The Marrakesh Express stopped in Northern Virginia last
night and a sold-out crowd at Wolf Trap got on board for a ride back to the
sweet music spots of the 1960’s and 70’s.
Graham Nash established a tone of intimacy with his
anecdotes about Joni Mitchell and the lyrics from I Used To Be A King:
It’s all right. I’m okay now. How are you?...
Someone is going to take my heart
But no one’s going to break my heart again.
Nash was the master of ceremonies, presiding in bare feet on
an oriental carpet, introducing songs, extolling his band mates and announcing
that his son had twin boys earlier that day.
Stephen Stills was the jokester, noting how the song, Tree
Top Flyer, about the brave men who delivered medical supplies from Mexico to
California, had been dated by the changes in Colorado law. “There are probably
so many lobbyists in this audience,” he added, “We should set a lobster trap.”
And the silver-maned David Crosby said that while many
people thought the group at this stage, “should be creeping off to die, we just
didn’t feel like it.”
Despite the passage of time, CSN, can still deliver their
timeless lyrics and mesmerizing harmonies. Graham and David had the crowd
holding its breath as they performed Guinevere and Helplessly Hoping. Stephen Stills brought it to its feet
with some whip-cracking guitar solos on Southern Cross and Bluebird.
There were a couple of pleasant surprises. Nash’s new songs
that paid tribute to Levon Helm (Back Home) and a protest rant against China’s
oppression in Tibet (Burning for the Buddha) were as good as his classics. And
they have not lost a step when it comes to political passion with I Don’t Want
Lies, and Military Madness.
The backing musicians could deliver a wall of sound on cue
and second guitarist (and co-lyricist) Shane Fontayne was a standout. But the charm of this evening was the
feel of a living room concert in (Our House), thumbing through the music sheets
in guitar cases to find songs everyone knew and liked.
And we shook the windows as we sang word-for-word on For
What It’s Worth and Love the One You’re With.
The third surprise was how many young people were on hand
(much more than for the usual favorite boomer bands) and how many were with
parents. Then it dawned on me:
This was the Teach Your Children Tour, which was why they saved that for the
encore.
Four decades later, Crosby Stills and Nash still get it: The
past is just a good bye.
And they continue to feed us on their dreams.
