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| David Crosby Image by Anna Webber |
David Crosby is back with another masterpiece. Well into his eighth decade, hot on the heels of his fourth album in as many years, the Byrds and CSN(Y) co-founder is flying high, soaring to new creative heights with Here If You Listen, a collaborative effort with Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis, and Michael League. The quartet originally convened for the Lighthouse album, released in 2016, and followed with a critically-acclaimed series of tours. Where Lighthouse and Here If You Listen diverge is that the former was approached and billed as a Crosby solo album, while the new release is a true group effort: All four artists contribute their unique sensibilities to both lyrics and music, and the result in nothing short of brilliance. Consider Crosby’s compatriots: Michael League, mastermind of Snarky Puppy and a myriad of other musical projects; Becca Stevens, a singer-songwriter who represents what a Crosby/Joni Mitchell “soul child” may well have sounded like; and Michelle Willis, a Toronto-born singer-songwriter once described by Crosby as sounding “like God on a good day.”
Harmony fans will bathe in
waves of complex vocal stacks that will break over you, lift you up, and gently
set you down on the shore of your imagination where Crosby and friends are
waiting to take you away. As a self-diagnosed chronic harmony fan, the arrival
of the new album was an event, and at
the first available opportunity where peace, quiet, and a good set of
headphones co-existed, I let the songs break over me, lift me up, and carry me
away. Still deep in the absorption stage, I prepared for the impending phone
call from an artist for whom I have been increasingly finding myself at a loss
for words to describe just how astounding
the past four years have been.
No one is more
astounded—or grateful—than the artist himself. His youthful voice is filled
with the fearless liberation of one whose understanding of the value of time,
of the joy and power of music, is at a lifetime high. At 77, David Crosby
continues to speak up and sing out.
The current tour winds up on December
8th at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. Our conversation
took place on October 9th, just prior to tour rehearsals.
David Crosby: [sounding
for all the world like a 20-year-old] Hi there!
Roy Abrams: David! How are
you?
DC: I’m good, man!
RA: Thank you for the
call! So … the album is making my brains liquid—
DC: [extended laughter]
RA: I’m kind of running
out of superlatives here! I wanted to start off by talking about the
harmonies. I’ve watched some interview
snippets with you online regarding what’s taking place here with Here If You
Listen. I remember back in the day with CSN when the three of you would hit a
(vocal) chord and fall together, laughing. That happens to me, too. However,
something else has also happened here with this album. The chemistry developed
between the four of you during the recording of Lighthouse has evolved to a degree that ended up with this
particular listener being moved to tears.
DC. Man!
DC. Man!
RA:Yeah, I had some serious eye leakage listening to this album. If Lighthouse was an alternate universe,
then this (new album) is another dimension entirely.
DC: Oh, man. I’m so happy that you like it. It’s an amazing chemistry.
RA: Yeah … I’ve never
heard any other project that you’ve been involved with that has produced
results to this
degree. I don’t have any basis for comparison. I saw the interview when you
were talking about “Glory”
and the fact that it was a veritable 4-way street … to have that happen, and according
to a recent Rolling
Stone interview, you were
telling them, “You guys are thinking about things too much. Just shut up and go
with the thing that feels good!”
DC: [chuckles]
RA: Did they take your
advice?
DC: I’m so happy that you
love it, man. It’s a magical chemistry. What happened, man, when we did that
first Lighthouse record, I was just
completely knocked out with working with Michael as the producer and writing
with Michael, and then singing with Becca and Michelle. I went to them this
time and said, “Listen, I want to do a record, but I don’t want to do another
solo record with Michael producing and you guys helping me. I want to do a
four-of-us record, where the four of us write and the four of us sing as a group. And they said, “Are you
sure?” And I said, “Yes, I’m absolutely sure. There’s a chemistry here that’s a
thing I want to follow.” And they said, “Oh, boy! Whoopee!” and they jumped in
with both feet. They are fiercely
talented people.
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| David and Becca Image courtesy of David Crosby |
RA: Absolutely. Once
again, thank you so much for making that introduction to me. Becca and Michelle
… I just don’t even know what to say. When their voices blend? That’s just
another thing altogether, for which I
still can’t find the words, and I’m supposed to be a word guy. Can we go
through the album tracks to get a sense of who contributed what?
DC: Sure.
RA: “Vagrants of Venice” … I
know those are your lyrics, right?
DC: Yeah, those are my
lyrics and Becca wrote the music. All four of us contributed to it a little
bit, but basically it’s me and Becca.
RA: “1974” … that’s your
music?
DC: Yeah, my music, and we
wrote new words to it.
RA: “Your Own Ride”—which, by
the way, has killer lyrics—
DC: I wrote those (lyrics)
to my son Django about ten years ago, and I gave them to Bill Laurance from
Snarky Puppy and he wrote the music.
RA: “Buddha on a Hill” …
DC: “Buddha on a Hill” we all wrote. It’s
basically a love song to my wife.
RA: ”I Am No Artist” …
DC: A set of words that Becca found and brought,
and she wrote the music, and the words are just so strange and wonderful. I
think that’s some of the best harmony singing we did.
RA: “1967” …
DC: I think that’s the one
where you actually hear me writing the
song. You hear me finding the melody in the beginning there. It’s the only
time I know of where I actually got the inception, the actual birth of the song,
on tape.
RA: Wow. “Balanced on a Pin” …
DC: “Balanced on a Pin” is
just a recent song that I wrote … I don’t know if I should tell you this, but
it’s very simple; it’s how I feel.
RA: “Other Half Rule” …
DC: That’s us singing to
the women of the United States of America: Would you please get more involved
and start running things, because we think that you could do a really good job.
RA: I know that “Janet” is essentially
Michelle … that was performed last summer on the Sky Trails tour.
DC: That’s Michelle’s
song. Boy, what a woman! [laughs]
RA: Congratulations on
your recently-concluded European tour! I know that was a long time in the
works.
DC: Yeah, it was really
good. We tore it up, man. The gig in London was just killer. You should read
the Times review!
RA: I did!
DC: The gig in Milan might
have been even crazier than the one in London but they were both stunners.
RA: What’s the vibe over
there? How do they feel about what’s happening on this side of the pond?
DC: Every conversation,
every interview starts with “What the
fuck?!?”
RA: I can definitely get
behind that!
DC: They are baffled; they
are worried as well they might be.
RA: I want to circle back
to the advice you gave to the other three, about thinking too much. What did
Michael, Becca, and Michelle specifically bring to your table? What did you get
from each of them?
DC: Each of them is a
completely individual writer, not like anybody else I’ve ever heard. So, what I
get from them is creative juice. They are incredible artists, all three of
them. Michael can play anything well, and he’s such a wonderful composer of
music and such a good writer of words. Becca and Michelle are completely
different from each other and two of the best singer-songwriters I’ve
encountered. I found Joni Mitchell; I do
know what I’m doing.
RA: Yes, you do.
DC: [laughs]
RA: Something that
everybody who’s ever worked with you says is that you bring a childlike
enthusiasm. Do you recognize this in yourself?
DC: Probably not the same
way everybody else does. Yeah, I am enthusiastic. I love this, man, I love singing!
I love music! I’m not doing it to get
famous or rich, (or to) get laid or anything; I’m doing it because I absolutely adore
doing it.
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| Image courtesy of David Crosby |
RA: You and Paul McCartney
are the same age and are probably the two busiest men in this business.
DC: Well, we both feel the
same thing, which is: We have a certain amount of time left; how do we want to
spend it? That’s pretty clear, huh?
RA: Absolutely. The last
time we spoke, you mentioned that there was a Cameron
Crowe documentary in the works. What’s the status?
DC: It’s done! Ah ha!
Whoo! [laughs] We’re gonna sell it at that big movie
festival up in Utah. I think it’s an amazing piece of work. It’s probably
the most honest documentary I’ve ever seen. We’ll see if people like it or not.
I hope they do, because boy, I didn’t pull any punches.
RA: Speaking of punches,
you just provided me with a very weird segue … from the same Rolling Stone article, your wife Jan was
quoted as saying, “David functions best while simultaneously praised and
abused.” Care to comment on that?
DC: [laughs] Yeah, sure!
If you have an ego as big as mine, the only healthy thing you can do with it is
make fun of it! [cracks up laughing] As often as possible! My family and my
close friends all abuse me with great regularity and hilarity. There’s a lot of
sense of humor there!
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| Michael League, Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis, David Crosby Image courtesy of David Crosby |
RA: A quick diversion into
a question for guitarists: We all know and love the EBDGAD tuning. Is there
another alternative tuning you can share with me for the guitarist to
experiment with?
DC: Oh, Jeez, let’s see …
try DADDGC!
RA: Returning to the
feedback you were getting while in Europe, and what’s swirling around now with
the November midterms, and where the country may be headed …
DC: Every conversation
started off with them being completely aghast and worried as hell because,
obviously, Western Europe is very, very strongly linked to the United States,
and they used to be able to count on us to be their buddy. Now, we’ve got an
idiot running our country and he’s doing great harm to that relationship. So,
every conversation I had over there started with “What the hell is going on, and how did you let it get there?” And it’s
embarrassing, and it’s tough. I made jokes about it, I tell people we’re all
gonna wear a Canadian maple leaf on our shoulders and (say) we’re Canadians,
because everybody likes Canadians! But it’s very tough in Europe right now to
be an American; it’s embarrassing.
RA: Do you have a sense of
where the midterms are going?
DC: [sighs] I know where I want them to go, man, but what you’ve
got to remember is there’s people like the Koch brothers who committed $80,000,000 in swiping that election
publicly.
RA: As important as the
issue behind the No Nukes movement was (and is), the U.N. report on climate
change that just came out yesterday is an issue that seems to be a rallying
point for humanity. My question to you is: could, should musical artists help
to lead the way in terms of awareness—
DC: We’re human beings and
we live here; we have a responsibility to our families, to our children, to our
children’s children. The worst part in what this current administration is
doing isn’t the damage to our democracy, which is awful, and it isn’t the
damage to the belief in our democracy, which is even worse; it’s the fact that
by not doing anything about global warming, by denying any report that gets in
the way of profits, we are doing a disservice to the entire human race … every
single human being on the planet when we’re supposed to be a developed
nation with the intelligence and the technology to lead the way to fixing it,
we’re doing this awful, backsliding, stupid, ignorant move, and we’re doing
harm to the entire planet and everybody on it. Not a good thing.
RA: I agree. The last time
we spoke was in May, just before you toured the U.S. with the Sky Trails band,
we were speaking about the activism of musical artists, you brought up the CSNY
mothership, so to speak, and you said that you felt that they should be out
there adding their collective voice to the mix. Have your thoughts changed at
all regarding that?
DC: I wish we were! You
gotta remember, the last time we got together was to sing Neil’s “Let’s Impeach
the President for Lying” which is a perfect song to be singing right now! We were just singing it a little too
early; we didn’t realize we were gonna have a liar of this proportion to work
with. I wish we would; I don’t think it’s gonna happen, but I get messages
every day on Twitter and Facebook saying, “Will you pleeeease stop bickering with each other and do your job? Be our
voice; we need it now." And I agree, and I would like to. But it’s up to Neil, it’s
always been up to Neil, and it’s up to Neil now.
RA: It was interesting
this summer to see how the others’ songs were popping up on everybody’s set
lists …
DC: I don’t know about
that; I’ve been doing “Ohio” but that’s normal. I don’t think any of them ever
do my songs.
RA: Graham performed
“Orleans” which was on your If
I Could Only Remember My Name.
DC: That’s a French
children’s song, it’s not my song.
RA: At one point, did you
add Graham's “Marguerita” to one of the European shows? I had seen a reference to that
from a fan on Facebook.
DC: No, they made a
mistake.
RA: I understand that
you’ve already started writing for the next Sky Trails band album.
DC: Yeah, we already are.
RA: Given that there are
only 24 hours in a day, how do you find the time?
DC: You know, it’s what I said before, man. You look at your life, you know that you have a certain amount of time; anybody my age knows that they’ve got a certain amount of time. And you think to yourself, okay, how do I spend this time? Do I sit around, retire, and stare at the walls? What do I do? To me, there’s only one contribution I can make. There’s only one place I can do anything personally; me, to make anything better. And that’s to be doing my job, to be making the music, the best music I can make, as fast as I can do it.
DC: You know, it’s what I said before, man. You look at your life, you know that you have a certain amount of time; anybody my age knows that they’ve got a certain amount of time. And you think to yourself, okay, how do I spend this time? Do I sit around, retire, and stare at the walls? What do I do? To me, there’s only one contribution I can make. There’s only one place I can do anything personally; me, to make anything better. And that’s to be doing my job, to be making the music, the best music I can make, as fast as I can do it.
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| Image courtesy of David Crosby |
RA: The upcoming tour
starts on November 2nd in Seattle and winds up in Port Chester, NY
on December 8th. Have rehearsals started yet?
DC: Just about to.
RA: It’s been decades, and
I always want to just express my thanks.
DC: Well, thank you, man,
and thank you for the help!
(Island Zone Update features additional interviews with
David Crosby from 2014 to 2018.)
© Roy Abrams 2018
Beautiful interview, man! Thanks, Roy and David.
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