A never-before-released performance from the first-ever Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tour has finally seen the light of day via a new double live album, Live At The Fillmore East, 1969, out now.
After famously playing their second show at Woodstock in August 1969, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young spent the rest of the year touring and writing songs for what would become CSNY’s acclaimed 1970 debut, Déjà Vu. A newly discovered multi-track recording of the band’s September 20th, 1969 concert at the historic Fillmore East in New York City captures the energy and potential of that formative period for the folk supergroup.
The surviving members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were personally involved in bringing the never-before-released show to modern listeners. Per a press release, Stills and Young compiled and mixed the original eight-track concert recordings with John Hanlon at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles. The audio is AAA lacquer cut for the vinyl release to provide the highest audio fidelity. As Neil Young recently said of the project, “[We] have the tapes, and they sound so real. We mixed at Sunset Sound – the analog echo chamber, no digital echo. We’re staying all analog throughout the production…Pure. Analog. No digital – an Analog Original.”
Recorded only a month after Woodstock, the featured concert at Fillmore East was the band’s fourth show in two days at the Bill Graham-owned New York City venue. It included both acoustic and electric sets, allowing the new ensemble to explore their varied component sounds. As Stephen Stills shared of the experience in a press release, “The acoustic part of the show took care of itself, but now that we had equipment and Dallas [Taylor, drums] and Greg [Reeves, bass] and sizable shows to do, we just went for it. What we lacked in finesse, we made up for in enthusiasm…A band on the run. Expecting to fly.”
The setlist features eventual classics from Crosby, Stills & Nash‘s 1969 self-titled debut and Young’s 1969 LP Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere like “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, “Helplessly Hoping”, and “Down By The River” in addition to early versions of two future Déjà Vu tracks including a Stephen Stills solo acoustic performance of “4 + 20” and a Graham Nash organ-and-vocals rendition of “Our House” in honor of the song’s inspiration, Joni Mitchell, who was in the audience at the show.
In the acoustic set, Young gave a nod to his and Stills’ Buffalo Springfield days with “I’ve Loved Her So Long”, a song he wrote for the group’s final album, 1968’s Last Time Around. “For me,” Young explained in a statement, “CSNY was a chance to reunite with Steve Stills and carry on the Buffalo Springfield vibe. Crosby’s great energy was always our catalyst. Graham and Stephen’s vocals, along with David’s and mine, were uplifting every night. Great moments I will never forget.”
The electric set is powerful and intense, highlighted by expansive versions of “Wooden Ships”, “Long Time Gone”, and “Sea Of Madness”. The band closes the show with “Find The Cost Of Freedom”, a new song by Stills that later would be released as the B-side to the protest anthem “Ohio”.
“Hearing the music again after all these years, I can tell how much we loved each other and loved the music that we were creating,” Nash said of the new CSNY Live At The Fillmore East, 1969 double album. “We were four people reveling in the different sounds we were producing, quietly singing together on the one hand, then rocking like f— for the rest of the concert.”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Live At The Fillmore East, 1969 is available via Rhino on vinyl (2LP) and CD. Order your copy here. A special clear-vinyl edition is available exclusively at select retailers.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — Live At Fillmore East, 1969 (2024 Mix)
Click below to view the full LP and CD tracklists for the new Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Live At The Fillmore East, 1969 double album.
In other CSNY-related news, Neil Young and Stephen Stills recently appeared alongside John Mayer on October 5th at Harvest Moon, a day-long, festival-like fundraiser for The Painted Turtle and The Bridge School in Lake Hughes, CA.
[A version of this article was originally published on September 11th, 2024]