California’s Midnight North brought a warm breeze from the sixties and seventies into the two-day Brooklyn Comes Alive Festival earlier this year with their outstanding tribute to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Their sound is already reminiscent of the era thanks to their throwback style and their incredible harmonies, however, the choice of material truly brought these similarities to the forefront. Midnight North made a conscious decision to embrace the harmonies that they have perfected as an ensemble, and it allowed them to showcase their loaded set of skills while paying homage to one of the greatest groups of singer/songwriters to ever exist.
Grahame Lesh talks new album and famous surname.
Helping set the tone for the weekend to come, Midnight North was only the second band to hit the stage at Schimanki, which, alongside the Music Hall of Williamsburg and the world famous Brooklyn Bowl, was one of the three host venues for Brooklyn Comes Alive. The spirit behind the event–to take music and musicians out of their comfort zone and to find new ways to look at their onstage configurations and material–was a perfect fit for Midnight North, and they took on the challenging task of re-creating one of rock’s greatest songbooks. Emulating the instantly recognizable harmonies of CSNY was daunting, but Midnight North had all the tools on hand to do the job.
Watch Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and members of Twiddle join together to jam it out, family style.
The band is fronted by Grahame Lesh, son of Phil Lesh, but Midnight North is not a one-man show by any means. Lesh is joined by Elliott Peck on guitar and vocals, and Alex Jordan reigns over the organ. Connor O’Sullivan plays a jack-of-all-trades role, trading off bass and mandolin to help bring the beloved tunes to life. From rockers like “Ohio” to Breathlessly hushed sing-alongs like “Helplessly Hoping”, Midnight North provided a heartfelt emulation of the CSNY catalog that stood as a testament to the spirit of the original material
Check out the magic Midnight North made below with videos of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young classics “Ohio”, “Woodstock”, “Teach Your Children”, “Helplessly Hoping”, “Almost Cut My Hair”, “Free Man In Paris”, & “Carry On”.
“Ohio”
“Woodstock”
“Teach Your Children”
“Helplessly Hoping”
“Almost Cut My Hair”
“Free Man In Paris”
“Carry On”