crosby stills nash

We're just four lads who get together from time to time to make records or do stage shows." A loose arrangement, certainly, and one that allows for four separate solo acts as well as various duets and trios. So when Crosby/Nash announced a final tour together, there were none of those press conferences to talk about "our sound," none of that amputee's courage, appearing onstage not quite whole. Crosby and Nash like their duet sound well enough to have a new Atlantic LP in the works.

On the last Thursday in September, Stills joined the Crosby/Nash tour for a set at Carnegie Hall. That weekend, Neil Young did a few songs with the other three in Boston. The audience treated it like some monumental rapprochement. Never mind that there had never been any breakup, announced or implicit. Never mind that these surprise jams have been a bonus feature on the four-way street for some time. Never mind that every interview with these guys indicates that they love to play together. People get uneasy about CSNY.

First of all there was that three-day breakup in Denver a little over a year ago. And then there's the fact that all four split from successful groups - Crosby from the Byrds, Nash from the Hollies, Stills and Young from Buffalo Springfield - before coalescing into one of the few genuine super-groups around. So whenever all four appear onstage together for no other reason than the joy of playing together, it becomes an event.The next concert date was Sunday in New York and rumor had it that they would be together again. Atlantic Records was noncommittal but they acknowledged that, yes, all four were in town; and, if they wanted to, if the vibes were good, if they felt like it, there was a possibility that they might all appear together.

Sunday the usual street people were doing their spare-ticket routine on people two blocks from the hall in any direction. The concert was sold out and a huge crowd at the door hassled and bargained for admission. Inside everyone knew, or had heard it from an unimpeachable source: Young was there but Stills wasn't, neither Young nor Stills was there, both Young and Stills were there and they had brought Bob Dylan with them.

Crosby and Nash came out and sang "We Have All Been Here Before," for which the crowd cheered wildly. They tuned for a while and were cheered for that. Crosby, who usually mentions somewhere along the way that he has laryngitis or a sore throat, was in such excellent voice that he opted for Lebanese flu. In point of fact, he did have a cold, as did most everyone else on the tour; but it was Nash who was the most ill. He had an accumulation of air under one lung that made it difficult for him to take deep breaths.

About 10:30 Stephen Stalls stepped onstage, and Carnegie Hall echoed with a long standing ovation that ended in a raggedy-ass rush to the stage. Stills, a man who once dedicated a song to Jose Cuervo Tequila, stumbled a little picking up his guitar; but when he sang, he sounded fine. The songs were new and they pleased Crosby and Nash as much as anyone. The three exchanged palm slaps, soul style, just like CSNY of old. Except, of course, for ...

At 10:45 Neil Young came out of the wings and there was a longer, stronger ovation. An ovation partly for Young and partly for the fact that here they were, the four of them, together.

"We thought we'd all come out and sing for you," Nash said.

"It's gonna be pretty loose though," Crosby warned. And it was. There were a couple of false starts and a dropped verse at one point, but no one really cared because it all felt so good. They sang "Helpless," "Triad," "Chicago" and "Ohio," while the crowd stomped and whistled between songs, yelling out their favorite titles sometimes even before the last number was finished. Crosby finally asked them to knock it off.

Stills and Young both left projects of their own to appear at Carnegie Hall. Young had come up from the south where he was filming a movie, tentatively titled Journey Through the Past, reportedly a cinema verite type documentary. He had also just finished cutting a solo album, Harvest, soon to be released on Reprise. Stills, too, had come up from the south-Miami-where he was working on his solo album, Stephen Stills 3, on Atlantic. Crosby/Nash taped performances in Boston, New York and Berkeley for their new album.

Berkeley was on the last leg of the tour, and a lot of CSNY fans were expecting another Boston or New York. The night of the concert, University Avenue was jammed with cars from Castro Valley and Salinas and Redwood City. People were stopping at gas stations to get directions to the Berkeley Community Theater, and telling one another that they had it from a very reliable source out there in the Livermore Valley that all four of them would be in town tonight.

Crosby and Nash were greeted with a long hand followed by a brief buzz of whispered conversation. They broke into some gentle, moody tone songs, losing the words behind intricate harmonies. Crosby did a few songs onstage by himself, notably "Triad," one of the high points of the night. Nash sang his new songs, "South Bound Train Going Down" and "Immigration Man," at the piano. His voice sounded a little raw and he had to stop once in mid-verse to catch his breath; but the new songs were good enough to carry him. Late in the set Young walked out to a tremendous hand that he cut short by launching right into "Helpless."

Toward the end of the concert, Young sang a new song, "Alabama." Nash and Crosby put down their guitars to sing gentle harmony behind Young's distinctive lonely voice. Like most Young songs, it needed hearing more than once; but some people evidently had other things in mind. Just as the last chord of "Alabama" vibrated into silence, some pimple in the second row took advantage of the quiet to stand up and shout at the top of her voice.

"Where's Steve?" she demanded.

Stills was 3,000 miles away, back in Miami, and those who want to be assured of seeing CSNY together will have to wait until June and July when a tour is scheduled. There's a CSNY album in the works, too. It will probably be finished this spring, though Crosby says he isn't holding his breath on it. It really depends on how they all feel, you see.

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