After performing solo for few acoustic numbers, the Stray Gators, which included drummer Kenny Buttrey, well-known Nashville pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith [he played the memorable sections on Patsy Cline’s immortal “I Fall to Pieces” years earlier], pianist Jack Nitzsche and bassist Tim Drummond, subtly joined Young onstage for “Out on the Weekend” from “Harvest,” which he’d release about a year earlier to critical praise, good radio play and solid sales.

The show featured songs from several albums and eras. But there was an odd tension in the air. Late into the concert, Young told the audience he’d “wanted to play here for a long time,” and with that, launched into “Alabama,” a song from “Harvest.” It was a sequel of sorts that took up where his “Southern Man” on “After the Gold Rush” left off, likely sending Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd even deeper into their historic twist. But it was clear the Memorial Coliseum crowd loved it.

An interesting side note: Tickets to UPC concerts in Memorial Coliseum, the University of Alabama’s largest enclosed campus venue, were general admission. People would show up early, often in long lines that wrapped around the facility or down the front stairs. When the doors opened eager concertgoers would push into the Coliseum to get the best seats. On the night of Young’s show, the crowd rushed a little too hard and shattered the glass on one of the building’s front doors. The university demanded change. The UPC changed course and installed wooden fences on concert nights to better direct people into the Coliseum and prevent another such scene.

While Young would return to Tuscaloosa to perform at a local amphitheater many years later, he remains the sole member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to ever perform on campus.

In 2019 Young released “Tuscaloosa,” an album made up primarily of music recorded at the 1973 concert. While it does not feature the entire show – reportedly not all the songs were captured -- it does, however, provide a good snapshot of the evening, including the music and Young’s good-natured banter with the audience.