Crosby Stills and Nash - Edinburgh Playhouse 23 June 2005

Mrs R and I had a great night in Edinburgh - CSN in concert. Three heroes, a tight band and nearly three hours of pure musical nostalgia. The theatre was extremely hot but I can't say that I noticed that much. Stephen Still's voice is now one of THE blues voices. He could double for Ray Charles... voice only. He hasn't aged well. He must have had a few bad paper rounds as a child. His guitar playing was phenomenal. Nash and Crosby are the voice of CSN. Their soaring harmonies are incredible; when they did Guinevere with Crosby's open tuned guitar and two voices it was mesmerising. David Crosby's clear tenor for the most part is dominant but they swop harmonies and at times there seems to be at least two other notes. Graham Nash's tenor has a reed with it making it sound like a tenor/soprano sax (if only the Hollies could have kept him?). At the end of Guinevere Nash said that they've done it a 1000 times and 'each time Crosby does it different'. Crosby said that wasn't true - 'Nash doesn't listen'. Whatever way, the ability to listen and sing relative close harmony apparently without effort is ... well.... hyperbole fails me.
The old songs were there with a smattering of the new stuff - all excellent and lyrically sound (Don't Dig Here is well worth a listen): Chicago, Love the One You're with, Almost Cut My Hair, Deja Vu.... The rumour in the gents was that Joni Mitchell would be joining them for the Woodstock encore. She didn't. But it was Woodstock with the whole audience standing and rocking followed by Teach Your Children. I could have stood another hour or so but they needed to rest. Stills limped off, Nash stepped high and barefoot, Crosby sauntered away like an ancient gnome out of the limelight.
When I return I want to sing like Crosby, play guitar like Stills, harmonise like Nash. I wonder how they'll manage when they lose their looks. And stay forever Young.