An Audio Journey: A Conversation with Graham Nash

By Brent Thompson

Photo Credits: Amy Grantham 

The phrase “a man that needs no introduction” is overused, but it’s befitting of Graham Nash. A two-time inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (let that sink in for a moment ) as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Hollies and a 2009 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Nash has stamped his tenor vocals on numerous Classic Rock staples. But beyond his membership in two iconic groups, the singer/songwriter has a noted solo career and Nash released his latest outing, This Path Tonight [Blue Castle Records], in 2016. On Sunday, March 11, Nash will perform at The Lyric Theatre. Recently, he spoke with us by phone as he prepared to embark on his current tour.

Birmingham Stages: Graham, thanks for your time. Where are you right now?

Graham Nash: I’m home rehearsing. I live in New York City  – I’ve lived here for two years. I lived for 40 years in Hawaii – I just traded jungles [laughs]. My life changed tremendously a couple of years ago. I divorced my wife, Susan, after 38 years. I hope that time will heal but it’s a little difficult with my kids. I wasn’t in love anymore and neither was Susan so we decided that we would divorce. I changed my life and here I am in New York City. I live with this incredibly beautiful artist, Amy Grantham, who’s a painter and collage artist. I have a beautiful apartment here and a studio I can do my music in and dabble in painting. I’m having a good time with my life and I’m really looking forward to coming on the road.

Birmingham Stages: We are glad that Birmingham is a stop on this tour.

GN: In the early ’70s we were on the road and one of our roadies was an African-American and he was sensitive about going to Birmingham. But the South has changed a lot in the last few years. I mean are you kidding? Democrats winning in Alabama?

Birmingham Stages: If you will, talk about the creation of This Path Tonight.

GN: I must confess, I think it’s a fine piece of work. Shane Fontayne – my lead guitar player who will be with me in Birmingham – we wrote 20 songs in a month and it was all about my emotional state which I just roughly explained to you and the songs were fantastic. We only used 10 [songs] on the album  – 13 if you bought the deluxe version on iTunes – we still have seven that we love and we’re writing all the time and I’m going to try to find time this year to make a new record.

Birmingham Stages: How did you and Shane begin working together?

GN: We have a friend, Marc Cohn, who’s a brilliant American songwriter – he did “Walking In Memphis” – and he was doing a show at the El Rey [Theatre] in Los Angeles and he called me and David [Crosby] and asked us to come sing, so we did. He had a band with him and Shane was his guitar player. The Crosby/Nash Band had Dean Parks as its guitarist – Dean is one of the most sought-after session men in Hollywood. If you’re not available every day for a couple of months, you tend to lose your place in that queue so Dean couldn’t go on the tour with that me and Crosby had planned. Shane Fontayne learned 36 songs in a week and he came with us and he’s been playing with us ever since.

Birmingham Stages: Given the catalog of songs you’ve amassed – The Hollies, CSN and solo material – how do you comprise your set lists when you go on tour?

GN: It’s always been a delicate balance because you’re really planning an audio journey. It’s the same thing with LPs – it used to be six hits and six B-sides but John Lennon and Brian Wilson realized an album could be an audio journey and that’s where we get Sgt. Pepper’s and where we get Pet Sounds from. A live concert is exactly the same. My choice of music is however I feel. There’s a skeleton of a set list but we make so many left turns. I’ve got to tell you I’m having a fabulous time.

Birmingham Stages: Over the course of your career, how have you determined which songs belong on your solo albums and which ones belong on CSN albums?

GN: I have a feeling that every writer writes only for himself. What happens with CSN is we have what we call the “Reality Rule.” It goes like this – if I sit David and Stephen [Stills] down and play them a song and they don’t react to it, they never hear that song again. If I play a song to David and Stephen and they say, “I know what I can do in my harmony part,” now we’re talking. That’s the “Reality Rule.” We only have recorded songs that all three off us truly love and we’ve never stopped doing that.

Birmingham Stages: With your music career, photography and painting projects and humanitarian projects, how do you find time in your schedule to do all that you do?

GN: I just have a tremendous energy. Every day I have to do something constructive and positive in my life and I have a lot of tools to be able to do that – music, photography, painting and poetry. I’m a lucky kid, man.

Birmingham Stages: I assume the ability to still create and perform is something you don’t take for granted given all the incredible artists we’ve lost in the past couple of years.

GN: Stunning – it’s stunning. It’s overwhelming.

Birmingham Stages: How would you describe your writing process?

GN: I have a great relationship with the muse of music – she knows that I’m open anytime she wants to come visit. I have to feel something before I can start to write about it. If I’m falling in love, if I’m pissed off at cops, if I’m upset about the way that Trump is dealing with America – particularly women’s issues – I have to be there as an artist to tell the truth and reflect the times in which we’re living. That’s how history has been written – by poets, composers and musicians. We have to talk about the times in which we live and there’s no end to the songs that could be written about what’s going on in America right now.

Graham Nash will perform at The Lyric Theatre on Sunday, March 11. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $40.50 – $70.50 and can be purchased at www.lyricbham.com.