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Wednesday February 6 6:20 PM ET
FEATURE-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young carry on, again
By Gary Graff
DETROIT (Reuters) Last fall, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, Neil Young told sometime bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash that it was time for them to carry on again.
Young's three cohorts readily agreed.
``We got a call from Neil, who was talking about that maybe it's a good time to go out and play some music for the folks,'' Nash said in recalling the genesis of the veteran supergroup's latest tour, opening Wednesday in suburban Detroit.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have only recorded and toured together a handful of times since the late-1960s, and their 2000 reunion outing marked the group's first in 26 years.
Going out again, Nash said in a recent interview, ``seemed to make sense to us. It was a little earlier than we had kind of planned in our lives, but, y'know ... so what?''
Kicking off its latest concert series at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan, CSNY will crisscross the country for the next three months, wrapping up in late April.
Unlike the 2000 trek -- which played in 35 cities, grossing $42 million in ticket sales to support the 1999 album ``Looking Forward'' -- there will be no fresh CSNY release to accompany this tour.
CSNY taped all of its shows from the 2000 tour and was expected to release a live album from it, but those plans were scuttled. Said Stills, ``There's some real good stuff on (the tapes), but I think we need another (tour) under our belts.''
However, both Young and Nash plan to release albums -- ``Are You Passionate?'' and ``Songs For Survivors,'' respectively -- while the group is on the road, though issue dates for each have yet to be determined.
LET'S ROLL
The group rehearsed several songs from Young's album for the tour, including the single ``Let's Roll,'' inspired by the words of one of the United Airlines Flight 93 passengers believed to have clashed with hijackers who were presumably steering the plane toward Washington but crashed instead in Pennsylvania.
That song, Nash said, should dovetail nicely with other politically charged and socially conscious pieces from the CSNY canon, including ``Daylight Again,'' ``Find the Cost of Freedom'' and ``Military Madness.''
``We're just reflecting on the times, which is what we've always done,'' said Nash, 60, who was in Denver on tour with Crosby and Stills on Sept. 11. ``I think we've always represented relevance to ourselves. We go through this crazy life and we make comments on it, and we've been doing that all our lives.''
Young, 56, concurred.
``It just felt like a good time for CSNY to go out and play,'' he said separately. ``CSNY's been around for a long time. People of our generation, I think, might get some kind of feeling of comfort or something from coming to a show of ours and seeing that we're still here, and everybody's still here, and we're still doing what we do.''
Accompanying CSNY on tour are keyboardist Booker T. Jones and bassist Donald ``Duck'' Dunn -- both from the R&B ensemble Booker T. & the MG's -- and drummer Steve ``Smokey'' Potts. All three perform on Young's new album, and Nash acknowledges that Young is the man in charge of things these days.
``The man's a genius,'' Nash said. ``We all have our roles to play; it's just that Neil is taking the reins this time, and that's fine with all of us.''
Young, however, deflects the mantle of leadership.
``I don't run it -- I don't want that responsibility!'' he said with a laugh. ``The reason I play with CSN is because ... I don't have to sing every song, because I like playing with them. I like being with guys I've known for 30 years that have gone through so much with me. It's a rewarding experience. It's fun to look around and see those guys.''
CARRYING ON
Fans certainly feel the same way -- especially if it makes CSNY active on a more regular basis. The quartet formed in 1969, when Young joined former Buffalo Springfield bandmate Stills, ex-Byrd Crosby and ex-Hollies member Nash -- who had already released one album as a trio. The quartet's second public performance was at the first Woodstock festival.
In 33 years, CSNY has put out just four studio albums, a live recording and some best-of sets. Still, the group has assembled a durable catalog of songs that mixes such pop-friendly pieces as ``Our House,'' ``Teach Your Children'' with protest anthems like ``Ohio,'' ``Carry On'' and ``Almost Cut My Hair.''
Over the years, the group has been hampered by fits of creative and personal pique, ego battles, drug problems and other tribulations. Now, most of that has given way to a more mature appreciation for what the quartet is able to achieve together, Nash said.
``I think it's just getting a little smarter, getting a little more appreciation of our families and our friends and our bandmates,'' he said. ``And that is great, because there's more energy for performing and less energy for dealing in mindless details, which have always caused problems in the past.''
(Gary Graff is a nationally syndicated journalist who covers the music scene from Detroit. He also is the supervising editor of the award-winning ``MusicHound'' album guide series. |
