David Crosby

Sometimes albums have a sheen of gold around them, a sweetness and depth of feeling that seems to put the listener into a transcendent place. I can only think of a few albums with this sort of quality – Kate Bush ‘Ariel’, America, Eric Bibb ‘Booker’s Guitar’ – but, having been a fan of Crosby for years, I’m not surprised that he joins that august canon.

Along with his regular Lighthouse Band, the music here is even paced, never rushed but most definitely not pedestrian either. The vocals are the core of the music and the voices of David Crosby, Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League are presented beautifully, just allowed to carry the song and the words but adding texture and width to the numbers.

The majority of the songs were developed collaboratively in the studio – the press blurb yells that they arrived in the studio with only 2 Crosby songs and developed the rest during their time there. You can easily sense the collaborative nature of the whole project in the way that different voices pop up either in the lead or supporting and texturizing the songs and I would have to say that the way they have worked together is much, much more successful than the usual ‘line up behind the leader’.

There are 2 songs here that were original demos, lost in time and history and imaginatively titled ‘1974’ and ‘1967’ and they somehow fit seamlessly into the album. ‘1967’ especially is a reverie of voice and guitar, essentially without words and with other voices added – including Crosby – alongside the original voice,

I would normally try and pick out a favourite track but I found myself listening to the entire album from ‘Glory’ (a song to his wife of 41 years) to a gorgeous version of ‘Woodstock’ every time.

It is an album of real beauty, pure class and great emotion. Magnificent