The surviving members of the Byrds may be touring without him and Crosby, Stills and Nashmay be irrevocably split, but David Crosby hasn’t let either situation dull his creative output. On October 26th, he’ll release his new album Here If You Listen, his fourth solo album in five years. (By comparison, he released a mere three solo albums between 1971 and 2013.)
Crosby previewed the album with first single “Glory.” The track is a pensive acoustic ballad that finds Crosby sharing vocal duties with members of his Lighthouse touring band, Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis. “In the blink of an eye, in a moment of weakness,” Crosby sings amidst a hush of backing harmonies, “I will be your armor, I will be your witness/ You can’t lose me, no you can’t lose me.”
According to a press release, Here If You Listen is a “purposeful departure from [2016’s] Lighthouse…It emerges as a highly collaborative effort, with all four artists trading off lead vocals and bringing their distinct songwriting to the mix.”
In 2016, Crosby spoke to Rolling Stone about his creative renaissance. “In the past few years, if I brought anything to Crosby, Stills and Nash, it didn’t really get served well,” he said. “Also, I always write in bursts. The last couple of years have been the densest, longest writing surge I think I’ve ever had. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Most people at my age are either lazy or they’re just pulling the handle trying to get another hit. They feel that maybe they’ve said everything they want to say. They also just don’t work at it. I’m not smarter or better than they are. It’s just that the songs are coming to me.”
Crosby is in the middle of a European tour with his Sky Trails band, where they are mixing CSN/CSNY songs like “Long Time Gone” and “Almost Cut My Hair” with tunes from his recent solo albums along with “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds. On November 2nd, he kicks off an American tour at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, Washington. It concludes December 8th at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York.
