Watch Graham Nash’s Surprise Performance of ‘Our House’ at Carnegie Hall CSN Tribute
The music of Crosby, Stills, and Nash was celebrated with a tribute concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Monday night. The lineup included Todd Rundgren, Steve Earle, Yola, Grace Potter, Guster, Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, A.C. Newman, Iron & Wine, Real Estate, and several others. Graham Nash wasn’t officially on the bill, but he came out at the end of the night to perform a moving rendition of “Our House.”
“Let’s give a big round of applause to the 20 incredible artists that performed tonight,” he said. “I want to thank Michael [Dorf] and everybody at City Winery for putting this show on. My only sadness is that I wish [David] Crosby was here. I want to thank [singer keyboardist Michelle Willis, [bassist singer] Adam Minkoff, and my dear friend who put this whole thing together, [musical director] Mr. Todd Caldwell.”
The event was Michael Dorf’s 19th annual Music Of charity show, which has previously honored Bob Dylan, the Rolling Sones, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Prince, Carly Simon, and Paul McCartney. It’s raised over $2 million for music education efforts.
Highlights from the show included Todd Rundgren’s spin on “Almost Cut My Hair,” Grace Potter’s radically stripped-down cover of “Helplessly Hoping,” Yola’s stunning rendition of “Wooden Ships,” and Real Estate’s jammy take on “Dark Star.” School children from the Music Will program had the entire theater singing along to “Teach Your Children,” and Guster went back to Nash’s 1971 solo LP Music For Beginners to play “Military Madness.” (This was strictly a CSN tribute, so nobody played any songs by Y. Music Cares had a separate tribute to him in 2011.)
Steve Earle went on early and spoke about his love of the trio before playing “4+20.” “Crosby, Stills and Nash and Déjà Vu came out so close together,” he said. “I remember at my girlfriend’s house, I had them stacked together along with Bridge Over Troubled Water, Let It Bleed, and Led Zeppelin II. And I’ve been lucky that whenever I’ve met my heroes, only two of them were assholes. None of them were in this band. I want to play a song I’ve been doing since I was 14 years old. I think I can finally play it right.”
At the end of the night, Nash led all of the evening’s performers through a joyous rendition of “Love The One You’re With.” He’ll be returning to Carnegie Hall for a full set on October 1 as part of an extensive U.S. tour. He’s the only member of the trio keeping their music alive on the road since Stephen Stills has retired from touring.