An Evening with Crosby & Nash - Ithaca State Theatre - Show Review

Crosby and NashDavid Crosby and Graham Nash transported their audience at Ithaca’s State Theatre back nearly forty years to those three days of peace and music in 1969 on Monday, October 20.

The State Theatre, whose baroque architecture is a hybrid of Alhambra, Cinderella’s castle at Disney World, and the Opéra where Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom held up, is a symbol of a bygone era. This intimate theatre, unlike that of the super arenas where most contemporary acts play today, is the perfect setting in which to hear the quiet, yet powerful music of these folk rock deities. Crosby and Nash are, like the unparalleled venue, of a bygone era that deserves more attention than it is getting.

Crosby and Nash walked on to the stage slowly, almost rhythmically, making their presence known at 8:15 p.m. They were completely relaxed, well over the stage fright notorious amongst musicians, evident in the fact that Graham Nash wore neither shoes nor socks. David Crosby was simply regal, with flowing Gandalf-like white hair and a “power stance” that would make The Who’s Pete Townshend tremble. They simply nodded in response to the deafening applause and grabbed their guitars.

And then, Nash spoke in the daftest of British accents: “For the next couple of hours, you can forget about all that shit out there, and enjoy some music amongst friends.”

They began with “I Used to Be a King” from one of Nash’s solo albums Songs for Beginners(1971). As the majority of the audience was well over 50, and undoubtedly rushed to buy the LP back in May of 1971, the song was met with much enthusiasm. The song was enhanced by incredible vocal harmony supplied by Crosby, who was obviously absent from the recorded version of the song.

They also performed many of their hits from their time in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY) with fellow pioneers of the folk music industry Stephen Stills and Neil Young. Perhaps the most notable among the hits was “Long Time Comin’,” which in addition to an explosive amount of applause, was responded to with shouts of “Stop the war!” and “Down with Bush!” Other fantastic CSNY hits performed included “Just a Song Before I Go,” “Our House,” “Déjà Vu,” “Almost Cut My Hair,” and “Guinnevere” which received a much-deserved standing ovation.

The Woodstock vibe of the evening continued on with ultra-liberal political discourse between each song. Crosby and Nash knew they were preaching to the choir, so to speak.

At one point in the night, after hearing the aforementioned anti-Bush proclamations David Crosby mused: “Now here’s something… Wouldn’t it be a great idea to have a law that says that you can’t be in control of nuclear weapons unless you can pronounce the word nuclear?” Nash then quipped, “That goes for Sarah Palin too, she can’t pronounce it either.” These humorous remarks were, not surprisingly, met with zealous applause.

The duo also went beyond the hits and performed some new material. Nearly every song had a profoundly pacifistic, anti-war theme. A song about the iconic Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil called “Jesus of Rio” and a ballad written by Crosby called “Dream for Him” about trying to explain the ways of the world to his children stood out among this stellar lineup of peace anthems. Crosby and Nash also performed a war protest song called “This is My Country” that was written by “a friend of theirs.” They commented that performing a song written by someone else is a rarity since they have “so many damn songs.”

An outstanding band accompanied Crosby and Nash. The lineup included Leland Sklar, a bass player native to Ithaca and one of the most sought after session guitarists in the country who has played with the likes of Steely Dan and one of David Crosby’s sons, James Raymond, on keyboards.

After two rounds of encore applause, the show closed with the CSNY chart-toppers “Wooden Ships” and “Teach Your Children” which some may remember Nash performing with Brooke White on the last season finale of American Idol.

At one break between songs, Nash commented, “My job is to write the hits, and Crosby writes the weird shit. It’s a good partnership; it’s worked for over forty years.” It is clear that this musical kinship, known for its otherworldly vocal harmonies and earth-moving ballads is unbreakable.

This “Evening with Crosby and Nash” was like a larger, louder, but equally as intimate version of a palm reading, complete with softly glowing candles and oriental rugs. David Crosby and Graham Nash are essentially psychics, who saw into the souls of the thousands in attendance at Woodstock during the summer of love in 1969. They continue to respond to the souls of peace-lovers, aching for change, in 2008. They were, are now, and will remain, the voices of a generation.