David Crosby at Shepherd's Bush Empire

David Crosby & Friends
Shepherd's Bush Empire, 16 September 2018

It seems in recent years David Crosby has managed to piss off every other member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. None of them are speaking to him. The good thing about this is that it's made Crosby incredibly productive and we've got three solo albums from him in the last four years with another due out in October. It's also meant we've got the first David Crosby solo tour in the UK for the first time in years.

It's predictably exciting to see Crosby on a much smaller stage than he would normally play with his fellow legendary bandmates and it's wonderful to see him looking so good, wearing his now-familiar red beanie and a simple blue shirt, completed with a warm smile and that trademark twinkle in his eye. It's clear right from the outset that Crosby loves playing live and is having a ball playing with his current band (kudos to him for having two women in his band too, something rarely seen with classic rock stars).

I really expected this concert to be a showcase for Crosby's recent prolific solo output but instead we got a setlist that took in all permutations of CSN, his band CPR and of course a little of his solo work too (although surprisingly not too much). I would have liked to have heard a few more of the new songs but then it's hard to argue when Crosby begins singing the beautiful opening lines of Guinnevere and then your heart just melts and you feel overcome in a wonderful wave of nostalgia.

Crosby was also so charming and sweet throughout, filled with stories and witty observations, at one point telling us "you must realise that I never wrote the hits. I wrote all the weird stuff." He's also not afraid to get political (needless to say, Crosby absolutely hates Trump) and it's interesting how many of his songs still sound so relevant today.

Before giving us one of those songs, What Are Their Names from his first solo album If Only I Could Remember My Name from 1971, he apologises "to the whole world on behalf of my country." He then gives us the double whammy of CSN's Long Time Gone and CSNY's Déjà Vu and they, of course, both sound amazing with Crosby's incredible voice soaring above it all. And that was just the first set ("If this were California, we'd go and smoke a joint now, but here we'll go drink some water," he tells us.)

I personally never know what to do when there is a break in sets like this, I guess it makes sense when the audience is older, it gives them a chance to go to the toilet or get another drink. Me, I took advantage of the desertion from the stalls to get a little closer to the stage and the second half of the show proved even more powerful because I was close to the action (the fantastic band and song choices helped too of course).  

Crosby returns to the stage to sing an old CSNY song The Lee Shore, his voice sounding amazingly fresh and soaring. Not bad for a 77 year old, not bad indeed. Pleased at the reaction, he is even more impressed when the crowd cheers the next song, the jazzy Homeward Through The Haze, a Crosby & Nash tune ("they know it!" he excitedly tells his band).

The first song from his latest album appears next and its the title track, Sky Trails "about being lost in the larger sense" he explains. It's sung as a duet with its co-writer, Michelle Willis, who also plays keyboards in the band. There is something rather lovely when Crosby sings quieter, more acoustic songs like this, even as a duet, as it really allows his voice to shine. It's yet another lovely moment.

Crosby still introduces his excellent band, which of course features his son James Raymond and guitarist Jeff Pevar, who he has worked with for years in CPR. Drummer Steve DiStanislao he tells us was stolen by David Gilmour but is back with him again. But, for me, the most interesting thing about his band is the women in it. 

It's so rare to see a legendary male artist like Crosby with two female musicians in their band, backing singers sure, but musicians that aren't male? Some 60s and 70s artists just can't make that leap. Crosby intentionally wanted women in his band and not only is it refreshing to see they are also damn good. Estonian bassist Mai Leisz is cool and fantastic and keyboardist Willis has co-written songs with Croz that sound great. To demonstrate this they perform one of Willis' songs which she takes lead vocals on called Janet, a tale of jealousy and cheating boyfriends it seems. Crosby does build it up as some great feat of songwriting but really it's just an unmemorable blues tune (it has made its way onto Croz's next LP though).

The most moving moment comes next when Crosby tells us how Jackson Browne helped him during

the lowest time in his life during his recovery from his drug addiction in the 1980s. Not having written a song in years, Crosby has written a few words but without a piano could not complete the song. Browne dragged him to Warren Zevon's house to use his piano and encouraged him to finish it and the gorgeous Delta was born, which they then beautifully perform and sounded even more powerful thanks to the story before it.

The next song was the most thrilling for me even though it was the only Byrds song of the night: an amazingly brilliant, prog-rock sounding version of Eight Miles High, complete with some fantastic harmonies with his band. Oh to have heard some more of Crosby's Byrds tunes though!

He ends the second set with a crowd-pleasing Wooden Ships but the encore is even better. Crosby returns to cheers to perform the anthemic Almost Cut My Hair, which he says he hasn't played in three years and, even more exciting for me, a powerful version of Ohio, which he tells us "I can only sing this if you sing this with me." We of course more than happily oblige and it sounds incredible.

What a special artist David Crosby still is and I'm so glad he finally brought his solo show to London. It really was something special.