Graham Nash w/Shane Fontayne
Music Box
Cleveland, Ohio
September 19, 2017
(JoeRay Master Series Volume 32)
1644 Edition

Transfer: .wav master file > iZotope RX 8 / ozone 9 (mastered) > 16/44 ? xACT 2.50 > FLAC

SOUNDCHECK
01 To The Last Whale (Soundcheck)
02 Immigration Man (Soundcheck)
03 Myself At Last (Soundcheck)
04 Mississippi Burning (Soundcheck)
05 Bus Stop (Soundcheck)
SHOW
06 Bus Stop
07 Wasted On The Way
08 I Used To Be KinG
09 Immigration MaN
10 Right Between The Eyes
11 Myself At Last
12 Marrakesh Express
13 Military Madness
14 Wind On The Water
15 Our House
16 Just A Song Before I Go
17 Taken At All
18 Lady Of The Island
19 Golden Days
20 Mississippi Burning
21 Back Home
22 A Day In The Life
23 Cathedral
24 Chicago
25 Blackbird
26 Ohio
27 Teach Your Children

Known Faults:
-None

Volume 32 of the JoeRay Master Series features an intimate performance with Graham Nash
w/Shane Fontayne.

Joe Ray picks it here with details of the show and what it ment to him and his mother.

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Graham Nash and Shane Fontayne came to Cleveland�s Music Box for a rare nightclub concert on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The concert consisted of two sets. I was accompanied to this concert by my dear mom, Betts Skrha who was 87 at the time of the concert. Mom took me to my first concert, Jimi Hendrix at Cleveland�s Music Hall back on March 25, 1968 when I was 13. We�ve since attended hundreds of concerts together. We also attended the sound check prior to the concert.

Most of Graham�s career has been spent performing as part of Crosby, Stills & Nash, or Crosby and Nash.There were six tours of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in 1969, 1970, 1974, 2000, 2002 and 2006 that he was also a part of. Since the breakup of CSN and C&N with David Crosby and Graham Nash going their separate ways, Graham has been focusing on his solo career. This has allowed him to return to small intimate theaters and nightclubs across America.

Mom and I had a table next to the stage and was just left of center stage. It was between Shane Fontayne and Graham Nash. There was a set of monitor speakers pointed directly at us on the edge of the stage that was about 12 inches away from us. I think it was designed to allow those of us directly in front of the stage to hear intimately as the house sound system was suspended and was not aimed where those of us in the first few rows of seats could clearly hear. I recorded right in front of these monitor speakers using a matched pair of Schoeps MK4 microphones, an NBOX preamp from Nick and my Sound Device 744T recorder. I recorded the concert at 24 bit/192 sampling. The sound was exceptional. Clear, full and precise. When you listen to this recording, you will know what I mean.

I first saw Graham Nash back on December 13, 1969 and later on July 3, 1970 with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when they first came to Cleveland�s Public Hall. I saw him on August 11, 1974 and August 31, 1974 at Rich Stadium in Buffalo and Municipal Stadium in Cleveland also with CSNY during the Stadium DOOM Tour. Since then, I�ve seen Graham solo and with CSN and C&N over a hundred times and his high tenor voice has only become richer with age. At the time of this concert, Graham was 75. He is an exceptional consummate writer and his songs capture the spirit of our times. He has twice been inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame; 1997 with CSN and 2010 with The Hollies. He is also the founding member of Musicians United For Safe Energy; an anti-nuclear group of musicians from 1978 forward. I recorded several of those concerts including Battery Park in NYC and on the U.S. Capital Steps in Washington, DC. He is one of the few musicians who has been willing to speak out politically, environmentally, and socially throughout his career. He has been a voice for the environment and against military spending especially when people cannot get healthcare.

This concert allowed Graham and Shane to perform songs from throughout his career with just two guitars or piano and guitar. Shane was the perfect accompanist as he backed up Graham on his electric 1966 Gretsch, several Fender Strat�s, a cut away acoustic guitar that may be an Alverez with Matchless and Fender Amps. Shane has played with Bruce Springsteen and at many high-profile concerts throughout the world including a Kennedy Center�s Tribute to Led Zeppelin where he did the lead work on Stairway To Heaven on national television before President Obama and all surviving members of Led Zeppelin.

During intermission, mom and I were invited into Graham�s dressing room where we exchanged greetings and a few words with Graham and Shane. They were both happy to see mom and after the concert, Shane spent almost 20 minutes talking with her.

Graham is a consummate songwriter whose songs often tell a story of what is happening at a specific time and place in his life or the life of the world as he see�s it. His songs describe the truth of the times. Highlights from this concert in Cleveland were the songs Mississippi Burning about 3 students that were killed for protesting down in Mississippi, Song For Levon (a song about the drummer of The Band, Levon Helms who passed away April 19th, 2012 and Ohio.

They also did an amazing cover of the Beatles� Day In The Life. The way these two musicians did this song justice was simply amazing. I�ve heard McCartney and Neil Young do this song live with a full band. The original was recorded by the Beatles with extensive overdubbing in the studio. You�ve got to check out how well Graham and Shane did this song with just the two of them. Fucking amazing!!! And as if that wasn�t enough, they followed Day In The Life with an amazing rendition of the song, Cathedral (a song about visiting Winchester Cathedral in England on acid) which was followed by Chicago (a song about the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago). This song was about a dream that we young people could change the world, Stop The War and engage in a new way of living. Hearing this song without all the overdubs in this stripped-down version gives the song a new meaning 50 years later in the time of Trump. Chicago was followed by another cover of the Beatles� Blackbird where Shane took over the lead vocal and Graham sang harmony. The real showstopper was the song Ohio by Neil Young. The events described in Ohio occurred about 25 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland on the campus of Kent State University. I was on the campus on May 4, 1970 playing hockey for my high school when 4 students were killed by the Ohio National Guard for protesting the Viet Nam War. I was leaving the arena just when the shootings occurred about 3 blocks away. We heard the campus bell ringing as the shooting occurred. Besides the four students that were shot dead, the Ohio National Guard shot another 11 students with live rounds. The night was finished off by a rousing rendition of the song Teach Your Children that the audience stood for, held hands and sang along.

This was a very special night at the Music Box in Cleveland. The club holds about 650 and was sold out right after the concert was announced. In this time of Covid 19, many careers of musicians that have been a part of many of our lives have either died or resigned from ever touring again. This recording of Graham Nash is very special to me and I hope you all will enjoy it as much as my mom and I did in making it for educational purposes. Please support all musicians during this difficult time in the world's history when many musicians are hurting financially after seeing their clubs and theaters shut since March 2020. Most of all, take care of mother earth, yourselves, and each other.

Peace My FriendS, Joe Ray Skrha

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Quality is about as perfect as you can get and the show is excellent...thanks to Joe Ray and his mom for capturing the performance and keeping the masters flowing.

mjk5510

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