The purity of Crosby Stills and Nash lives on through these five modern artists
Something about the hypnotic harmonies of Crosby, Stills, and Nash feels innately related to the time in which they were released. We often talk about the free-thinking 1960s as being a simpler time. Despite the frightening war-ridden political backdrop, it was a time when hair was encouraged to grow long, shoes were merely a luxury, and the conventions of a normal society were simply a lucid concept.
And so it worked for this unlikely band of transatlantic brothers to smoothly sing songs about teaching your children well and embracing life in the sunshine. They were a band who embodied the spirituality of those times, but not in a way that made you shudder with embarrassment, but instead inspired with quiet hopefulness.
While the harmonies were the most valuable asset of their sound, they hid a rabbit warren of greatness behind them. They were a friendly introduction to some of the finest songwriting in music, created by a band who were masterful arrangers. Songs that float through dreamy verses before cascading into dream-like segues would either culminate in hypnotic solos or delightfully charming choruses that willed you on to join as the fourth harmony.
They were a god-like band with a campfire essence, and so they lit a beacon for future artists to follow as they crafted their own sense of melodic intuition. Even as the changing tides of history rolled on, washing up punk, grunge, and Britpop, the work of Crosby, Stills, and Nash remained, for it was an innate representation of music’s purity, a shining example of how collaboration creates genius.
So, in these troubled times, swept up in rapid modernisation and mass disconnection, who carries that torch of heartfelt connectivity through music? Take a look below for my definitive list of bastions of sincerity, keeping the soul in modern music.
The five modern artists that embody Crosby, Stills and Nash
The Bright Light Social Hour
In the heady days of Lauren Canyon’s songwriting scene, where Crosby, Stills and Nash reigned supreme, they would have been no strangers to the effects of mind-altering substances. But there was something more salt of the earth about their approach to emotional disconnection that kept their sound deeply within the organic. The Bright Light Social Hour are the answer to what Crosby, Stills, and Nash may have ended up sounding like had they fully embraced the cosmic worlds of LSD and acid.
Garage rock at its core but open to the distractions of experimental psychedelia, their melody largely follows the swirling trails of its lead guitar parts. But whatever corner it turns, softly spoken harmonies are in tow, ready to modestly exist in the slipstream. While their most recent releases have slipped away from Crosby, Stills and Nash’s blueprint, their opus Space Is Still The Place uses the sprawling sky above as a similar form of inspiration, but the band instead allows the harmonies to drift into the darkness, far away from the sunny disposition of their forefathers.
The Bright Light Social Hour’s most CSN song: ‘Sweet Madelene’
Parcels
It’s hard not to synonymise the idea of a harmony with the idea of joy, for they feel so inextricably linked. When Parcels kick into gear and all members of the band contribute to their blanket of harmonies, it’s almost as though they are being lifted to something divine, and the rest of the song effortlessly follows them.
Parcels have picked up the melodic joy of a late ‘60s Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and plunged into a groovier soundscape fitting for the disco worlds of the late 1970s. Their breakdowns are so infectiously groovy that they go toe-to-toe with the layering of harmonies that glitter in the chorus’, celebrating the collaborative heartbeat of instrumental music.
Parcels’ most CSN song: ‘Yougotmefeeling’
Laura Marling
In Laura Marling, you can strip away all the bells and whistles of harmonic layering and instrumental breakdowns and still be left with the awe-striking essence of authenticity and tenderness that so much of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s greatness was built upon. She needs nothing more than a couple of instruments as companions and a safe space in which to use her voice, and the undeniable genius of her songwriting ability is apparent.
It’s easy to merely label Marling’s work as a masterclass in tenderness, but time and time again, she’s allowed her albums to unfold layers of sounds. Her 2020 album Song For Our Daughter slowly crescendoed its storytelling in the same patient way Crosby, Stills, and Nash did, while her most recent effort Patterns In Repeat allowed her ideas to be drenched in the sort of complex instrumentation all three of them would be proud of. She manages to carry the similar weighty greatness of their ideas on her own shoulders, with complete ease.
Laura Marling’s most CSN song: ‘Strange Girl’
Willie J Healey
It’s rare you’ll see this man playing his guitar without a subtle smile on his face. But like his band of influential brothers, that can’t be twisted for a lack of competency. Be it acoustic or with a full band, there’s a charming dexterity to the way Willie plays guitar that seems to bring the very best out of whatever melody he has written. And melody is at the very heart of his sound, which can fluctuate through genres better than Crosby, Stills and Nash, but with the same sense of heartfelt intent.
Troubles seem to flow off Willie like water off a duck’s back, for whatever existential hurdle presents itself in his lyrics is quickly evaded by a wider sense of perspective. Much like Crosby Stills and Nash, there’s an innate understanding of the world around him and through his lyrics he crystallises that.
Willie J Healey’s most CSN song: ‘Why You Gotta Do it’
CVC
“You can never have too many harmonies,” guitarist Dave Bassey once told me. And when you listen to the discography of CVC, it’s hard to argue with that. In fact, when you see them play live, it becomes a distinct impossibility to argue with that idea, for the coalescence of the band’s three vocalists is as charming as anything in modern music. Like Crosby, Stills and Nash, every corner of their voices plays host to the nuanced sensibilities of the human experience; joy, frustration and love.
They’ve mastered the technical blueprint of what Crosby, Stills, and Nash laid out, and now build on it with unbridled charisma. They’re wildly versatile in their songwriting and performing approach, allowing their harmonies to reign over breakdowns of funk and groove, before switching into compositional tenderness. It’s hard to watch CVC without being dumbstruck by their overwhelming sense of musical authenticity, an authenticity that their free and easy forefathers Crosby, Stills, and Nash would watch on with immense joy.
CVC’s most CSN song: ‘Hail Mary’
