In January of 1969, Graham Nash was weeks away from completing work on one of that decade’s most defining albums in the self-titled debut from Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Joni Mitchell, his then-girlfriend, went to Nashville to record a performance for the brand-new Johnny Cash Show, and one evening, the couple was invited to the Man in Black’s home, along with Shel Silverstein, Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan.
“It was an incredible night,” Nash, 83, recalled in a recent interview. “Johnny stood up, and he started tapping on a glass to get people’s attention. He said, ‘Hey, at the Cash household, we have this thing called singing for your supper. So at the end of this dinner, we’re gonna start singing songs. Who’s gonna start?’
“Nobody knew who I was. I was just this lump of meat on Joni’s arm! So I said, ‘F*** it! I’ll get up and I’ll be first,’ and so I sang ‘Marrakesh Express.’ I got to the end, and I stood up, I thought I’d done the song pretty good! I turn around—and I walk into a standing lamp, which crashes to the floor!”
That same fearlessness permeates Nash’s latest effort, Now, an album charged with romance as well as the same social fury that’s driven the songwriter through six solo releases and dozens of collaborations.
Clear as a bell, Nash opens the album with “Right Now,” a stiff, guitar-thick driver that eschews nostalgia’s mirror for today’s open window, offering an unfiltered reconnaissance of the moment that winds into “A Better Life,” a floating ballad of hope for future generations that echoes the sentiment of Graham’s iconic “Teach Your Children.”
“I can see why people would think it was an extension of ‘Teach Your Children’ because in a way it is,” Nash said. “We have to leave this earth a better place than we left it. We have to think about the future, we have to think about our children—we have to! As an artist, I’m just talking about what the hell is going on with me right now, and I hope someone wants to listen.”
On multiple tracks from “Now,” Nash takes careful but brutal aim at right-wing zealotry and MAGA propaganda. “Golden Idol” emphatically calls out politicians who ignore the violence of the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, while “Stars and Stripes” addresses the corruption of American ideals as the English-born musician mournfully laments the state of his adopted country over low guitar and pedal steel, observing, “I can’t remember when my world was not on fire.”
“I have to talk about what’s going on. I think it’s the duty of every artist to talk about the times in which we live,” said Nash from his home in New York City. “How could I not talk about politics and what’s happening around the world? How can I not talk about the environment? How can I not deal with life like this? I’ve always tried to tell the truth. When I’m writing a song about something, I need to feel something. I need to feel something deeply in my soul that I need to speak about. And in this country, you can speak your mind here.”
Another side of “Now” is Nash’s devotion to his wife, the artist Amy Grantham, to whom Graham seems to address across most of the album’s loose narrative. Classic love songs like “Love of Mine” and the harmonica-laced “Follow Your Heart” are perfect slow dance moments, simple, elegant, and weightless.
The album highlight, “When It Comes To You,” is Nash at his most melancholy and self-aware as he sings, “You’re the very best thing that’s happened to me, and at this point in my life, that’s something to say.”
“That was a set of changes that [Now producer] Todd Caldwell was playing when we got to the end of this record. I looked at him and I said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘Oh, it’s just a set of changes I have.’ I said, ‘Do you have lyrics?’ He goes, ‘No, no, it’s just music.’ I said, ‘Wait a second—that’s fantastic!’ And I immediately wrote that song. That song was written in about 20 minutes!”
As excited and committed as ever, Nash is back on tour, armed with a batch of new songs he considers among his best, along with more than a few selections from his legendary career.
“I’m doing everything from the Hollies all the way through CSN, CSNY and solo—and I have many, many songs to do,” Nash said. “A normal show is about two and a half hours and it’s filled with songs that people love to hear and new songs I want to play.”
Graham Nash plays at 8pm on Apr 26 at the Guild Theatre, 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. Tickets: $105. guildtheatre.com
