Musician, photographer and activist Graham Nash has enjoyed a long and vibrant solo career. Still, this two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is best known for his impactful work with Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY); and the Hollies. On Nov. 9, Nash’s current international tour stops at Charleston Music Hall for an intimate show dubbed “60 Years of Songs and Stories” that promises to touch on all of these significant periods.
In spite of his storied past, Nash prefers to look forward as well as backward. A perfect example of this is his new album, Now, which features a recently penned tune called “Buddy’s Back,” Nash’s homage to ’50s rocker Buddy Holly recorded with childhood friend and Hollies co-founder Allan Clarke.
“I wrote that one with Allan in mind,” Nash said. “I mean, obviously we were the Hollies. We loved Buddy Holly. Buddy was ‘one of us.’ He wore a suit and tie and glasses. He wasn’t larger than life like Elvis. And his songs will last forever.”
Unlike the old days where the two men might have actually shared a microphone, this time Nash deftly took advantage of modern studio techniques to bring the harmonies together from afar. “Allan and I were like 4,000 miles apart when we were recording. It was a fascinating experiment. But you know, you still have to start with a good song. No amount of technology is going to turn a bad song into a good one,” Nash said.
Storytelling and collaboration
That fruitful collaboration for his own album led to Nash lending his vocal support to the majority of the cuts on Clarke’s 2023 comeback LP, I’ll Never Forget, as well.
Outside of adding more music to his already expansive catalog, Nash has also busied himself lately with preparing archival releases such as the 50th anniversary edition of CSNY’s classic album Déjà Vu. For that one, Nash unearthed a number of nuggets including a surprising demo of “Our House” showcasing Nash and his then-housemate Joni Mitchell.
Even now, Nash vividly remembers capturing that special moment on tape. “We were on the road doing a concert in Philadelphia somewhere. It was during soundcheck, you know, when you’re making sure everything is plugged in right. I just started doing ‘Our House,’ and Joni was playing the top keys, I was playing the bottom keys, and then, of course, we f*** up and start laughing. Normally, you would never get to hear something like that because it’s such a private thing. But since I was working on the Déjà Vu 50th anniversary project, I wanted to draw people in by including that rendition,” Nash said.
“In a hundred years they’re going to remember Dylan. They’re going to remember the Beatles. They’re going to remember Jimi Henrix. And they’ll probably remember Joni. That’s how good she was.”
Although he remains modest about his cultural contributions, it’s safe to say that Nash and his colleagues will likely be remembered, too. What makes the latest iteration of his roadshow so remarkable is that it is centered around Nash’s great gift for storytelling. And so night after night he’s been giving audiences a glimpse behind the metaphorical curtain of his life as a songwriter.
One such tale Nash shared with the Charleston City Paper involved building the iconic pedal steel guitar parts of “Teach Your Children” with his pal Jerry Garcia.
“It was amazing,” Nash said. “When he did his first take, I said, ‘Jerry, that was incredible, the way you learned my song as you were listening to it.’ And he said, ‘Well, I made a couple of mistakes, can I do a second take?’ And I said, ‘Of course you can, but I’m never going to use it because the feeling you put into my song just now, having never heard it, was fantastic.’ We did eventually go back and repair his two one-note mistakes, but what you hear is basically his first take.”
After all these years, Nash’s passion for his life’s work is still infectious.
“I just love being alive, and I’m very proud to be a musician. I’m always working, and I’m always writing. People who don’t know about the craft but enjoy listening to songs tend to think it happens through some kind of magic. And in a way, they’re right. It is magical.”
For more details and to purchase tickets for Nash’s Nov. 9 concert at the Charleston Music Hall, visit charlestonmusichall.com.
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