Our house this Monday, August 27, 2024 evening is the Ocean City Music Pier on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ where a sold-out crowd awaits an appearance by singer/songwriter Graham Nash.
Nash, 82 — a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy Award winner, and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee — is known internationally for his unique tenor voice. In the early ‘60’s he co-founded The Hollies, which had hits with tunes like “Just One Look” and “Carrie Ann.” Introduced to musicians Stephen Stills and David Crosby by The Mamas and the Papas’ Cass Elliot, Nash left The Hollies in 1968 to form the supergroup Crosby, Stills and Nash which — with the addition of Neil Young — became Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The lights dim, and multi-faceted musicians Zach Djanikia, Adam Minkoff, and Todd Caldwell take the stage along with Graham Nash. The crowd stands and cheers, and Nash responds, “How ya doin’ Ocean City?” before adding, “We’re going to have a nice couple of hours of music, alright?”
Starting off with Zach Djanikia on guitar, Adam Minkoff on drums, and Todd Caldwell on keyboards, Nash — accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica — launches into his Crosby, Stills and Nash original, “Wasted on the Way.”
As he sings, “Look around me/I can see my life before me/Running rings around the way it used to be,” Nash is paired with Minkoff’s vocal harmony on this easy country rocker.
The crowd applauds, and Nash recalls, “In 1966 I was still in my band, The Hollies, when I traveled the North Coast of Africa and took the train from Casablanca to Marrakesh,” before explaining, “That’s when ‘Marrakesh Express’ was born.”
Nash and Co. migrate into CSN’s “Marrakesh Express” where audience members happily sing along on the catchy “Would you know we’re riding/On the Marrakesh Express” chorus and Zach Djanikia makes his electric guitar sing, echoing the work of Stephen Stills.
Nash sings with conviction and feeling on “Military Madness” as he encourages concertgoers to join him in singing the song’s “No more war” refrain. He follows up with a number from his 1971 debut studio solo album, “I Used to Be a King,” where he calls out in his smooth vocal, “I used to be a king and everything around me turned to gold,” on this appealing country waltz.
The crowd hoots and hollers as Nash explains, “This is a song from the CSNY album, Four Way Street.” Djanikia switches from guitar to mandolin, Minkoff transfers from drums to electric bass, and Caldwell moves over from electronic keyboards to Hammond organ on “Right Between the Eyes.” After Nash croons, “A man’s a man who looks a man right between the eyes,” Caldwell renders a swirling organ solo, Minkoff solos on bass, and Djanikia picks out a high and sweet mandolin solo to audience whistles and cheers.
Nash introduces his bandmates and he and his colleagues shift into The Hollies’ 1966 Top 10 hit, “Bus Stop.” Lights flash out the beat on this number as Nash sings, “Bus stops, bus goes/She stays, love grows/Under my umbrella,” accompanied by three-part vocal harmonies. At the conclusion, concertgoers applaud for such a long time that Nash can’t help but smile and remind them, “You know that song is 60 years old!”
Moving over to the piano, Nash announces, “This song is for David Crosby. He really was a unique musician. I’ve never heard anyone who could write songs like him.” “To the Last Whale: Critical Mass/Wind on the Water” starts off with the playing of the ethereal Crosby and Nash recording, “Critical Mass.” Then, Nash and Co. sail into an emotional rendition of “Wind on the Water” where Minkoff’s guitar sounds like a whale’s cry before he and Djanikia add harmony to Nash’s vocal as he laments, “Now you are washed up on the shoreline/I can see your body lie/It’s a shame you have to die/To put the shadow on our eye.”
Following avid applause, Nash recalls, “CSNY were in Canada and traveling back to the States but immigration was not going to let me into the country — they let Crosby in, they let Stills in, and they even let Neil Young in, but not me — they gave me incredible trouble, but it did make it into a song.” CSN-style harmonies ring out on “Immigration Man,” a 1972 Top 40 hit by David Crosby and Graham Nash, as Nash and Co. sing, “Let me in/Let me in, immigration man/Can I cross the line and pray/I can stay another day,” on this driving folk-rocker.
Following “Better Days” — a song Nash reveals is “one I like to do for Rita Coolidge, a great artist and singer” — Nash’s heartfelt vocal tells a story on “Simple Man,” a beautiful and truthful song about the end of his relationship with singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. Crooning, “I just want to hold you/I don’t want to hold you down/But I can’t make it alone,” his harmonica playing fills in the empty space between his vocals.
Revealing, “Here’s a song I wrote for Stephen Stills when he had some trouble with Judy Collins,” Nash performs “Wounded Bird” where he cries, “A hobo or a poet must kill dragons for a bride/And humble pie is always hard to swallow with your pride.”
Recalling, “Here’s a song David Crosby and I wrote about the dangers of going on the road,” Nash performs “Taken At All.” With haunting vocal harmonies and a finger-picked accompaniment, the singers cry, “We lost it on the highway/Down the dotted line/You were going your way/I was going mine.”
Nash regales the audience with a story about how, as he was getting ready to leave Hawaii, he was challenged to write a song “just before you go.” On 1977’s “Just a Song Before I Go,” Nash plays acoustic guitar as he sings, “Just a song before I go/To whom it may concern/Traveling twice the speed of sound/It’s easy to get burned,” accompanied by Minkoff on drums, Djanikia on electric guitar, and Campbell playing keys.
The crowd whistles and cheers, and Nash moves to the piano for a performance of his stunning composition, “Cathedral.” Confessing, “This is the first song I ever wrote on acid,” Nash cries, “I’m flying in Winchester Cathedral,” on this powerful and mystical performance which concludes with enormous cheers and applause.
Nash responds, “Thank you very much, everybody!” and the crowd hoots and hollers when he invites them to join him in singing “Love the One You’re With.” On this groove-filled interpretation of Stephen Stills’ 1970 hit, Caldwell plays a screaming vibrato-filled organ solo and the audience claps and sings along on the well-known “And if you can’t be with the one you love, honey/Love the one you’re with” chorus.
The crowd whistles and cheers as Nash and Co. launch into 1977’s “Our House” — Nash’s tribute to his time with Joni Mitchell — where he and the crowd sing together on the famous “Our house is a very, very, very fine house” chorus. Music lovers also join in on “Teach Your Children” where they happily sing along on the song’s “Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry/So just look at them and sigh/And know they love you” chorus.
Concertgoers stand and applaud, and Nash exclaims, “Thank you, Ocean City — you’ve been a wonderful audience!” For an encore, he and the band launch into Stephen Stills’ “Find the Cost of Freedom” where three-part vocal harmonies ring out on the poignant “Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground/Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down” lyric.
On their feet, concertgoers continue to cheer until Nash signals, “One more?” The audience reacts in the affirmative and Nash and Co. thunder into their rendition of Neil Young’s “Ohio” where audience members cry out with Nash on the emotional “Four dead in Ohio” refrain as the song builds in intensity to a roaring conclusion and Nash takes leave of the stage.
As audience members make their way out of the venue, several comment on tonight’s performance by Graham Nash. Remarks Shelby from Longport, “I thought he did an excellent job! For his age, he’s amazing! His voice was spot-on and I loved the band, too; they’re so talented.”
Bill from Ocean City agrees, declaring, “The show was fantastic! The harmonies were incredible, and the instrumentalists were great. It all made for a very enjoyable evening which brought back a lot of memories from 50 or 60 years ago — and I hate to admit that!”
Karen from Ocean City exclaims, “I thought Graham Nash was excellent! My husband and I loved this show because it had such a good vibe to it. Even though we were sitting all the way in the back, we could understand all the words, and I actually learned some I never knew before. Plus, Graham Nash’s voice sounded wonderful and all of his musicians were multi-talented, as well.”
Karen’s twin sister, Sharan from Ocean City, concurs, acknowledging, “My husband is a big Graham Nash fan and I was always familiar with his music,” prior to asserting, “Before tonight I wasn’t a fan, but after tonight’s show I’m a huge fan!”
To learn more about Graham Nash, please go to grahamnash.com. For information about Graham Nash’s upcoming concerts with Judy Collins at Collingswood, NJ’s Scottish Rite Auditorium on September 28 and 29, please go to etix.com.
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