Jesse Colin Young is the guy with the memorable voice in the Youngbloods' song "Get Together." The song was a huge hit for the Youngbloods in 1969, two years after its original release. Young's voice carried the Youngbloods through several outstanding recordings, the best being 1969's "Elephant Mountain."

Almost all the Youngbloods' albums show off Young's strengths as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, but "Elephant Mountain" is full of highlights. Young's magnificent "Sunlight" is the standout on that album, which alternates between Young's songcraft and '60s-style noodling. "Sunlight" knocked me out when I first heard it on the radio and the album has remained one of my '60s favorites. I love the rest of the Youngbloods' work too, right through the time Young dissolved the group for a productive solo career in 1972.

I saw the Youngbloods perform in the spring of 1970 at Dartmouth. They were all thin as rakes and exuded the hippie ethos that you could hear on the albums. (On one of their last albums they included a funny riposte to "Okie From Muskogie" called "Hippie From Olema.") I only knew the band from "Get Together" at the time and didn't appreciate the show. I've long wanted to see Young perform again and last night I finally caught up with him at Rossi's Blue Room in downtown Minneapolis.

Although Young's voice has lost a bit in its range (at the lower end of his high tenor) and in its timbre, he sounded great. Young is performing with his wife on violin and two neighbors of his from Kona on fretless bass and drums/congas. Even more than in the Youngbloods, Young carries the melodic weight, playing a combination of rhythm and lead on guitar. The quartet -- he calls it Celtic Mambo -- has a jazzy ensemble feel and beautifully reinvents the old songs. Young opened with "Songbird," got to "Sunlight" by song five, and included beautiful versions of "Song for Juli," "Miss Hesitation," "Grizzly Bear," "Ride the Wind," "La Bamba" and "Ridgetop." He concluded the show with "Get Together" and came back for an encore with "Darkness, Darkness" off "Elephant Mountain."

We loved the show. I would not have been able to pick Young out of a lineup -- he doesn't look anything like he did in the '60s and '70s. At age 64, however, he was energetic, engaging and inspirational. According to Young's site, he will be appearing in Germantown, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Nelsonville and Yellow Springs, Ohio, Annapolis and Kyle, Texas over the next month. If you have a chance to catch his show, I recommend it.

UPDATE: Reader Peter Grilli reminds me:

The great lead guitar (and keyboard) playing on "Elephant Mountain" was by "Banana" -- Young mostly played the bass, competently, but not really at the level of McCartney, Bruce, etc. It's unusual for one person to have good playing chops on both piano and guitar but Banana had 'em.

I forgot that Young filled the bass guitar duties in the Youngbloods. "Banana" is Lowell Levinger, the Younbloods' multi-instrumentalist who wrote and sang "Hippie From Olema" on "Good and Dusty." He contributed greatly to the Youngbloods' good-time vibe and went on to a long association with Mimi Farina after the Youngbloods dissolved.