Graham Nash

Graham Nash

Graham William Nash, OBE (born 2 February 1942) is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor voice and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock super group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer. Nash was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997 and as a member of The Hollies in 2010.

Nash was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to music and to charity.

Nash holds three honorary doctorates, the latest in Music from the University of Salford (England) in 2011.

Nash initallly met both David Crosby and Stephen Stills in 1966 among a group of American musician friends during a Hollies USA tour. In 1968, after a further visit to the US during which he met David Crosby in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California, Nash left The Hollies to form a new group with Crosby and Stephen Stills. A threesome at first, Crosby, Stills & Nash later became a foursome with Neil Young: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). With them, Nash went on to even greater worldwide success, penning many of CSN's most commercial hit singles such as; Marrakesh Express (1969 - written earlier & initially cut in unfinished form by The Hollies back in 1968), "Just A Song Before I Go" (1977) and later "Wasted on the Way" (1982). Both Nash's "Our House" and "Teach Your Children" (CSNY recordings from the album Deja Vu in 1970) have become well known items used in both TV commercials and films. Nash, nicknamed "Willy" by his band mates in CSNY, has been described as the glue that keeps their often fragile alliances together. A mark of this is the loyalty and support Nash showed to his best friend, Crosby, during Crosby's well-documented period of drug addiction ending in the mid 1980s. Nash's solo career has often been shelved in favour of reunions on stage and in the studio with either Crosby and Stills or Crosby, Stills and Young. In addition, Nash briefly rejoined the Hollies in 1983 (to mark their 20th anniversary) to record two albums, What Goes Around and Reunion. His own solo work shows a love of melody and ballads. His solo recordings have experimented with jazz and electronic percussion but tend not to stray too far from a pop format with well-defined hook lines.