Legendary singer performing at the Ocean City Music Pier on Monday
Editor’s note: This is an interview by Upper Township writer Kyle McCrane,
who has profiled a number of musicians over the year.
OCEAN CITY – Legendary singer Graham Nash is coming to the Ocean City Music Pier on Monday, Aug. 8.
Nash made his name with the Hollies in the 1960s, then reached iconic status with Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and Young) thereafter.
Nash’s career has been defined by uncompromising themes driven home by breathtaking vocal delivery and he’s bringing it all to the boardwalk.
“They can expect a real good night of music,” Nash said, “all the way from the Hollies to songs I’m writing this morning.”
When we last spoke you were in a period of major change in your life. You’ve since gotten married and taken up meditation. Is this the happiest you’ve ever been in your life?
NASH: “I believe so. When you get to be my age and look back on your life, which I don’t do too often, I’ve been a musician all of my life and I’m really grateful to be able to speak my mind – which is what you can do in this country.”
It’s funny. Recently I got to speak with John Lodge fro the Moody Blues, and a couple weeks ago I got to go see Bobby Weir and Dead and Co. and now I get to talk with you. Could you have imagined all these ’60s acts still going strong? What makes this music so timeless?
NASH: “I just think it’s good music. The Grateful Dead, the Beach Boys are still going, the Rolling Stones are still going of course. Yeah, it’s amazing because it was only a couple decades ago when Mick Jagger was saying you can’t trust anyone over 30.”
You’ve mentioned over the years that a big part of your moving on from the Hollies was your movement toward more serious and political subject matter. Was that conscious thing for you, a feeling of obligation or just a natural evolution?
NASH: “It was kind of a natural evolution, honestly. I had learned in the Hollies to be able to write a tune that you probably couldn’t forget if you’d heard it a couple of times. I realized when I came to America to join Stephen (Stills) and David (Crosby) that if I put better words to the melodies I was learning to write that I was able to do even better songs, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Sadly, most of the issues you’ve written about have stayed relevant or even gotten worse. Bernie Sanders had a great phrase, “Never lose your sense of outrage.” Do you see appropriate outrage?
NASH: “Absolutely. This country is in deep, deep trouble right now. Obviously with four years of Trump and the pandemic and two years of lockdown, we’re in deep s*** here and I wish we could learn from history but it doesn’t seem we are able to. But it does seem as if some of those songs I wrote all those years ago are still relevant today, and that’s crazy.”
Do you see people fighting the good fight like you would hope?
NASH: “The media have learned not to piss the people off. We learned during the Vietnam War with Walter Cronkite telling you how many people died in the war that day. But I get to speak my mind and these things are still relevant today, which is so sad really.”
I understand you have a new record in post-production. Could you talk a little about how that came together?
NASH: “It came together in a couple of ways. One – I was singing on Allen Clarke’s new solo record. Allen and I started the Hollies in December of 1962 and I got to sing with him during this. It was done remotely of course, but that was one this I’ve but that’s one thing I’ve been doing. Secondly – I’ve got a new studio record I’ve done remotely and that will come out probably in about five months.”
What was it like making a record that way, where a lot of times you can’t be in the same room with people and hammer things out?
NASH: “That’s the difficulty of making remote music. You must make it sound as if those people were in the same room at the same time recording and that’s difficult to do. But we managed to do it really well on this record.”
You joked last time we spoke that you could play guitar and keyboards – but neither very well. Could you talk a little about your evolution as an intstrumentalist?
NASH: “Um, I do a lot of things in my life. I’m not a great musician, really. I hardly know what key I’m playing in. I just do a lot of things in my life – I’ve been a photographer longer than I’ve been a musician. What can you say? I’ve been doing it a long time now.”
Your last release was a live record that also sort of served as a retrospective. What was it like revisiting all those songs and putting that together?
NASH: It was a joy. Basically it was the gentle pushing of my wife Amy, who wanted to see that show. She wanted me to do ‘Songs For Beginners’ from start to finish and ‘Wild Tales’ start to finish. I did four shows, we chose the best performances of each song, and” we ended up with a really fine live record.”
You also recently did an Everly Brothers cover with Chris Stills. What was that experience like? They wrote some of the greatest songs ever.
NASH: “Yeah. That was really great singing with Chris. That was the first time I’d ever sung with him on record. He wanted to help with the last Everly Brothers release, which Don Everly was working on when he passed away and I was very pleased to be asked to do it. I wanted to do ‘So Sad’; Chris Stills wanted to do ‘So Sad’. So I said, ‘Why don’t we do it together? Put down your guitar and your voice and send me the files and I’ll see what I can do.’ I think we did very well. We did the Everly Brothers Proud.”
It’s a unique challenge singing with someone else and making it work. You’ve been able to find that chemistry with other singers over the years in beautiful ways. How do you do that?
NASH: “I have to become them. I just have to look at their body language and look at the way that they’re singing, the way they’re ending songs, how they’re holding their breath. I’m good at what I do, ya know? I’ve been doing this a long time.”
And here’s the question every interviewer has to ask you, which I’m sure you never tire of hearing – what are the chances of you, David, and Stephen singing together again?
NASH: “None.”
As we speak today, what would you say you’re most proud of in your career?
NASH: “That I’ve made a lot of people smile.”
By KYLE McCRANE/Special to the Sentinel