Vancouver Island Music Fest organizers have secured the legendary David Crosby as a performer at this year’s festival running July 8-10.
Possibly more than anyone on the planet, Crosby has lived a life that is emblematic of his generation’s dizzying journey — an agrarian ride through exhilarating highs and soul crushing lows on the paths of creative expression, political activism, personal growth and spiritual self-discovery.
And yet amazingly, Crosby continues in perfect step with our times: healthy, sober and as productive as ever, he heads into the new millennium with a host of fresh creative projects and a successful new band, CPR, an aggregation that in itself is small miracle of creative synchronicity that grew out of the musician’s chance reunion with his 30-year-old biological son.
A founding member of two seminal rock bands, Crosby is a two-time inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When the singer/songwriter stepped onstage in front of some 500,000 music- and life-celebrating – fans at Woodstock in 1969 as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young,— Crosby both shared and contributed to what many see as the generation’s defining moment.
In the three decades that followed, he enjoyed stunning artistic and financial success, collecting multiple gold and platinum records while continuing to be an artistic firebrand with over a dozen albums by Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young), solo projects and duet albums with fellow band member Graham Nash. But long before Woodstock, Crosby had already made his mark on rock music and the culture that spawned it.
In addition, a lifetime of blissfully dedicated and committed work for the environment, free speech, human rights and other causes inspired the artist to write a book documenting the activism and social awareness of contemporary musical artists. Titled Stand and Be Counted, the book was being made into a series of television documentaries, with Crosby selecting the subjects from among his friends and doing many of the interviews.
David Crosby will be joining the performer roster July 8-10 at the 17th annual Vancouver Island MusicFest in the Comox Valley. Celebrating their 17th anniversary this year, Vancouver Island MusicFest has early bird tickets on sale until Friday at outlets across Vancouver Island for $129 for three days and six stages of music from Randy Newman, Arrested Development, David Crosby, Albert Lee and John Jorgenson, Rodney Crowell, The Travellin’ McCourys, The Lee Brothers, Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, Jon Anderson (the voice of YES) and over 200 other performers. Visit www.islandmusicfest.com for more information.
