(Credits: Far Out / Acroterion)
Fri 27 March 2026 21:15, UK
Whenever someone talks about the sound of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the first thing that anyone remembers is those harmonies.
No one else was making those complex, tight harmony parts since the days of The Beach Boys, and it was almost difficult to find out which one was the main melody since every member’s voice was so distinct when they performed. But even if they could put together some of the finest harmony lines anyone had ever come up with, Graham Nash still wanted the trio to be remembered for their skills as a band rather than being a bunch of musicians coming together.
Then again, that’s always been the double-edged sword when it comes to all of CSN’s work. As much as they loved working together, it was understood that all of them were only working to make records as vehicles for their songs in between working on their solo careers. They may have had a few periods when they split off into two separate duos when Neil Young joined the band, but even at their worst, you could still hear how well their voices blended together when they made their one-off reunions.
And for Nash, this was a godsend for him after spending one too many years in The Hollies. The British invasion mainstays were fine for what they were, but they were definitely becoming a bit too manufactured by the time that Nash was itching to leave. None of his songs could have worked with their commercial appeal, and when he met David Crosby, the world had blown wide open when they started to finetune ‘Marrakesh Express’.
Crosby was the one always finding different harmony parts to put on every one of their records, and it’s impossible to think of the band without those soaring vocals on tunes like ‘Teach Your Children’. But even in a band where everyone seemed to have equal footing, Stephen Stills tended to be a little bit forgotten a lot of the time. He was as much of a member as anyone else, but you tend to forget how much he brought to the band beyond his voice and a handful of great songs.
Long before Young was brought in to give the band some edge, Stills was the one who was the engine behind the group. He was writing all of those classic riffs, and even when he was working with guitars that were detuned to hell and back, he could manage to squeeze out a track like ‘Carry On’ or manage to reshape Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’ into a fierce rocker when they decided to cover it.
And while Nash can certainly shout Stills’s praises, he felt that he still didn’t get the same credit that he deserved next to his rock and roll peers, saying, “[He’s] certainly one of the finest guitar players in the world, certainly — I think he’s a very underrated guitar player. You know, I read the top 50 guitar players in Rolling Stone, and he’s somewhere around the bottom, and that’s just not right. He’s an incredible guitar player.”
It might seem strange putting him in the same conversation as people like Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix, but a lot of Stills’s magic comes from his versatility on the instrument. He wasn’t trying to be a virtuoso, but after playing nearly everything on the first CSN album, he was already a cut above every other guitarist in his field, not to mention the fact that he served as inspiration for Eric Clapton songs like ‘Let It Rain’ after ‘Slowhand’ pulled a few licks from his arsenal.
So while Nash’s strong suit was always in having that beautiful high voice on many of their songs, Stills was the one person that should never be understated in the story of their career. They were all equal in their contributions to the group, but it’s hard to think of any band that had someone with that much fire in their playing while still sounding absolutely beautiful when they sang.
