It may not be one of the ultimate signs of the times, but Crosby, Stills & Nash are touring the country in separate buses.
Not because the three longtime friends turned foes turned pals again are still really enemies, but because their respective kids are out of school and a summer tour affords a good chance for family-style togetherness.
In the old days, before David Crosby went to jail for drugs, Stephen Stills` solo career bottomed out and Graham Nash moved to Hawaii, the trio would travel in three buses, but for different reasons.
”Let`s put it this way,” Stills said in a recent interview from a Sacramento tour stop. ”This isn`t the Lollapalooza tour. I just couldn`t live the way we did before.”
While the atmosphere around the singers may have changed, their harmonies have stayed strong, according to reports from stops along the group`s 45-city acoustic tour. Crosby, Stills & Nash appear Aug. 26 at Poplar Creek.
”We`ve always known the most important part of our relationship is the music,” Nash, 50, said from Omaha. ”It doesn`t matter how much we fuss and fight, we know the music will last longer than anything.”
All three said the tour is the trio`s most enjoyable in several years.
”It`s almost like getting back to basics,” Nash said. ”Because it`s just three guitars and voices.”
”I don`t know why us old guys are doing such good business,” added Stills, 47. ”We`re just some guys singing our own songs.”
Those songs, including ”Marrakesh Express,” ”Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,”
”Teach Your Children,” ”Our House,” ”Woodstock” and ”Helplessly Hoping,” helped define the `60s. Later, the group wrote about environmental and social matters and regularly donated their time for benefit concerts.
The trio formed in 1968 out of the ashes of Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and the Hollies when Crosby took Nash to meet Stills at his Laurel Canyon home. The three singers jammed that day and decided to form a group.
The next year, their debut album was released and remained on the national album chart for two years. Singer-songwriter Neil Young added a harder edge to the trio`s sweet harmonies when he joined the group on stage at the Woodstock Festival, and in 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young`s first album, ”Deja Vu,” topped the charts.
Solo albums, tours with and without Young, and band reunion discs followed. The trio is working on its seventh release. ”4-Way Street,” a live 1971 CSN&Y double album, recently was issued on compact disc for the first time, a result of consumer demand.
Although Young hasn`t joined the group on stage in years, Nash isn`t ruling out the possibility that he may show up at some point on the tour.
”Over half the people at the shows are kids now,” Crosby said from Omaha. ”The reason is we write songs that are real, that actually matter. You can listen to songs that say, `Party down, dude,` for only so long. If you want to sustain a career, you have to make people care about something.”
Nash doesn`t pretend to know why the band has remained popular for almost 25 years; he boils the appeal down to ”our peculiar vocal chemistry.”
”It works, that`s all I know,” he says. ”I`m just very grateful it works.”
Crosby, 50, nearly gave up hope himself when he was convicted in 1983 of weapons and drug charges in Dallas. After two years of drug treatment and eventually being jailed, he declared himself sober.
”This is my third tour clean,” he said. ”I`ve been straight for five years now, and I`m even comfortable with it. I had never played straight before, and the benefits are obvious. You can remember what you`re doing, you`ve got your spirit and energy intact. You`re mentally aware. The people I trust, like Neil, Jackson Browne and Nash, all tell me I`m doing some of the best work of my life now.”
For his part, Stills is inspired by the political process, in which he has long participated. A resident of Winter Park, Fla., Stills was a delegate at the Democratic National Convention last month.
A new song on the tour is ”It Won`t Go Away,” which tells of ”the estrangement between the races,” said Stills, who composed the tune after the Los Angeles riots.
Also included in the trio`s set list are little-performed numbers from the members` solo albums and nuggets from their previous bands.
”Last night, Nash and I decided to do `Triad` at the last minute, which the two of us have never done before,” said Crosby, who is preparing his third solo album. ”When we put in the new stuff, it keeps it alive for us.” When he gets off the road next month, Stills plans to work for the Clinton campaign in whatever capacity he is needed.
”I`ve never been much for benefit concerts,” he explained. ”But I`ll be doing whatever they ask me to do. There`s a lot to do.”
Crosby, who lives in Encino, wants to participate in a Byrds reunion tour, with founding members Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. McGuinn, however, has been resistant to the idea.
”I`m puzzled why Roger won`t come forward and do it,” Crosby said.
”I`m baffled. I understand he`s the essence of it, but I love the music and think he`s a truly gifted musician.”
Stills said he still enjoys being on the road and even installed a small recording studio in back of his tour bus for writing sessions.
Crosby, on the other hand, gets tired of the traveling. He complained that a Saturday in Omaha ”is like Sunday in any other city. This city is just gone. There`s nothing happening anywhere out here.”
