“Can you recommend any decent hotels in the area?” a friend from London texted. “We’re coming to see Graham Nash at Bexhill.”
“Ooh that sounds quite interesting,” I thought, and after duly making my hotel recommendation, I went online and booked my own ticket.
Billed as ‘Sixty Years of Songs & Stories’ the ten-date UK tour celebrates the 81-year old Graham Nash’s six decades of writing, recording and performing.
I’m aware of his hits with The Hollies in the early days, of course, and (courtesy of a couple of compilations) I’m also pretty familiar with some of the best-known songs by both Crosby, Still & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I can’t claim to have followed his solo career in any great depth but, nevertheless, I felt confident that this tour was going to be something rather special and something I didn’t want to miss.
You could be forgiven for thinking the ‘Songs & Stories’ moniker meant the evening was going to be based on that familiar format that’s become rather popular with performers of a certain vintage in recent years: a sofa, lots and lots of chat, anecdotes galore and a few songs thrown in for good measure. But no, this is a proper full-blown gig, with not a sofa in sight.
Nash is joined on stage by his two longstanding collaborators, Shane Fontayne (guitar and vocals) and Todd Caldwell (keyboards and vocals) – excellent musicians both of them. It’s truly magical hearing the trio perform classics likes of ‘Marrakesh Express’, ‘Find The Cost of Freedom’ (dedicated to the people of Ukraine), ‘Cathedral’ and ‘Our House’. Nash is in fine voice, aided by some beautiful harmonising from Fontayne and Caldwell.
There is even a new album to promote on this tour. Now was released earlier this year and we get to hear songs from that, too, including the poignant ‘A Better Life’ – described by Nash as a continuation of the themes expressed in ‘Teach Your Children’ and his hope for a better, more sustainable, more peaceful future for humanity.
As well as performing his own songs, Nash also expresses heartfelt appreciation for some of his closest collaborators, friends and musical heroes, paying tribute in the form of songs written by Allan Clark, David Crosby and Stephen Stills. There’s also ‘Buddy’s Back’ – Nash’s self-penned and wonderfully evocative tribute to Buddy Holly (“We were called The Hollies for God’s sake!”)
After an enthusiastic standing ovation the band are back on stage for an encore of Buddy Holly’s ‘Everyday’ and CSNY’s ‘Teach Your Children’. A joyous end to an incredible evening and a fitting way to celebrate the career of someone who has made such a positive mark on popular music these past sixty years.
Set-list:
Wasted on the Way
Bus Stop
I Used to Be a King
Find the Cost of Freedom
Military Madness
Right Between the Eyes
A Better Life
Buddy’s Back
Marrakesh Express
To the Last Whale (Critical Mass / Wind on the Water)
Love the One You’re With
Southbound Train
Sleep Song
Carried Away
Taken at All
Golden Days
4 + 20
Immigration Man
Cathedral
Just a Song Before I Go
Our House
Everyday
Teach Your Children
Darren's music blog 
As a muso, Old Person and long term CSN fan, I could have probably filled in a few gaps for you, the fact he had no bassist or drummer on stage but still sounded excellent is worth a mention. (the Texan guy had a vintage keyboard setup which included organ pedals and Nash used muted guitar chopping to set the grooves. CSN never really self defined as a ‘rock band’, and embraced ‘Unplugged’ readily – I saw them with no rhythm section at the Albert Hall in the early 90s. But CSN as an entity never attracted subsequent generations, I Bournemouth a few years ago all the audience was really old which was sad. Young people are plundering the back catalogue a lot these days, but they seem to be skipping CSN and that’s a shame.
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