David Crosby

David Crosby was wandering around backstage at VIMF on Saturday night and when I first spotted him I thought a vagrant had slipped past security. The 69-year-old artist was wearing a worn blue t-shirt and grey hoodie, his long white hair was wild under a baseball cap. It wasn’t until I saw his face that I realized he was an award winning artist with a career spanning almost five decades and probably wasn’t backstage to collect empty wine bottles.

Crosby mingled for a little while and based on what I saw was almost as chilled out and sociable as Yes’ Jon Anderson. The day after his main stage performance, Anderson wandered the grounds, checked out the food vendors and seemed generally easy to get along with. Also like Anderson, once Crosby took the stage he showed that he still knew how to put on a good show.

Backed by the Night Train Music Club, a group of seasoned musicians who have worked with some of rock’s biggest names, and with additional vocals by Vonda Shepherd, Crosby opened with “Long Time Gone” from Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1969 debut album. Rocking the same outfit as Saturday night (I imagine his closet being like Inspector Gadget’s) Crosby tipped his hat to the crowd and his musicians before going on to perform “Tracks in the Dust” from his 1989 solo album Oh Yes I Can & “Carry Me” from Crosby & Nash’s 1975 </I<Wind on the Water

Before his Saturday performance of”I’m Dead (But I Don’t Know It)” Randy Newman lampooned rock stars who have run out of things to say but are too stubborn, stupid or vain to hang up their spurs. Crosby seems intent on not joining those ranks and was in no danger of running low on things to say. Performances by seasoned artists like Crosby are fascinating when they open up to the crowd and talk about their music. It saved Newman’s performance on Sunday night and added an extra dimension to Crosby’s on Sunday.

He complimented Newman by naming him as one of his favorite songwriters and went on to list others including James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and (grudgingly) Bob Dylan. He also joked about Mitchell & Neil Young being “Canadian Scorpios” and asked Canada to “stop sending them south because they really mess things up.”

Performing new tune “A Slice of Time” showed that Crosby can still write an engaging melody even though he claims to once have been told to never play new material at a music festival. “I guess I’ve made a career,” Crosby said, “Out of doing things I’ve been told not to.”

In an age of processed pop that’s refreshing.