Nils Lofgren, Neil Young Perform ‘Believe’ at Bridge School Benefit
Nils Lofgren made his fourth appearance at Neil Young‘s Bridge School Benefit Saturday night, with the E Street Band guitarist performing his first set at the annual Mountain View, California weekend-long event since 1991. To mark the occasion, during Lofgren’s performance of his 1973 track “Believe,” Young joined Lofgren onstage to lend his harmonica to the Grin song as well as share vocals on the moving final chorus.
The two rockers have a long history together – a teenaged Lofgren first appeared on Young’s 1970 LP After the Gold Rush – and their “Believe” duet was the first time since the 1991 Bridge School benefit that the pair had performed the song together. Lofgren and Young also tackled the track during the 1988 Bridge School concert at Oakland, California’s Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
In addition to Lofgren’s Saturday-only solo set, the multi-instrumentalist joined Young and Promise of the Real on piano for the entirety of their nine-song Bridge School gig. That closing set concluded with most of the evening’s performers – Dixie Chicks, St. Vincent, Gary Clark, Jr., Sheryl Crow and others – joining Young onstage for a sing-along of Harvest Moon‘s “One of These Days.”