WINNIPEG - He's been to Hollywood. He's been to Redwood. And yesterday evening, for the first time in a decade, Winnipeg-raised rock god Neil Young came home.

He brought some friends with him -- former bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash -- and together, the foursome more than made up for the Juno Awards show Young had to bow out of last year.

The storied folk-rock quartet may be getting on in years (all four members are in their early to mid-60s), but if last night's show was any indication, age certainly hasn't slowed them down.

Anyone who picked up Young's last two albums already knew that -- the autumnal Prairie Wind and the venomous Living With War being among the best he's released in a long time. But marginally more of a surprise was how cohesive the legendary luminaries (who haven't played together in a few years, not as a foursome anyway) sounded on stage last night.

It helps they're motivated by the same things these days. They don't like war, and they can't stand George W. Bush, so their set list was understandably heavy on the vitriolic protest songs and idealistic odes to utopia.

Like opening number Flags Of Freedom, which saw the quartet taking to a stage adorned by a massive Maple Leaf (soon to be replaced by the Union Jack, Ol' Glory, and eventually a huge peace symbol). The 100-member choir from the Living With War album was absent, but really -- who needs choirs when you've got a band responsible for some of rock 'n' roll's most heavenly harmonies?

The impressive vocal-chordings were front and centre on Wooden Ships, which found Young -- clad in an army-green shirt and Tilley hat -- bouncing across a stage on which the words of the U.S. constitution were projected.

Tunes from Living With War were interspersed with numbers from CS&N's solo albums (Stills' Wounded World, Nash's Military Madness, Crosby's They Want It All), giving everyone a few turns at the mike, and in Young's case, the harmonica.

The between-song banter was minimal. Aside from introducing the band, Young waited until just before intermission to address the (sold out) crowd of 13,000 -- expounding on the origin of the song Families, then dedicating it to fallen Canadian Cpl. Anthony Boneca.

"The announcer was talking about how the war had changed medicine," Young said, after noting the song was inspired by a news report on military medical planes. "I couldn't help but think that was a bit off. Anyway, I wanted to do this song tonight for a boy from Thunder Bay."

After the break, the boys returned with some less-political fare, starting with the uber-mellow Helplessly Hoping and following it with Our House, Nash's valentine to former girlfriend Joni Mitchell.

Young took a seat at the piano for Only Love Can Break Your Heart, and for the next half-hour or so, the band spun folksy versions of tracks like Guinevere, Milky Way Tonight, and Teach Your Children.

As always, press time came before anticipated closers Ohio, Woodstock, and Rockin' In the Free World, but the sequencing of the songs that came before -- and the masterful musicianship on display -- left little to complain about (except for the fact we'll have to wait a few more years for Young to grace these parts with another solo show).

Until then, don't be such a stranger, Neil.

And hurray the heck back, would 'ya?

Our extensive, exclusive, personal chat with Neil

Neil Young is a man of few words. Especially when he's on his way to a gig.

"Feels great" to be back in Winnipeg, the rock icon told the Sun yesterday afternoon as he walked from the Fairmont Hotel to his custom tour bus en route to his sold-out MTS Centre show with CSNY.

Young, making his first appearance in his old stomping grounds in 10 years, declined all our requests for a formal interview. So we spent most of the day baking in the heat outside his hotel, hoping for a couple of words -- which was almost exactly what we got.

Young emerged from the hotel lobby at just past 4 p.m. with his bandmates and security personnel. Each performer climbed aboard a separate bus to make the short drive to the arena.

The 60-year-old rocker, wearing jeans, a green shirt and a Tilley hat, told the Sun he had a "very nice" visit with family after arriving in the city Wednesday afternoon. Then he boarded his bus and took off.

Despite all the hoopla surrounding Young's appearance -- the rocker is making good on his promise to play a hometown gig, after being forced to bow out of the Juno Awards due to a cerebral aneurysm last year -- only a half-dozen fans were on hand outside the hotel waiting for autographs.

"I expected more people to be here," said Shawn Gottfried, who got Young to sign his Heart of Gold movie poster. Don't expect to find the poster on EBay, though. "I wanted him to inscribe it to me. It's all for me."

- with files from Todd Nickel