There are few melodicists in rock as gifted as Graham Nash, who – and this is not a pejorative – was the missing link between light entertainment and the counterculture through the second half of the 1960s and the first part of the following decade. He seemed to pluck tunes from the air – Marrakesh Express, Our House, Teach Your Children, all present this evening, though there’s no room for the Hollies’ amazing King Midas in Reverse – that permeated the consciousness and transitioned from being hippie anthems to staples of MOR radio.
In this two-part show, Nash – backed by the excellent Shane Fontayne on guitar and Todd Caldwell on keys, both also singing harmony – takes a skip through his career, from the Hollies’ Bus Stop (1966) through CSNY to the present day, with a couple of songs from this year’s album Now. Even at 81, his high tenor is straight and true, and when Fontayne and Caldwell join in the results are meltingly gorgeous. It’s like bathing in sunshine, musically at least. There’s drama, too – Cathedral, first recorded by Crosby, Stills and Nash, is dramatic and surging, changing pace and mood, bringing shadows.
