In the run-up to his Moseley Folk headline appearance, Graham Nash talks to Folk Radio about politics, old friends, and the magic of music.
Zooming from his home in the US, Graham Nash describes his current touring show, 60 Years Of Songs and Stories, as “two hours or so of peace.” But believing “it’s the duty of every artist to reflect the times in which we live,” he can’t help but discuss the current state of the world around us – especially the situation in Ukraine.
“Well, I think it’s an incredible dream of Putin to recreate the Russian Empire of 150 years ago,” says Nash. “And the thing about Ukraine is it’s democracy that’s at stake here, because let’s just say that Putin wins this war against Ukraine – where’s he going next? Where’s he going next to create this incredible ‘Russian Empire’? And because of one man’s dream, people are dying every single day!”
Nash believes it’s every artist’s responsibility to use their position to highlight wrongs and call for change. “I HAVE to talk about what’s going on politically,” he stresses.
That need to speak out has shaped much of Nash’s work, from Teach Your Children and Military Madness to Better Life – a cut from his current album Now, which simply calls for us all to stand up for what we believe in. “Because we have to leave this place a better place,” he declares. “I mean, look what’s going on right now. The whole planet seems to be burning up – not only with climate change but politically also.”
“You know, we have to talk about the rise of the autocrats throughout the world,” he continues. “It’s very disturbing. Is democracy on its last legs? What do we do if Trump gets nominated to be the Republican presidential candidate? And and what happens if he gets re-elected? He can still run for presidency in jail!”
The possibility of a former US President running for re-election while incarcerated sounds ridiculous, comical even. “But it’s not comical! It’s happening in real life!” Nash stresses before pondering the political alternatives, discussing how Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, is “trying to erase black history from Florida’s educational system,” and more. Darting from topic to topic, his anger and passion are clear and focused.
“The world is in unfortunate shape right now and I’m very disturbed about it,” he concludes. “I’ve watched history, I’ve watched empires rise, I’ve seen empires fall and it looks to me like America might be on the spiral down.”
Yet, despite his understandable frustration at the shape of the world right now, Nash is in a good place, personally. As he confesses in Right Now – Now’s opening track – he’s never been happier, thanks to unexpectedly finding love with photographer Amy Grantham. His third wife, their relationship has led, in part, to Nash relocating from America’s West to East Coast.
“I’ve lived in New York now for nine years. You know, when when I lived on the West Coast, I would come for two or three days and couldn’t wait to get out of the city. But then, when you live here, you realise exactly how chaotic and beautiful it is.
“I quite frankly wish I’d have been here 20 years ago. There’s a certain energy in this city that is undeniable,” he continues. “I love to hear four or five different foreign accents before I get my coffee in the morning. It’s a fabulous city – there’s something happening all the time.”
While the 13-track Now is certainly shaped by the present, the album does include an unexpected reunion with his old childhood friend, Allan Clarke, for a nostalgic throwback to their formative days. Salford school pals, the duo went on to form The Hollies in 1962 – where Nash made his name before heading Stateside to join Stephen Stills and David Crosby et al.
Their Now collaboration, Buddy’s Back, sees Nash and Clarke celebrating their early inspiration, with a version of the track also featuring on Clarke’s I’ll Never Forget LP (along with further Nash compositions).
“I wrote Buddy’s Back because of The Hollies’ love for Buddy Holly. I mean, holy s***! We were ‘The Hollies,'” Nash laughs.
While Nash’s musical relationship with Clarke was a key feature of his early success, his relationship with former Byrd, David Crosby, arguably shaped his career’s second chapter as the duo featured on well over a dozen studio albums together.
Despite the stunning music, Crosby’s knack for putting his foot in it meant that by 2016, the Crosby/Nash relationship was (as Nash stated at the time) “over.” But the Brit songwriter says the two estranged friends had been building bridges before Crosby suddenly passed away in January 2023.
“He sent me an email saying that he wanted to talk. I was a little reticent to answer the email because I guess I was fearful of being rejected again,” Nash recalls.
“I spent about a week thinking about it – should I call him? So then he left me a voicemail saying that he wanted to talk to me. He wanted to apologise for some of the things that he had said about Neil [Young] and his wife Daryl [Hannah], and about me personally. And I then I sent him a voicemail back saying, OK, why don’t we do a FaceTime where we can see each other when we’re talking. And I set up a time for an afternoon, two o’clock my time here, on the East Coast in New York. That would have been 11 o’clock his time, in California.”
But Crosby never called.
“I waited and I waited and no call came, and then two days later he was dead.”
Nash pauses, then sighs.
“But at least we were talking.”
Re-screened on the BBC in the wake of Crosby’s death, the half-hour TV studio-based 1970 In Concert saw the duo finding their feet after the collapse of CSN/CSN&Y and stands as a lasting testament to their creative and personal relationship.
“It was very intimate. We had a bunch of new songs that we hadn’t played live before, but David and I had a thing together. We really could sing together. We had a sound to our voices very much like The Everly Brothers – although we could never be that close because, well, The Everly Brothers were brothers and they they were connected with their DNA, and that’s very hard to replicate. But David and I came close. We had our own sound, we had our own vision of music, and people loved it.”
Although Nash had finally drawn a line under Crosby Nash (and associated configurations) as a live entity, he continued to oversee numerous CSN/CN/CSNY-related archival collections, including box sets, live shows and demos. And despite the plethora of recordings already available, there’s still more to come.
“Right now we’re working on Crosby Stills and Nash live, with my best friend, Joel Bernstein – who is an archivist and a guitar tech for Joni [Mitchell], for Prince, for Bob Dylan, for Tom Petty. I just had a day off on the West Coast and I spent it with Joel, and we went through 30 things that thrilled us to death.”
Nash also promises a new photography book, and more solo material too.
“We had many tracks leftover from This Path Tonight, and tracks leftover from Now, and I’m looking at all that music and realising that there are things that need to be completed.”
After reflecting on his lifelong love of music, Nash says that after over 60 years of writing and performing, he’s still awed by it all.
“It’s magic,” he states. “I mean, we are creating songs out of nothing. You know, there’s only 12 notes basically in the Western scale of music. Look at all the music that has been made from those 12 notes! Yeah? It’s unbelievable!
“And I want to continue to do this until I’m in my coffin.”
Graham Nash plays Moseley Folk and Arts Festival, Birmingham, on Friday, 1 September 2023, with Squeeze and Gwenno. Also appearing over the weekend are The Saw Doctors, The Mary Wallopers, and Rozi Plain (Sat 2 Sept), with Wilco, The Proclaimers, Stornoway and Angeline Morrison (Sun 3 Sept). For tickets and more information, see: moseleyfolk.co.uk.
Graham Nash: https://www.grahamnash.com/