IT WAS ANOTHER rainy January day in LA, with a drenching downpour that kept people from leaving their homes. But even flooded roadways didn’t keep Graham Nash inside. Nothing could. The 68-year-old was on his way to his buddy Stephen Stills’s place, where they were set to rehearse “Midnight Rider” before recording the song for their new album. David Crosby would be there; Neil Young, content with his solo career, would not.
For the first time in 10 years—and 41 years since the super-group of singer-songwriters broke out at Woodstock—Crosby, Stills and Nash are making new music together, lending their iconic three-part harmonies to a disc of covers. “When Columbia Records first came to us, it was a little shocking,” Nash said over the phone. “They did not want any CSN songs. They said: We want that vocal sound on songs you wish you’d written.”
That list includes James Taylor’s lilting ballad “You Can Close Your Eyes” and the classic sitar track “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” from the Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul. Possibly some Bob Dylan and Allman Brothers, too. The album isn’t slated to drop until 2011, but CSN plans to tour Europe and the U.S. this year, with a stopover in Seattle—the second for Nash, who already visited in February to showcase his other talents: photography and digital printing.
“I’ve been making images longer than I’ve been making music,” Nash said. He was the natural choice to curate the EMP’s latest exhibit, Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ’n’ Roll Photographs. The collection of nearly 100 pictures spans 50 years of rock, with images by high-profile photographers such as Annie Leibovitz, Neal Preston, Jim Marshall, and Nash’s longtime friend Joel Bernstein. Some are iconic: Leibovitz’s portrait of a naked John Lennon entwined with Yoko Ono, or Charles Peterson’s shot of Kurt Cobain crashing into a drum kit. Others are lesser known, but no less intimate: Debbie Harry warming up in her underwear, Janis Joplin cradling a bottle of Southern Comfort. Nash chose a 1968 close-up of Aretha Franklin, eyes closed, belting a song, because “you can’t have a show on the history of rock and roll and not have a picture of Aretha!” He even included a few pictures of his own, moments captured backstage as CSN toured in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
How does it feel to be—touring, recording, curating, I was about to ask when he cut me off.
“Appreciated?” Nash finished. “It’s good.… There’s no reason to quit now. The truth is, CSN never stopped. The only time we didn’t tour was when Crosby was in jail.”
Read Laura Dannen’s extended interview with Nash on Page 2.
Published: March 2010
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