(Pictures,Yesterday and Today)Last night my wife and I attended the Crosby, Stills & Nash concert at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon near Medford. It was a beautiful night in Southern Oregon and the Britt Festival has a wonderful concert stage under the stars where concert goers watch the concert sitting on blankets under pine trees on a sloping hill facing the stage with the lights of Medford in the background. It's a Jackson County Park where many concert goers bring fancy picnic dinners with wine. It's a favorite for the 'Wine and Cheese crowd" The weather was perfect and the concert was "sold out" with over 2000 in attendance. The crowd was very mellow and was predominately aging baby boomers. Some of the concert goers had not yet outgrown their love of a certain kind of weed. My wife and I found a nice spot on the grass and laid out our blanket and had some dinner my wife had made. I visited the vendors selling concert souvenirs and bought the original remastered expanded CD album "Crosby, Still & Nash" released in 2006 of their 1969 album.The group started promptly at 7:30 pm and with about a 30 minute intermission ended without an encore at 10:PM. I was disappointed! Putting the Bush/McCain bashing aside (You assume that risk at a CS&N concert) the music was what the group wanted to play and for the most part not what the crowd wanted the hear. One of the members said words to the effect that we decided to play what we wanted to play tonight. They did not sing "Suite:Judy Blue Eyes" "Marakesh Express" , "Woodstock" and my favorite "Teach Your Children" The high point for the crowd was when they did play "Our House." They also sang "Guinnevere" "Deja Vu" "Helplessly Hoping"and ended with a nice version of "Wooden Ships." The group seemed to enjoy themselves and as the reviewer of the Mail Tribune said they did "a generous show" However, I wanted to hear all the old songs. In the song "Garden Party" written and sung by Ricky Nelson, he says:"But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck." I understand that, but I wanted to hear "Teach Your Children" sung live. According to the blog over at the Santa Rosa, Pressdemocrat, in California where they had a concert the night before, they did sing "Teach Your Children" in a "sing along" at the end of that concert.
A few years ago we went to a concert of the Simon & Garfunkel reunion tour in Portland, Oregon at the Rose Garden and they did sing all the old songs and seemed to enjoy it. I sure did. I didn't get that same feeling Sunday night. Still, it was a pleasant night and I did hear "Teach You Children" and "Merrakesh Express" on our car's CD player as we followed the bands expensive, huge RV on the way out of town. I wonder what it's carbon footprint is!
According to The Rolling Stone "Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Crosby Stills & Nash's top single hits at their highest point on the charts in descending order:
"Woodstock" # 11 (Did not perform)
"Teach Your Children" #16 (Did not Perform)
"Suite: To Judy Blue Eyes" #21 (Did not perform)
"Marrakesh Express" #28 (Did not Perform)
"Our House" # 30 *
* only one performed at Britt Sunday night
They only preformed one of their top 5 hits! I guess they would rather drive a truck.
UPDATE: Click on a title for a review of their concert in Victoria, BC on Tuesday night. Doesn't sound like they sang their big hits there either. At least the original singers are still with the group. So many of these nostalgia groups from the 1950's/1960's/1970's have new members performing partially or in total and the only thing they have is the name of the original group.
