CSN: They Are Stardust, They Are Golden
Dave McKenna
Tuesday, August 21, 2001; Page C03
2001 The Washington Post Company

 

There's something very nice about watching folks who love their work. So Crosby, Stills and Nash, sans youth and Young (as in Neil), were easy on the eyes as well as the ears during their nostalgic and utterly upbeat 2 1/2-hour show Sunday at Merriweather Post Pavilion.

CSN's set included many of the same songs played 32 years ago this weekend when (with Young) they performed at the original Woodstock festival. They showed they can still nail all the harmonies on the soft-rock classics from their first album -- including "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Helplessly Hoping" and "Guinnevere" -- and delivered versions of "Wooden Ships" and "49 Bye-Byes" that packed a heavy and even youthful punch.

With Young gone again, Stephen Stills, now 56, goes unchallenged as the top rocker. He grinned broadly and actually left the ground while bouncing during guitar solos. He plugged in a Flying Vee and launched into a wholly expected "Woodstock," and made a sales pitch for Buffalo Springfield's recently released box set before kick-starting "For What It's Worth."

Graham Nash, 59, introduced "Dirty Little Secret," which he wrote last year about the 1921 race riots in Greenwood, Okla. For no obvious reason, the song had a Caribbean beat.

But the focus for most of the evening was on golden oldies. The quaintness meter temporarily redlined during Nash's "Cathedral," a quasi-spiritual ditty about an acid trip he took while visiting Stonehenge in 1974, and again on "Almost Cut My Hair," when David Crosby, who turned 60 last week, threatened to let his "freak flag fly." However, most songs in the CSN catalogue have weathered the years better than the folks who wrote them. And it's a safe bet that Nash's "Our House" and "Teach Your Children," both performed with 15,000-part harmony courtesy of the zealous fans, will still be around long after these guys call it quits, no matter when that is.