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Crosby, Stills & Nash - AcousticRating:
Release Date: 08 June, 2004 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $9.99 You SAVE: $10.00! Cast: |
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Acoustic Reviews
Not quite perfect but well worth it
The musicianship in this concert was enlightening. I came away with a newfound respect for Crosby and Nash as players. Like many people, I used to assume that Stills carried the instrumental sound by himself, but it takes an acoustic venue to see that his two partners can also carry their load. "Just a Song Before I Go" is a great example -- first Nash, then Crosby surprising Stills with some nice filler riffs. CSN also pull off great acoustic versions of "Long Time Coming" and "wooden Ships." "Marrakesh Express" was especially tasty to hear Nash's guitar work on the intro and to finally be rid of that terrible studio overdub synth/guitar/whatever that was on the original album and single version.
Keeping in mind that this concert was in 1991, the vocals are as close to a peak as CSN have achieved. Crosby and Nash are right together on a beautiful rendition of "Guinevere". Stills clearly doesn't have the same vocal chops as he had 35 years ago, but since he sings the low parts it's not noticable in the blend -- only when he steps out for a vocal lick or two.
My only nitpick is that I absolutely hate audience participation songs, and at the close of the concert they do this three times. The "Friday evening...Tuesdays in the afternoon" section of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is classic CSN harmony, and they ruin it by letting the audience sing most of that part. They do it again on "Our House," (Stills looking strangely out of place singing backup vocals with Crosby on those cheesy lyrics), and later on the encore, "Teach Your Children." Gosh, I really don't want to hear several hundred really ordinary people sing those parts -- I want to hear the Blessed Three Cherubs on stage!
But for ten bucks, I guess I'll put up with it. The wonderful blend on "Find the Cost of Freedom", which is about 30 seconds tacked onto "Daylight Again," is worth the price of the DVD all by itself.
The post-credits note that some audio sweetening was performed. Exactly what that means, I can't fathom, but once I get past the annoyance of the audience participation, I can sit back and relax and enjoy this great performance. How good was it?....I watched it twice in a row.
Disappointing... Luckily Graham Nash saves the day
I had great expectations from this DVD. The song selection was (and is) excellent, "Acoustic" is the guys' second name and there was no reason to doubt the audio quality of their exceptional vocal harmonies.
Yet, the result is far from satisfactory considering the potential of such concert. Four major drwbacks:
1. It is not exactly 'acoustic'; Excluding a couple of songs Stills plays only electric guitar and though in some cases it does fit (Just a song before I go) in others (For what it worth) it's out of place
2. The vocal harmonies are lost in an annoying echo created probably by the acoustic structure of the concert hall and not the actual audio editing; still the result - when they get to high pitch - is annoying
3. There are some tedious pieces that go on and on and are very boring and don't develop; Mainly "Wooden ships" followed by "Judy blue eys", each almost 10 minutes of very poor arrangement. They could do much better - and shorter...
4. The song sequence is uneven: The opening (Deja Vu) is quite bad, but then it recovers and improves (mainly due to the density of Nash's pieces - see below) and is pretty even until it gets to "Wooden ships". The closing part is OK as well, but I assume most people will jog between songs
Still, there's one person who stands out and not only because he looks much better than his 2 fat and sweaty colleagues: Graham Nash's pieces are all good and above, especially when he's at the piano, and for those (like myself) who see him as the band's main musical figure - this does makes this DVD - despite the flwas - worth buying.
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