Graham Nash
This Path Tonight

Damn Graham Nash! How does he write songs that initially seem cheesy, almost embarrassing, making you think: “come on, Nash, have some dignity!”, only to find yourself moved to tears by those same notes?! It happens every time! Teach Your Children, Our House, Just A Song Before I Go are just a few examples of his talent to subtly get under your skin with his tender, sugary, and initially quite tearful melodies, complete with lyrics centered on good feelings, only for you to end up crying for real. In the particular case of his latest solo work “This Path Tonight,” released last April, it happened with Target: a mellifluous dulcimer melody that not-so-subtly pays homage to his colleague, contemporary, and ex-lover Joni Mitchell, and phrases that speak of love to his new girlfriend from the perspective of a Cupid trying to break into her heart. I know, said like this, it sounds like a sugar overdose. And yet, one night not long ago, I reflected on my finally stable and fortunate relationship, on the fact that I had never been this happy with someone in my life, and suddenly this song started buzzing in my head and... Bam! It happened again: I found myself crying like a baby. Go to hell, Graham! Wasn't it enough that you brought me to tears when my niece was born, and while deciding what line from which song to write on the welcome card, I listened to Teach Your Children again?! But, after all, music is also for that, and the good old Nash does it quite well. In the end, he's someone with whom, like it or not (I do, all things considered), it's hard not to sympathize with at some point: at 74, he separates from his wife, not without disapproval from his children, finds a new girlfriend (half his age), tells David Crosby to f*** off, thus ending Crosby, Stills & Nash, and releases his sixth solo album. In short, far from indulging in cheap gossip and passing judgments on his personal affairs, one must agree that the period Our Man has been through in the last year, at least emotionally, wasn't the easiest. The will and inspiration could understandably have suffered, yet Graham, at his venerable age, is giving the whole world a fine example of tenacity and courage and of uncommon artistic stature. “This Path Tonight” is certainly not the classic desert island record, the one you'd listen to repetitively for days and days without ever getting tired of it, but it is, nonetheless, a very nice album, with some very beautiful moments worthy of his greater repertoire. It wasn't a small feat.

The premise was good, after all, when a year ago I saw him in Padua in what would turn out to be the last tour of CSN: besides displaying a still stunning form and voice, when it was his “solo moment,” a usual practice at CSN concerts, he presented a new song, which he dedicated – surprise, surprise – to his new flame: it was Myself At Last, a delicate and elegant folk ballad for guitar, voice, and harmonica that he performed alone. And I thought: “damn that Nash! At over seventy, even considering that in the seventies you weren't exactly a health nut, not only do you still have the same voice and enviable form, but you're still capable of writing such songs?!” On the album, the same song is just slightly enhanced by a decent rhythmic backdrop and almost imperceptible arrangements, and it's clear that class is permanent. And so is versatility. Because Nash is also quite versatile; he's not just “a simple man singing simple songs,” as he himself sang in Simple Man: he shows it in the vigorous triplets of Cracks In The City, where he reflects on metropolitan decay, and even more in Beneath The Waves, another powerful reflection, this time on the end of CSN, which surprisingly couples airy and solemn atmospheres of the progressive Genesis era with a modern, almost electro-funk groove like Moby. Nash isn't even just the sweet-talking author with a shamelessly commercial knack he's often described as. Listen to the title track, also the opener and single, which rather resembles his old hit Chicago in its progression and harmonies, and you'll remember that he has been and still is also the creator of rousing rock anthems. As is also Fire Down Below, full of passion and edgy guitars; this is likely how a song would sound if co-written by old companion-rival-enemy-friend Neil Young and his friend-only David Gilmour (the introduction is highly reminiscent of Learning To Fly). And if we want to stay on the Loner theme, the electroacoustic Another Broken Heart perhaps doesn't evoke, through a vague proximity to the mature sound of his late masterpiece “Freedom,” the ghost of the broken heart that the Canadian dragged along with him in the legendary tour of 1974 at his side—and of Crosby and Stills—bringing in tow his Only Love Can Break Your Heart? We don't need another broken heart, sings Graham: who could argue with him...

It's true that a bit of senility is felt here and there: it happens especially in the passé rhetoric of the jazzy adult pop of Golden Days, sophisticated and a tad whiny, and in the concluding march Encore, which according to his own statements is meant to be a warning to Crosby to reflect on his misdeeds and multiple personality, but in reality is so weak that it induces us to imagine David chuckling slyly under his eternal mustaches. It is not a perfect masterpiece, therefore, “This Path Tonight.” But it would be unfair to demand perfection. At nearly three-quarters of a century, the Simple Man from Blackpool has nonetheless made a good record made with heart, sincere and vibrant, and this is surely enough to applaud him wholeheartedly, which is why I am happy to round up the three and a half stars I would assign the album to four stars.

One last consideration: Graham Nash shares the credits with guitarist Shane Fontayne, renowned session musician who participated in the last CSN tour and since then his faithful collaborator. According to statements, Fontayne was fundamental not just in the arrangement phase but also in the writing process: a great act of intellectual honesty. Indeed, even if “This Path Tonight” wasn't entirely Nash's own doing, credit is due to him for having the humility to get help to complete a praiseworthy album. At least, it’s better this way than certain contemporaries of his who stubbornly keep doing it all themselves and churning out albums at inhumane rates with results that for years now have often been less than exciting (any reference to people and things is purely coincidental... Yeah!).