Artist:     Graham Nash

Album:     Over the Years

Label:     Rhino Records

Release Date:     6.29.18 

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There was a falling out over “Marrakesh Express” between Graham Nash and The Hollies that led to divorce. To Nash, the song was something special, a sort of surreal travelogue inspired by his experience on a vacation in Morocco. While traveling by train, Nash found first-class to be stuffy and boring. Wandering through other cars, Nash happened upon “ducks and pigs and chickens” and “animal carpet wall to wall,” as he explains so vividly in the song’s wonderfully colorful and descriptive lyrics.

Neither the rest of The Hollies nor their management were very impressed. They didn’t feel the piece had much commercial potential. To be fair, even today, Nash’s demo – included with a fascinating new Nash anthology entitled Over the Years – feels drab, as it shuffles along with labored uncertainty. Still, it has a lighthearted, folky charm and a spiritual quality that is undeniable. Nash knew all along what he had, although the polished version that ended up on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled debut album was a damn sight brighter and sunnier, bounding along with warm, locomotive buoyancy and flooded with light.

 Over the Years invites in-depth comparisons between the two, as a disc full of surprisingly listenable, embryonic demos accompanies another that surveys some of Nash’s best-known works. It is stuffed with 30 tracks, some from beloved records such as CSN’s Déjà Vu and Nash’s 1971 solo debut Songs for Beginners, and contains a wealth of information, much of it articulated in Arthur Levy’s well-researched, superbly written liner notes. An intriguing, if unusual, arrangement that somehow manages to avoid coming off as a cynical rehashing of Nash’s greatest hits, the two-CD release seems more concerned with giving a genuine and open sense of Nash’s artistic and personal development, his sincerity and his social and political consciousness. It is the true measure of the man and his music.

Not intended to be exhaustive, the first disc offers a handy guide to Nash favorites, such as the rolling, anti-war message “Military Madness,” the stylishly contoured “Just a Song Before I Go,” the poignant and feathery dance of winsome, domestic bliss “Our House,” the twangy life lesson “Teach Your Children” and “Wasted on the Way,” awash in nostalgia and bittersweet yearning, mournful violin and silvery coils of acoustic guitar. A reflective “Myself at Last” – from the 2016 LP This Path Tonight – closes out the side, after revisiting the gently rendered beauty of “Lady of the Island,” the passionate political idealism pouring out of “Chicago/We Can Change the World” and the dramatic, historical sweep of “Cathedral,” as well as the oceanic grandeur of “Wind on the Water.” All of it speaks to Nash’s ability to craft folk-rock and pop songs that stir the imagination and soothe the soul, while previously unreleased mixes of the softly lapping “I Used to be King” and an intimate “Better Days” offer something new and interesting to behold.

That’s all well and good, but it’s the demo material that’s most prized on Over the Years. An absolute revelation, “Horses Through a Rainstorm” is marvelously constructed, a lost classic of melancholic pop deserving of more scrutiny. Stripped to its bare essence, “Chicago” seems edgy and raw emotionally, while a fading “Man in the Middle” waltzes away and the simple, touching lullaby “Sleep Song” leads to peaceful slumber. There is a bit of silliness in “Our House” and “Teach Your Children” feels like a distant echo, but most of the demos sound fairly similar to what they would become, with a few differences that reveal what was left in or taken out, or what was added. That insight into the creative process is what makes Over the Years invaluable.

—Peter Lindblad