MUSIC REVIEW

By Scott McLennan
Telegram & Gazette Reviewer

WORCESTER— Usually, when you take things away, you are left with less. That is not the case, however, when David Crosby and Graham Nash perform without Stephen Stills and Neil Young.

Crosby and Nash brought their duo show to Mechanics Hall last night and delivered an often riveting performance, touching many of the bases associated with their work within CSNY as well as airing a wealth of material unique to the duo.

Minus the pomp and guitar fury of a CSNY performance, Crosby and Nash simply played to their strengths, namely deft vocal work. The two expertly animated gentle melodies and crafted gorgeous harmonies for the duration of the show, which stretched for more than two hours across two sets.

Nash is fit and dapper at 65, and Crosby, despite his legendary excursions to the brink, is likewise in pretty good shape at 66. The two ably carried off a well-paced show that linked the motifs of their work from the 1960s and ’70s to the present day and put across heartfelt sentiments about having faith in troubling and troubled times.

The pair opened the show with Nash’s “Military Madness,” a song conceived as a reaction to the Vietnam War that held up in the context of what is happening now in the Middle East.

Then Crosby and Nash softened their stances and hopped on the feel-good hippie anthem “Marrakesh Express.”

The chemistry Crosby and Nash have built up over the years allowed them to bring a fervor to newer songs such as “Lay Me Down” and “Live On (The Wall)” that was equal to the passions stirred with such old favorites as “Long Time Gone” and “Cathedral.”

Crosby and Nash brought along a versatile band that helped them reconfigure some of the classics as well as retrieve lesser-known tunes from obscurity.

Guitarist Dean Parks in particular fired up the show as he did not try to emulate Stills or Young and simply crafted parts that accented Crosby and Nash’s shared vision of the music.

James Raymond, a veteran player in other Crosby projects and son of the iconic musician, handled the keyboard parts, while drummer Steven DiStanislaw and bassist Andrew Ford anchored the rhythm section.

Two pleasant standouts in the duo’s first set were Crosby’s “In My Dreams,” one of those lost tracks that demands renewed attention for the way the song grows from gentle folk to full-throttle rocker, and Nash’s new “In Your Name,” a dignified rebuttal to anyone deeming it necessary to kill in God’s name.

The two conjured variations on themes of a spiritual nature through such songs as “Jesus of Rio” and “Carry Me” before turning into the epic balladry of “Cathedral.”

To close the first set, Crosby told the packed house that it was time to get weird, signaling the band to uncork a version of “DéjÀ Vu” that illuminated the more daring side of this duo’s music.

The second set opened with Crosby and Nash’s tamer side, as Nash plinked out the familiar melody to “Our House,” a song that Crosby joked was responsible for a significant number of young women giving up their virginity.

And while the following number, “Guinevere,” was likewise tender, there was certainly a strength to behold in the vocal work Crosby and Nash brought to the songs.

The duo built up steam as they progressed through the second set, hitting the intricacies of “The Lee Shore” and overcoming keyboard problems to deliver a mystical “Wind on the Water.”

But before they left, Crosby and Nash made sure to hit rocking peaks via extended workouts on the ultimate hippie anthem “Almost Cut My Hair” and ultimate psychedelic sojourn “Wooden Ships.” Both songs are the perfect blend of craziness and craft, and Crosby and Nash proved they still have enough craziness and craft in them to pull it off.

After the back-to-back blowouts, Crosby and Nash opted for a kinder and gentler conclusion and turned out the crowd with the pleasing country-folk singalong “Teach Your Children.”

When all of it was done, Crosby and Nash certainly had given a good lesson themselves on the power of two.