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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Daylight Again Band Returns To Touring Scene With Healthy David Crosby

As the Crosby, Stills and Nash concert at The Gorge on Saturday nears, concerned fans are probably wondering about the state of David Crosby’s health.

Years of living hard - using and abusing alcohol, heroin and cocaine - taxed his body to the point his liver failed in 1994.

Just over a year ago, Crosby underwent lifesaving liver-transplant surgery. Since receiving his new organ, Crosby regained his health and has encountered no complications.

Thus, Crosby, 54, has been able to reunite with his cronies Steven Stills and Graham Nash for yet another summer run in U.S. amphitheaters.

Crosby, Stills and Nash (sometimes including Neil Young) have maintained a prolific career that has spanned four decades, lending soft, lilting harmonies to scores of hit songs and best-selling albums like “Deja Vu,” “So Far,” “CSN” (1977) and “Daylight Again.”

Crosby, Stills and Nash (with Young) were almost synonymous with Woodstock, where they played before half-a-million people. Plus, their treatment of Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock” was a smash hit in 1970.

In their prime, CSN was cherished for penning politically urgent, socially conscious music, often echoing the ideals of hippie culture.

In recent years, interest in the trio’s new albums has waned. Both “CSN” (not to be confused with the “CSN” of 1977) and “After the Storm,” released in 1991 and 1994, respectively, failed to chart in the Top 100. Even Crosby’s 1994 live album “It’s All Coming Back to Me,” released while he was in the hospital, fared poorly.

Even if the trio seems to be many years from writing the caliber of hits they once created, fans still crave CSN’s live performances.

Like CSN, Chicago, which opens the show, made quite a mark on rock ‘n’ roll. The band released 21 albums between 1968 and 1991, 15 of which went platinum (1 million sold) or multi-platinum (2 million or more sold) and have sold more than 100 million albums.

At the start of the band’s career, it merged rock with jazz and set the music to songs of protest. The result was a legendary album called “Chicago Transit Authority,” which was actually the band’s name at the time.

But from there, Chicago streamlined its music to become more commercially accessible. The subject of love took the front seat over all other topics.

Today, many of the band’s hits - “Will You Still Love Me?,” “Look Away,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” “You’re the Inspiration” - can be heard on adult contemporary radio.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Crosby, Stills and Nash and Chicago will play The Gorge Amphitheater, Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $44.65, $39.40 and $31 at Ticketmaster outlets.<

This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Crosby, Stills and Nash and Chicago will play The Gorge Amphitheater, Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $44.65, $39.40 and $31 at Ticketmaster outlets.<