Celtic Connections review: Graham Nash, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

GRAHAM Nash could be forgiven for assuming that his role in harmony triumvirate Crosby Stills & Nash has secured his route to musical immortality. But arriving in Glasgow for Celtic Connections, he said that everyone wanted to talk about his first band, The Hollies.

Graham Nash

Graham Nash, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ***

Opening his set with one of their cherished hits, Bus Stop, introduced that love affair with intertwining voices which has served Nash for the duration of his career. Even as a solo headliner, he remains a team player rather than a strong lead singer and the highlights of this mellow set were the moments of closest synergy with his bandmates, such as their simple close harmony cover of Buddy Holly’s Everyday or the contrasting I Used To Be a King, from Nash’s 1971 solo debut, with its unusual turns of melody bathed in Todd Caldwell’s Hammond organ and Shane Fontayne’s psych blues guitar.

Those burnished tones persisted on Immigration Man, while Nash’s counter-cultural credentials were further evidenced in the carefree chime of Marrakesh Express, a slightly fluffed cover of The Beatles’ A Day in the Life where all three musicians did a grand job of executing the final ascending scale on their respective instruments, and on the anti-war number Military Madness, originally written about his father’s service, but all too easy to update.

Nash’s other signature – a simple, occasionally soppy romanticism – was showcased from Sleep Songright through to Myself At Last from his most recent solo album, This Path Tonight, but never better expressed than on Our House, his enduring portrait of domestic contentment. - FIONA SHEPHERD