David Crosby has been an influential musician for many years. Founding both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, he's also had a solo career, releasing his first solo album in 1971. Since 2014 he's focussed more on his solo work, releasing four albums including this one in the space of five years.
For this album David Crosby is again working with Michelle Wilis, Michael Leageu and Becca Stevens - three of the musicians who he worked with on his "Lighthouse" album. On this album they all contribute to the songwriting and also vocals, and often they share lead vocal duties - for example on the song "Janet".
"1967" and "1974" are both songs based on old demos that were recently unearthed. I'm assuming the titles refer to what year the demos were made.
The final track on the album is a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock". It starts as a simple stripped down version - just David Crosby singing and playing acoustic guitar. Then partway through the song we get the backing vocals joining in. It's quite different to Joni Mitchell's original but it's a great version - not better or worse than the original, just a different interpretation of a great song.
It's a fantastic album. Even aged 77, David Crosby shows no sign of retiring and is still producing top quality music. There's not a single weak track here and the collaborative nature of the album with the writing as well as performing being shared then there's a nicely varied set of tracks here. Highly recommended.
Track listing:
1. Glory
2. Vagrants of Venice
3. 1974
4. Your own ride
5. Buddha on a hill
6. I am no artist
7. 1967
8. Balanced on a pin
9. Other half rule
10. Janet
11. Woodstock |