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Graham Nash

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Graham Nash (born 2 February, 1942) is a British singer-songwriter.

Career

Nash was born in Blackpool, England during World War II. In the early 1960s was a leading member of The Hollies, one of the UK's most successful pop groups ever. Although recognised as a key member of the group, he seldom sang lead vocals, although he did write many of the band's songs, most often in collaboration with Allan Clarke. Nash was pivotal in the forging of a sound and lyrics showing an obvious hippie influence on The Hollies' album 'Butterfly' a collection that brought differing opinions concerning the band's musical direction to the fore.

In 1968, after a visit to the USA during which he had been introduced to David Crosby in Laurel Canyon and had begun experimenting with drugs, Nash left The Hollies at the height of their fame, to form a new group with Crosby and Stephen Stills, a threesome at first, and later a foursome with Neil Young - Crosby, Stills & Nash. With them, he went on to even greater worldwide success. Nash, nicknamed "Willy" by his band mates in CSNY, has been described as the glue that keeps their often fragile alliances together. A mark of this is the loyalty and support Nash showed to his best friend, Crosby, during Crosby's well documented period of drug addiction ending in the mid 1980s. Nash's solo career has often been shelved in favour of reuinions on stage and in the studio with either Crosby and Stills or Crosby, Stills and Young. His own solo work shows a love of melody and ballads. His solo recordings have experimented with jazz and electronic percussion but tend not to stray too far from a pop format with well defined hook lines.

In 1979, Nash cofounded Musicians United for Safe Energy.

Nash started collecting photographs in the 1970s, and eventually sold the bulk of his collection in 1990 to fund and co-found the creation of Nash Editions, a digital fine-arts lithographic firm that used some of the most advanced scanning and printing equipment in early days. The company continues to operate today.

Discography

Solo work

  • 1971 Songs for Beginners
  • 1973 Wild Tales
  • 1980 Earth & Sky
  • 1986 Innocent Eyes
  • 2002 Songs for Survivors

With Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and Young)

  • Crosby, Stills, and Nash, 1969
  • Deja Vu, 1970
  • Four Way Street, 1971
  • So Far, 1974
  • CSN, 1977
  • Replay, 1980
  • Daylight Again, 1982
  • Allies, 1983
  • American Dream, 1988
  • Live It Up, 1990
  • CSN (box set), 1991
  • After The Storm, 1994
  • Carry On, 1998
  • Looking Forward, 1999
  • Greatest Hits, 2005