David Crosby - Live (2000)

This album is a budget-priced, abridged version of the David Crosby live album King Biscuit Flower Hour, originally released in 1996 and drawn from a concert held in Philadelphia in 1989. The more complete album contains four tracks not included here: "In My Dreams," "Drive My Car," "Monkey and the Underdog," and "Night Time for the Generals." The remaining ten songs are evenly divided between songs Crosby wrote in the late '80s after his recovery from substance abuse ("Tracks in the Dust," "Compass," "Delta," "Lady of the Harbor," "Oh Yes I Can") and songs he wrote in the late '60s for Crosby, Stills & Nash or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ("Déjà Vu," "Almost Cut My Hair," "Guinnevere," "Wooden Ships," "Long Time Gone"). Crosby performs acoustic and solo at first and is later joined by a band. He benefits from the familiarity of the CSN/CSNY material and from the conviction with which he performs the newer songs, but it is still easy to tell why he functions better in a group context than as a leading performer, since his songs, taken at slow or medium tempos (tempos that change frequently in the course of a single song), have complicated melodies and discursive lyrics that sometimes put them in the realm of recitative more than simple pop songs. Crosby was at the height of his fame as a reformed addict in 1989, which allowed him to tour under his own name alone, but he remains better appreciated as a key part of a group such as CSN.~Live Review by William Ruhlmann