“A brilliant musician”: the guitarist David Crosby said could do anything
In 2018, David Crosby set out to create his most collaborative record yet, with Here If You Listen spotlighting the strengths of The Lighthouse Band more than his own as a standalone musician.
The Lighthouse Band, comprising Crosby along with Michael League, Becca Stevens, and Michelle Willis, had already collaborated on the previous record, Lighthouse, but Crosby loved their dynamic so much that he wanted to lean into it even more with the follow-up. So, choosing to move away from the “me album” that was Lighthouse, he fostered something more inherently group-led.
Crosby had, of course, already known of his love for group collaboration from previous projects, even in CSNY, when the dynamic was less about battling for dominance and more about banding together to create good music. Many of these shining qualities made their way onto Here If You Listen, not only in its open-mindedness but also in its harmonies and backing vocals, highlighting his appreciation for blending multiple voices, not just his own.
At the same time, because Crosby had already come into Lighthouse knowing what sorts of environments thrived, choosing to bring the same people together for a second project is telling of how impressed he was by their attitudes, knowing all the things that can potentially go wrong if the atmosphere in the studio is even the slightest bit off.
In fact, Crosby cared less about those he collaborated with, or even about finding the right collaborators to begin with. Instead, he embraced any sort of approach, so long as it felt right. As he once admitted, “I’ll work any kind of way”, provided the result is “decent music” that makes “people feel something”. He quipped, “I’ll do it stark naked in the middle of a snowstorm. Anything that will make good art, I’m willing to go through to do.”
Clearly, then, he struck gold with The Lighthouse Band, not just collectively but with the skills that each musician brought to the table. And despite his own prowess as one of history’s greatest songwriters, Crosby felt that some of the others were just as well-equipped, and was happy to let them take the reins with the writing, too.
Discussing the project with Shindig, Crosby described League, Stevens and Willis as some of “the best writers I know”, admitting elsewhere that League, in particular, could pretty much do anything that came his way. He also said that he knew straight away, while working on Family Dinner – Volume 2, that League was the exact person he wanted to produce his own record.
“He’s a brilliant musician,” he told Premier Guitar, adding that, although he didn’t want to describe him solely as a guitarist, he’s a “really gifted guy” who can “play anything that he wants to play.” He added, “He sings and writes words and music. He does it all.”
Funnily enough, Crosby also recalled how League told him he couldn’t play the guitar, before launching into performances like his solo on ‘The City’, as well as helping to write a couple of others that Crosby called some of the “best songs I can remember ever writing in three days”. Clearly, therefore, there was a natural creative flow between the pair that Crosby hadn’t felt in a long time, the type that helped him regain that familiar collaborative spark he became known for all those years ago.
