CSN 2012 Blu-ray Review
Crosby, Stills and Nash carry on.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, July 19, 2012
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the inimitable contributions Crosby, Stills and Nash have made to the American
music scene is that they did it—for the most part, anyway—with two albums released in 1969 and 1970, albums which
seemed to sum up a sea change in American pop and rock songwriting and which remain classics to this day, providing
significant fodder for the band's live performances. The history of the band is well documented, with various tensions
from previous assemblages bringing the three master musicians together in what can be seen now as a wonderful
piece of serendipity, and once
Crosby, Stills and Nash was released in in May of 1969, it seemed clear a new
supergroup had been formed, one perhaps poised to take up the mantle from The Beatles, who were then at the
beginning of the end of their reign as undisputed masters of their realm. With the addition of Neil Young, the band
followed up the amazing success of their debut album with
Déjà Vu in March of 1970, becoming one of a very
few bands whose sophomore effort was as, if not more, successful than its premiere outing. And then a strange thing
happened: aside from the live album
Four Way Street and a Greatest Hits compilation called
So Far, the
band didn't release another album until 1977. The band's recording history has been spotty at best, mirroring its
performing status, which has seen the trio (and occasionally quartet, joined by Young) weather internal disagreements
and the external pressures of each of them having solo (and other band) careers. Ironically, that was one of the
reasons the trio came together in the first place and insisted their new assemblage bear their names rather than some
amorphous band name—it gave them individual identities and would allow them to pursue outside interests if they so
chose. And while the band continued to rack up impressive sales and several charting singles in the years subsequent
to
Déjà Vu, it's really those first two albums that have most clearly defined the group in the public at large's
consciousness, and songs from those albums just as certainly make up the bulk of this two and a half hour concert
filmed for HDNet on April 22, 2012 at The Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo, California.
My second year college Composition – Theory teacher utilized a rather odd concatenation of sources to talk about
"extended" chordal tones, i.e., ninths, elevenths, thirteenths and up, especially those arranged as triads that moved in
parallel motion, in a lecture one day. He brought the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album along with a recording of
Gustav Holst's
The Planets and used little snippets of both of them to give us examples of how musicians of two
very different eras and approaches had used similar compositional techniques. The homogenous vocal sound of
Crosby, Stills and Nash has been one of the group's most defining characteristics, to the point where it's sometimes
hard to tell who's singing what, and I truly wish the news were better for long time fans with regard to this 2012
concert. But we have to face facts: two of the three band members (Nash and Crosby) are 70 now, and Stills in 67.
Add to that Crosby's well publicized years of hedonistic lifestyle choices, not to mention his equally well publicized
health scares, and the ravages of time become more understandable.
First, the good news: Nash sounds pretty darned remarkable for his age, hitting most of his high notes and still
achieving his mellow, conversational timbre most of the time. Stills has voiced some of his signature tunes down a few
steps (nothing too odd about that—aging singers do it all the time), and he improves as the night goes on, albeit with a
really poignant raspiness. Crosby's low end sounds good, if gruff, but he seems off on his high range. The mix of the
voices here is often pretty ragged. Because this Blu-ray oddly only features a stereo mix (could that have been
intentional to help "bury" the vocal clams?), it's hard to tell exactly what's going awry at times, and some of the off kilter
singing could indeed be one of the backup band members, especially Hammond B3 organist Todd Caldwell, who can
easily be seen cupping his ear to try to find his notes throughout the concert. The bottom line is, those expecting the
smooth, studio controlled sounds of the famous albums are going to be in for a rude awakening here.
Instrumentally the three sound quite good, even if their aging fingers can't quite manage the finely filigreed guitar work
that so defined their early sound. It
is a little funny to see Stills consistently wander downstage to take solos,
still essaying the role of the Rock God. While he's never going to be mistaken for Eddie Van Halen, Stills still elicits some
ferocious tones from his guitar and contributes some nicely wrought moments throughout the concert. The backup
band, which includes Crosby's son James Raymond on keys, is in fine form and helps to recreate the original ambience
of the tunes. They take turns taking solos on a nicely extended "Wooden Ships", with Raymond's kind of blah acoustic
piano work eliciting the same cheers as the nice, piercing tones of Shane Fontayne's guitar outing and some nice
harmonic plucking by bassist Kevin McCormick. (If you haven't checked out the albums Crosby recorded with his son
under the band name CPR, I highly recommend them.)
The band's lengthy concert consists of:
Set 1
- 01. Carry On/Questions
- 02. Marrakesh Express
- 03. Long Time Gone
- 04. Military Madness
- 05. Southern Cross
- 06. Lay Me Down
- 07. Almost Gone
- 08. Wasted on the Way
- 09. Radio
- 10. Bluebird
- 11. Déjà Vu
- 12. Wooden Ships
Set 2
- 01. Helplessly Hoping
- 02. In Your Name
- 03. Girl From the North Country
- 04. As I Come of Age
- 05. Guinevere
- 06. Johnny's Garden
- 07. Learn to Live (So Begins the Task)
- 08. Cathedral
- 09. Our House
- 10. Love The One You're With
Encore
- 01. For What It's Worth
- 02. Teach Your Children
- 03. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
