In this exquisite concert film directed by Jonathan Demme, Neil Young expresses modest hopes for his two-night stint at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, the home of the original Grand Ole Opry. He states he wants to “play well, share the stage with my friends, and let the muse have us.” He succeeds magnificently, as does Demme, who keeps the music and performers center stage, without intrusive crowd reaction shots, flashy camerawork, or jarring cuts to distract or detract.

The flip side of Young’s ferocious Rust Never Sleeps, Heart of Gold finds Young in a more thoughtful and reflective mood, performing his Grammy-nominated acoustic album, Prairie Wind.

Young had written and recorded the album in the wake of his father’s death and his own diagnosis with a brain aneurysm. The music recalls his 1972 classic Harvest, with songs about his father, his daughter, his god, and even, in a duet with the incomparable Emmylou Harris, his guitar; which, he informs us, once belonged to Hank Williams and is making its own homecoming. (Barnes & Noble)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

“I just want to play well, share the stage with my friends, give the best I can,” says Neil Young before the concert that is the centerpiece of Heart of Gold. No problem, dude. Working with filmmaker Jonathan Demme, Young has come up with a gem–not all flash and bling-bling, but as understated as a single pearl, musically restrained yet emotionally open.

Of course, neither Demme (an Oscar winner for The Silence of the Lambs; he also helmed Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense) nor Young would call it “a concert film”; the director describes it as “a dream concert, something that’s literally being dreamt by Neil,” while the singer-songwriter himself calls it “a multi-level story.”

Whatever, the project came together in 2005, as Young was finishing his Prairie Wind album (the latest in a string of lovely, country-flavored acoustic recordings dating back to 1972’s Harvest) and preparing to debut the music at Nashville’s fabled Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry. The fact that Young had also recently experienced a brain aneurysm might or might not have influenced his decision to film the show, but it certainly seems to have had an effect on the music.

He and his band (which, with the addition of horns, strings, and backup singers, including Emmylou Harris, occasionally numbers forty or more musicians) perform Prairie Wind in its entirety, and there is some deeply moving, highly personal material here; in addition to the gospel-tinged “When God Made Me” and the dirge-like “No Wonder,” Young sings about his recently-deceased father (the title song), his newly adult daughter (”Here for You”), the guitar he plays that once belonged to Hank Williams (”This Old Guitar”), and even his dog (”He Was the King”). (Amazon)