Wind On the Water

After a 1974 tour with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, it only made sense that David Crosby and Graham Nash carry on and make their second album as a duo. Just because the members of CSN&Y rarely got along didn’t mean that the rich blending of Crosby and Nash’s voices should go to waste. This was 1975, and the two gents were now a little older. The music reflected that; it’s an album as gentle as its title. The songs play off a dynamic of Nash’s sing-along pop (listen to “Love Work Out” and “Cowboy of Dreams”) and Crosby’s more figurative turns. It’s rich with themes of death (the beautiful “Carry Me” about the passing of Crosby’s mother), music-biz thievery (“Take the Money and Run,” which features David Lindley’s wonderful violin), the fruitless search for emotional security (the slow-rising “Homeward Through the Haze,” complete with references to Samson and Caesar), and the environment (“To the Last Whale: I. Critical Mass: II. Wind on the Water”). Guests include Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and Carole King, as well as unheralded pedal steel player Ben Keith and The Band’s Levon Helm.