Journey of the ages

TAMPA -- The vowels, you know, sometimes include Y.

C, S and N? Not vowels, but they are the consonants and constants of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and they too boast a sometimes-Y: Neil Young, who almost single handedturns CS&N into a band still worth appreciating in the 21st century.

Playing the Ice Palace on Sunday, the CSNY foursome provided fans a performance that was stylistically diverse and sported as many highs and lows as the career of Young, their ever-vibrant wild card.

With Young stirring up the folk-rock sensibilities with chugging guitar work at home in any rock venue, CSNY traversed enormous musical ground from song to song. Only the titles were similar when the group followed Young's blistering seminal rocker Southern Man with Stephen Stills' hugely popular but trifling Southern Cross.

The former played far better, because songs like Cross that depend so heavily on the members' vocal harmonies -- most of the group's product when without Young -- are now a touch out their range.

Stills' lead vocal on Cross, for example, was light years rougher than his original breezy approach. David Crosby and Graham Nash fared a little better, especially Crosby, whose powerful lead on Almost Cut My Hair is impressive for someone now going on seven years following a liver transplant.

As for Young, his voice was alternately bristly, whiny and creaky. In other words, his was the one voice that hasn't changed a bit: It was dead-on perfect, classic Young.

The band opened the show with a fury that blindsided anyone expecting a leisurely folk-rock jam, tearing into Carry On with verve and force.

The events of Sept. 11 -- an oft-present, if understated theme through the evening -- added resonance to the song's final lines, sung a cappella by the foursome: "Carry on/ Love is coming to us all."

They also likely explained why Nash's chestnut Military Madness soon followed, but it was helped immensely by Young's shredding guitar work. Stills made up for his vocal limitations by complementing Young perfectly on a sizzling jam that livened up an otherwise tepid rendition of Wooden Ships.

Several new songs got tryouts, none too impressive, whether Young's trite mid tempo rocker Goin' Home or Stills' truly lame faux reggae tune Feed the People. But the group more than made up with on-point renditions of several beloved classics, particularly Cinnamon Girl.

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