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A Prayer for Grace in a Dark Time

Stephen Silberman | SF, CA USA | 08/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While nobody was looking, David Crosby and Graham Nash have recorded one of the most powerful, poignant, and musically solid albums of the year. A couple of songs here -- "Lay Me Down" and "Jesus of Rio" -- stand up with the very best work of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, but this album is not a hollow nostalgia exercise by a couple of quaint relics of the Woodstock Nation. Instead, it's a master class in songwriting and performance from two artists who have retained their integrity and commitment to innovation even after decades of being ignored or ridiculed by the mainstream press.Hearing this album in the era of George Bush is like discovering that a wilderness area that was supposed to have been paved over to build another Wal-Mart was somehow spared and is thriving with new life.



The last few CSN/CSNY projects have seemed enervated and oddly plastic, but "Crosby/Nash" charges into new musical territory while retaining the smart soul-searching lyrics, melodic exploration, and exquisite harmonies that made these guys so beloved in the first place. Some of the credit for the freshness of this album belongs to the band, which includes Crosby's astonishingly talented son James Raymond on keyboards, the very fine young guitar player Jeff Pevar (respectively, the R and P of Crosby's underrated band CPR), and under-the-radar guitar genius Dean Parks, who provided the witty, stinging guitar lines on Steely Dan classics like "Haitian Divorce." The presence of drummer Russ Kunkel and bass player Lee Sklar -- the celebrated rhythm section on dozens of albums by the likes of James Taylor and Jackson Browne -- reaffirms a continuity with the duo's earlier work, but even Kunkel and Sklar sound reinvigorated here. This is not your mother's singer-songwriter album, but beefier and more muscular, as befits a funkier age.



"Jesus of Rio," co-written with Pevar, is one of the most moving and majestic performances of Nash's career, featuring an uncredited backing vocal from James Taylor and a luminous Bill Evans-esque solo introduction by Raymond. Like several of the songs on "C/N," its central theme is what Crosby calls, in another song, "quiet grace" -- the redemptive power of love and mindfulness of the small, precious, transitory glories of existence ("for every human is holy to someone") . The prevailing mood of this album -- as expressed in songs like Crosby's "Through Here Quite Often" -- recalls a poem by William Butler Yeats:



My fiftieth year had come and gone,

I sat, a solitary man,

In a crowded London shop,

An open book and empty cup

On the marble table-top.

While on the shop and street I gazed

My body of a sudden blazed;

And twenty minutes more or less

It seemed, so great my happiness,

That I was blessed and could bless.



Other strong songs on this album include Marc Cohn's lovely "I Surrender," and Crosby and Raymond's hip and slinky "Luck Dragon," featuring a lyric written at a CSNY end-of-tour party. "Don't Dig Here" and "They Want It All" face corporate greed and environmental squandering head-on, and Nash's "Half Your Angels" is a haunting tribute to the children who died in the Oklahoma City bombing that seems even more resonant in the post-9/11 era.



The album is perhaps one or two songs too long: "Penguin in a Palm Tree" in particular is almost a self-parody of a wealthy rockstar navel gazing in Lahaina, and a couple of other Nash songs seem overly coy and slight. A stunning lyric penned by Crosby in the mid-70s, "Samurai," is sung with admirable power but marred by tight-sounding vocal overdubs. Still, almost all of the tracks here bristle with new power and glow with seasoned wisdom while retaining the core musical values that made these guys the soul and conscience of popular music for 30 years."

What a Treat

Benjamin C. Leonard | South Bend, Indiana United States | 08/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The boys are back and this time without Stephen Stills, but with all the members of David Crosby's band CPR, which includes his son. You could almost call this album CPR&N. It's been a long time since Crosby and Nash have recorded as a duo. They have their own blend that is for sure, different than CSN or CSNY. While I applaud anything they do with Neil Young; sometimes Stills drags them down. I never use to feel this way. I was a big Stills fan at one time; but Stephen has lost it, especially vocally. This effort between the two of them is the best thing I've heard in years from any combination of CSNY. They showcase what they do best, strong songwriting, especially lyrically and still gorgeous harmony. This includes strong contributions from CPR. I think they needed this to reastablish themselves as relevant artists; and to those that said they had lost it. There is no shortage of material either. There are 20 cuts with no filler. If you have followed these guys at all through the years, pick this one up and you will be in for a real treat."

Tell only your best friends...

S. Sponder | Florida | 08/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These guys just LOVE making great music for us - and it shows. Listening to this gem of an album reminds me of that quaint, heavenly restaurant with 5 tables that no one knows about. The kind of place that gets better with time -- the one you tell only your best friends about. Quality musicianship is what this album is all about. At this point, Crosby and Nash are simply doing it for the love of it. They certainly have nothing left to prove. The lyrics have depth and each song tells a story that transports you. Just close your eyes and listen to the hauntingly beautiful "Lay Me Down" or step outside on a starry night and play: I can really see the "Milky Way" tonight. Savor it, and tell only your best friends."