Graham Nash @ Town Hall, 22nd May 2016
For a self-confessed simple man, Graham Nash has had a long, accomplished and complicated career in the music business. He has moved and physically relocated when his heart found beauty regardless of whether that would be regarded as a wise decision by his peers. Releasing himself from The Hollies, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and now Crosby, Stills and Nash, to pursue his own path is why we now find Graham Nash releasing his first solo album in twelve years (‘This Path Tonight’) and touring the world with just his own voice, with support from co-writer and album producer Shane Fontayne.
Birmingham audiences are all too often left out of artists’ tour schedules, however, our city is one of only a handful of Graham’s UK tour dates, along with Manchester and London, so it is clear we have left an impression on him from previous shows when he played the Symphony Hall with David and Stephen. The decision to play here is vindicated by Nash’s stunning performance and the rapturous reception by the Birmingham faithful from the moment he walks barefoot on stage.
Having spoken to Graham last week, I knew that this tour was going to be stripped back versions of his songs throughout his 50 plus year career, with just two guitars, his voice and vocal harmony from Shane. What I didn’t fully appreciate is how powerful this naked arrangement would be. Case in point is the elegantly simple, yet beautifully melodic ‘Marrakesh Express’: with this arrangement the two vocal harmonies are so defined you can follow each line, note by note, without the distraction of the full band version. Shane does manage however to echo Stephen Stills epic guitar run perfectly. And with this track the scene is set for a two hour masterclass in how to write and perform vocal harmonies. It is book ended by a version of McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’, which is mesmerising. I guess with Nash’s own songs, you are used to hearing how he blends vocal lines, but listening to him riffing around the song’s melody (sang by Shane), and taking it to places McCartney could never dream of is testament to Nash’s talent as a composer and performer.
Arguably the most impressive aspect of the show is the pacing, order and choice of songs; when you have a 50 year back catalogue, it is more about what you leave out than what you put in, and Nash found a wonderful balance of songs from his career and ordered them intelligently. I worried initially, when he started with two Hollies tracks, it would be a chronological sequence, however, songs from his new album are mixed in throughout the evening’s two sets. And these tracks do not sound out of place amongst his older and more established hits. ‘This Path Tonight’, ‘Myself at Last’ and ‘Golden Days’ all show that Nash’s enthusiasm for writing have not diminished in the slightest, and the fire and dedication to the craft is still burning brightly.
Vocally you would expect that there would be some tarnishing of the vocal chords of a man in his mid-70’s but not at all: Graham Nash is note and pitch perfect throughout. He has also found an ideal match of voices with his current musical partner Shane.
Tonight’s show is spread over two hour long sets, and unlike when Crosby, Stills and Nash played Symphony Hall last year, this time there is no point when the audience enthusiasm wanes. With two standing ovations at the end of the set, Nash returns both times to roars of approval. As it appears that each night of the tour so far Nash has played slightly different sets, it feels as though, if time allowed, he would have continued playing until the lights were turned off and the doors locked. And the audience would have continued to listen. Maybe it is because Graham Nash feels like one of the people, maybe it is his natural warmth, maybe it is his lack of pretension that draws in the crowd; but most likely it is because he plays one great song after another.
Often throughout the set, Nash introduces the song by describing how it was written and what he was doing at the time. What you learn from this is that Nash writes it as it is. If he sings about lighting a fire while Joni puts flowers in a vase she bought, that is exactly what happened. If the lyric says he took a Rolls Royce to Stonehenge and Winchester whilst on acid and stood on a soldier’s gravestone who died on Nash’s birthday, yes, that happened just like that. If he asked his mates to play in a fundraiser in Chicago and they didn’t and he was pissed off, you guessed it, that actually happened. Nash has been criticised for over simplistic lyrics, use of cliché and primary school rhyming, but really this is a master of confessional lyrics at work — he gets to the point quickly and wants the listener to understand immediately. This feeds into his new album as well and one of the highlights of the night is the heart-breaking ‘Golden Days’, in which Graham looks back at his life in music (“I used to be in a band, made up of my friends “) and considers the future: “And time will always pass, there goes another day, so slowly yet so fast that you can lose your way to these golden days”. Nash manages to tread a fine line between our desire for nostalgia and his desire not to get consumed by it (something his peers could not do in ‘When We Was Fab’ or ‘In Liverpool’). Nash’s songs have an uncanny knack of being about him but feeling like they are about you… the thing is, for many in the audience tonight, we have followed Graham’s path and trod similar paths of our own and it’s good to know we are not alone.
My personal highlights of the evening are a glorious rendition of ‘I Used to Be a King’, particularly when Nash directly links it to the Hollies track ‘King Midas in Reverse’, with their themes of turning everything to dust rather than gold. And also, set opener ‘Bus Stop’ (a classic Graham Gouldman song), but this has a special relevance for me because my wife and I first met at a bus stop. ‘Our House’ is naturally heart-warming and the audience join in on cue, and again on ‘Teach Your Children’.
My only reservations are about the songs that didn’t make it to the set; songs that would have been perfect: ‘Southbound Train’, ‘On the Line’, or my favourite Nash song, ‘I Miss You’. But there is only so much time, and so many songs to choose from.
Graham Nash now moves onto the European leg of his ‘This Path Tonight’ world tour, but he did mention to me last week that his wish is to return next year with a full band. He also hinted to BBC Breakfast that if Trump becomes the US president he may return to England altogether (although he did say he would leave California in ’67 if Reagan became the state’s governor: he did and Nash didn’t). But either way I look forward to welcoming him to Birmingham again soon.
Graham Nash played two sets, including:
Bus Stop (The Hollies song), King Midas in Reverse (The Hollies song), Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills & Nash song), I Used to Be a King, Immigration Man (Crosby & Nash song), Sleep Song, This Path Tonight, Myself at Last, Wind On The Water (Crosby & Nash song), Wasted on the Way (Crosby, Stills & Nash song), Cold Rain (Crosby, Stills & Nash song), Simple Man, Another Broken Heart, Lady of the Island (Crosby, Stills & Nash song), Golden Days, Back Home, Cathedral (Crosby, Stills & Nash song), Our House (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song), Chicago (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song)
Encore:
Blackbird (The Beatles cover), Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song)
2nd Encore:
Just a Song Before I Go (Crosby, Stills & Nash song)
Review: Alan Neilson
Photograph courtesy of PR.