Wind On The Water by David Crosby & Graham Nash

Wind on The Water by Graham Nash and David Crosby was released in 1975. The album tastes of maturity. Like a fine wine, these two artists were developing more depth to their flavor. Graham Nash started his musical career with the English Band the Hollies in 1962. Like the Beatles, this group was the product of two primary school friends’ musical dreams. David Crosby started his musical career in 1963 in a folky vein in Greenwich Village, but by 1964, he had settled in California and helped start the American rock group the Byrd’s.

Crosby and Nash outgrew their roles in their former bands and felt creatively stale. They met one another in 1966, hanging around the vibrant Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene in California. They quickly befriended Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, enamored with the way he played both piano and guitar so wildly. All three artists were searching for more than their original bands were offering and recognized the innovative nature of starting a band with one another.

That band was Crosby, Stills, and Nash, who in 1969, for one of their first gigs, played at the Wood Stock festival, where they became iconically linked to the hippie generation and my heart. The band hit immediate success with the release of their first album Crosby Stills and Nash, and then reached their pinnacle of sonic perfection with their second album Déjà vu, featuring the addition of my favorite singer-songwriter of all time…Neil Young also a member of Stephen Stills first band, the Buffalo Springfield. Making Crosby Stills, Nash, and Young the four horsemen of rock and roll. They rode higher and higher into the 1970’s, where their legendary abuses of cocaine led them to fight (often) for domination of the band. Having this many powerful alpha male singer-songwriters in a band proved to be problematic, and the group split up.

Between 1970 & 1971 all four members of CSNY had released successful solo albums, but their follow-up releases did not measure up. To combat this Graham Nash and David Crosby partnered their harmony power together and formed the duo Crosby & Nash further fleshing out the folky side of the supergroup. Wind on the Water is the group's 2nd album together and their finest work together outside of a CSN or CSNY project. My favorite tracks on the album are Mama Lion written about Joni Mitchell a woman both men had been in a relationship with..and the last song/the title track. To the Last Whale I. Critical Mass, II. Wind On the Water. If this poignant nature conservation track doesn’t move the inner conservationist within, then I don’t know what will.

Peace and Blessings,

Will