(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 5 September 2025 17:30, UK
David Crosby was always looking to try out new sounds during his lifetime.
The whole reason why he left The Byrds was over his refusal to be stuck playing a genre he didn’t like, but even with the heights that he had with his other supergroup, he knew that there was a lot more chemistry to be found out in the wild.
But it’s not like Crosby was going to be making the same folksy music he did with Stills, Nash or Young. There are pieces of his solo discography that echo back to that kind of music, but an album like If I Could Only Remember My Name has an almost-mystical quality to the way that he puts chords together, using the same vocabulary that people would see out of jazz musicians rather than rock and roll.
And considering what Crosby was listening to since his youth, it’s not like he was on a strict diet of all things rock and roll. He had a healthy respect for people that changed the game in rock and roll from Bob Dylan to The Beatles to Joni Mitchell, but he didn’t see the difference between their brilliance and the kind of insane chops that you would hear on a Miles Davis or a John Coltrane record from decades before.
Even though Crosby wasn’t born with the same jazz chops, he was always listening to hear how jazz could be incorporated into rock and roll. Mitchell had started using the LA Express to create new avenues for her songs, and Steely Dan had a whole host of musicians to work with, but if Crosby wanted to make it work, he needed to have the right sets of hands around him to get the best tunes.
Although Graham Nash was always his right-hand man even during the tumultuous years of the group, Crosby finally found the perfect middle ground when working with his son, James Raymond. While the musical icon could be given a run for his money whenever his son harmonised with him, the true kicker to his solo career was getting Jeff Pevar into the mix, who had worked with CSN and had brought jazz into the rock realm by reinterpolating Grateful Dead songs.
Everyone was itching to hear more from Crosby’s other outfits, but he felt that the kind of music he made as CPR was on a much different level, saying, “As much fun as I have with CSN and CSNY, I probably have even more fun with CPR. It’s about chemistry. Real ones happen rarely. Out of 2000 bands that try in 2000 garages, one of them will have a real chemistry. And this one has it. If I could find a third band to do it I’d be in three bands. There’s no such thing as too much good music. That doesn’t exist.”
Even though Pavar had years of experience working with Crosby before they started their own outfit, the real kicker is hearing Raymond take the spotlight away from his old man for a while. After all, Brian Wilson always said that there was something about family members singing together that no one could replace, and it’s hard not to see that in action when listening to the band’s records.
But beyond having great chemistry, Crosby could probably rest easy in his new band knowing that there wasn’t going to be the same amount of drama that he had before. He had to face some heavy compromises back in his day, but he had a lot more wiggle room to work on his chops now.
Related Topics