Comes a Time" – dedicated to Nicolette Larson who sang on Young's Comes a Time album; features the backing singers and crew lined up across the front of the stage playing acoustic guitars.
The film had a limited release to the general public, but came to popular critical acclaim with an 85% average on Metacritic and a 91% Fresh rating average on Rotten Tomatoes.
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