Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

March 4, 2019
Drawing on archives of folk rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as new interviews with the band members’ friends and fellow musicians, Browne (Fire and Rain) delivers an authoritative chronicle of the rise of the short-lived folk rock quartet, whose songs, such as “Woodstock” and “Ohio,” galvanized a generation. In meticulous detail, Browne describes the making of the band’s self-titled debut album that launched the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash in 1969, and the several hits that followed after Neil Young joined them in 1970 for the recording of Déjà Vu. Weaving together the careers and talents of each musician (with the Byrds, Crosby’s “harmony parts encased each song in a warm glow”; “Stills wrote and sang pleading or cautious love songs” while in Buffalo Springfield; “Nash’s high register blended with lower tones”), Browne illustrates the genius each artist brought to the group, as well as the obstacles that drove them apart—particularly Stills’s arrogance and Young’s unpredictability and aloofness. By 1971, the band split up; it came together only twice more to record as CSNY for 1988’s American Dream and 1999’s Looking Forward. In what is the most comprehensive biography of the group to date, Browne compiles a fun and fast-paced music history. Agent: Erin Hosier, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.