Sights and Sounds: Graham Nash to release exclusive CD/DVD combo on September 16 in connection with American Public Television Broadcast

Graham Nash delivered a fantastic performance at the NAMM Show in January 2016. I am happy to see a concert DVD will be included in an expanded edition of his latest album "This Path Tonight" set for release in a few weeks. The bonus content on the DVD looks promising as well...you can read my in-depth concert review of Graham Nash's solo performance staged at the City National Grove of Anaheim in November 2013 that ran in the Orange County Register by clicking here.

Shane Fontayne, left, and Graham Nash performing at the Winter
NAMM Show in Anaheim in January 2016. Photo: Bob Steshetz

Legendary singer-songwriter Graham Nash is set to release a new CD/DVD collection on September 16, 2016, featuring his critically acclaimed solo record This Path Tonight and a digital download card which includes the album plus 3 bonus tracks. Accompanying the CD is a full 1.5 hour Nash concert DVD filmed in 2015 at the Pageant in St. Louis, with bonus content that includes two official music videos, two live performances in the U.K., as well as two different interview segments. An edited version of the DVD special is currently airing across the United States on public television stations via American Public Television (APT). This exclusive CD/DVD collection will be available for purchase only through local public television stations, www.grahamnash.com, or on tour.

"I try to live my life the best way I can and making music is such a precious joy and the fact that I get to share it is wonderful in itself," said Nash. "I certainly hope that you enjoy the music that Shane Fontayne and I created."

This Path Tonight, the new studio album and collection of 10 original songs from Graham Nash, produced by long-time collaborator Shane Fontayne, landed on seven different Billboard charts in the United States, and debuted in the Top 50 in over 10 countries internationally. The album is one of reflection and transition of a singer-songwriter whose career (the Hollies, CSN, CSNY) has spanned more than five decades and counting.

Watch the music video for the song "Myself At Last" from This Path Tonight here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSTVJXQcY50&feature=youtu.be

Graham Nash performing in Anaheim in November 2013.
Photo: Kelly A. Swift

Graham Nash is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and two-time Songwriter Hall of Fame Inductee, Grammy Award winner, a New York Times best-selling author, and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.)

For album, tour, and ticket information, please visit www.grahamnash.com.

CD Track List
1.        This Path Tonight
2.        Myself At Last
3.        Cracks In The City
4.        Beneath The Waves
5.        Fire Down Below
6.        Another Broken Heart
7.        Target
8.        Golden Days
9.        Back Home
10.      Encore
BONUS TRACKS
11.      Watch Out For the Wind*
12.      Mississippi Burning*
13.      The Last Fall*
*Digital download only

DVD Track List1. Bus Stop
2. King Midas In Reverse
3. I Used To Be A King
4. Marrakesh Express
5. Immigration Man
6. Golden Days
7. Myself At Last
8. Wasted On The Way
9. Wind On The Water
10. Our House
11. Military Madness
12. Simple Man
13. Marguerita
14. Taken At All
15. Watch Out For The Wind
16. Just A Song Before I Go
17. Cathedral
18. Chicago
19. Blackbird
20. Teach Your Children
BONUS CONTENT

• Myself At Last – Official Music Video
• Mississippi Burning – Official Music Video
• Lady of the Island – filmed 2016 in London, England
• Back Home – filmed 2016 in London, England
• Reflections on This Path Tonight interview
• Return to Salford, UK interview

David Crosby back on track with five-night run

My review was originally posted on The Orange County Register site on Tuesday, April 15, 2014.

Delayed because of surgery, his Troubadour stand finds the legend rebounding beautifully, revisiting history while showcasing his first solo album in two decades.

David Crosby scored all kinds of high points just for walking on stage Sunday night (April 13, 2014) at the Troubadour.

Back in February, he postponed a five-night solo run at the West Hollywood landmark to undergo emergency heart surgery. Yet here he was, a mere two months, later performing a full-length concert that didn't cut any corners.

Indeed, the 72-year-old folk and rock legend has had a number of well-publicized health issues in the past, including, most famously, a liver transplant in 1994. While he looked thin and at times tired over the course of his 150-minute concert, the multiple standing ovations that followed the rousing one that erupted when he stepped into view a couple minutes after 8 p.m. were soundly earned.

At this kickoff show, Crosby still proved capable of delivering new and classic material with emotional power and grace. The first of two sets found him and an amazing five-man band performing his latest album, Croz, from start to finish. Released in January, it's not only the Los Angeles native's first solo work in 20 years but boasts some of the most powerful songs he has recorded. (Its Top 40 debut on Billboard's albums chart also marks the first time he's been ranked on that list as a solo artist since his 1971 cult classic If I Could Only Remember My Name.)

After opening with "What's Broken," a piece built on the Laurel Canyon folk-rock feel so associated with Crosby's legacy, subsequent material expanded on that soundscape with jazz, heavier rock and psychedelic elements. His excellent players – notably guitarists Shane Fontayne and Marcus Eaton as well as the star's son, keyboardist James Raymond – all added magical textures and dynamics throughout.

Crosby also was in a particularly wry mood Sunday evening. "I had a body shaped like an avocado and I was really comfortable with it," he mentioned with regard to his thinner appearance. "I got sick and stopped eating," he explained, but quipped that he can tuck in his shirt now.

The focus of the night, however, was justifiably on his music. The hard acoustic rocker "The Clearing" featured an especially stirring bridge with peaks and valleys of music magic bookending confessional lyrics: "This kind of love don't need a home / This kind of heart beats all alone / This kind of world, gonna let it go / Lay down the things that came before." The audience (including Jackson Browne, spotted in the balcony) was enthusiastic but collectively reverent while he was performing.

As he promised at the outset, the second set included songs the audience knew. "Eight Miles High" started that off, with Crosby summoning strength on electric guitar as Fontayne worked his 12-string Rickenbacker with cascading and shimmering lines that brought that classic's distinctive sound back to life.

"This is where we met and put together the Byrds," Crosby pointed out, noting the importance of the Troubadour after the song. He then mentioned that another member of that seminal band was in the house – and out came Chris Hillman, who added: "I don't think I've been on this stage for 40 years."

The old friends then led the ensemble through an evocative version of "Turn! Turn! Turn!," another enduring Byrds staple that Crosby pointedly dedicated to its originator, folk icon Pete Seeger, who died in January. After the song was luxuriously performed, with lush vocal harmonies, Crosby and Hillman hugged as the audience applauded.

The headliner then proceeded to highlight material from both Crosby, Stills & Nash and his oft-overlooked '90s project CPR (including Raymond and guitarist Jeff Pevar). Highlights came one after another, from little-heard gems like the jazz-rock tune "That House" to heavyweights from his glory days, notably "Guinnevere" and a hard-rocking "Long Time Gone."

The good news for fans is that after his Tuesday replay there are still two more chances to see him, April 17-18, although prices on secondhand site StubHub are roughly $80 a pop. Wait until the day of the show and they likely will drop.

Photo: Buzz Person

Graham Nash gets reflective in Anaheim

My review of Graham Nash's Wednesday night, Nov. 6, 2013 concert was originally published on The Orange County Register site on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. A special "thank you" to Kelly A. Swift for the use of her wonderful images taken at the concert.

His solo show was as insightful about classics as it was outspoken about current issues.

Few musicians tour in support of a tell-all autobiography. But then few artists are Graham Nash.

Next at City National Grove of Anaheim:The Dan Band, Nov. 9, $20; Kreator with Overkill and Warbringer, Nov. 15, $27.50; Which One's Pink? with Queen Nation, Nov. 22, $23.50; Finntroll with Blackguard and Metsatoll, Nov. 24, $25; the Fab Four, Nov. 29, $30-$37.50

Call: 714-712-2700

Online: citynationalgroveofanaheim.com,ticketmaster.com

The co-founder of the popular British Invasion group the Hollies and longtime member of Crosby, Stills & Nash gave a rare solo performance Wednesday night at City National Grove of Anaheim, bolstered only by two top-tier sidemen. The good news for local fans of the 71-year-old singer-guitarist is how much stronger he sounded on his own compared to recent outings alongside Stephen Stills and David Crosby.

I was fairly disappointed with the legendary trio's headlining appearance at Doheny Blues Festival in May 2010, mostly because of ragged harmonies and a performance that felt dialed-in. Such was not the case with Nash's two-hour-plus turn in Anaheim. The performance was powerful, the arrangements memorable, and there was the added thrill of listening to Nash discuss many of his best-known classics and their genesis in rich detail.

The recent publication of Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life provides a backdrop for him to ponder his life and the songs that have enriched and chronicled it since he launched the Hollies with Allan Clarke more than 50 years ago. It didn't hurt that his two supporting players, keyboardist James Raymond and guitarist Shane Fontayne, were as tuned in to the intimate proceedings as their two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame leader.

Nash, his voice in fine form, opened with one of the ’60s most enduring numbers, "Bus Stop," reworked here in more folk fashion. Thankfully, the original’s distinctive harmonies were replicated, Nash's light tenor joined by the voices of his hired guns. Another Hollies classic, "King Midas in Reverse," was similarly – and powerfully – reproduced early in the set.

Two dozen songs were performed over the course of the two-part program, some of them freshly penned. Introducing one written for the late Levon Helm, the drummer and co-vocalist for the Band who died in April 2012, Nash explained what happens when a tune begins to surface: "They torture me if I don't get them out." That particular piece, "Back Home," was a beautiful Americana folk-rocker that wrapped with an effortless glide into "The Weight."

Another new song, "Exit Zero," was inspired by a drive Nash took through Colorado, during which he noticed expansive oil fields with towers burning away wasting untold amounts of energy. The bluesy rocker that resulted was greeted with cheers here from a crowd pleased to see Nash still using his music to reflect the world as he sees it.

Yet another freshly formed gem, "Burning for the Buddah," allowed him to unleash his artistic wrath on Tibet's treatment at the hands of China. He noted the suffering of the region’s monks: 128 have burned themselves in the past year, yet that has received little media coverage. "Burning" was one of the biggest sonic surprises of the night, playing out like a symphonic Peter Gabriel piece.

Of course, favorites such as "Our House" and "Wind on the Water" (he played piano on those) and "Just a Song Before I Go" were greeted like old friends by an audience that grew excited whenever enough details in spoken intros revealed what song was coming. "Wind on the Water" was especially potent, its ambitious arrangement delivered with grace by the three musicians.

Nash's encore included a sterling take on the Beatles' "Blackbird" and a spirited audience sing-along on one of his most-loved staples, the uplifting anthem "Teach Your Children."