Well, I’m not sure if 50 degrees and winds of something between 10 and 20 MPH qualify as summer, but we took in a summer evening of music on a bit of a road trip to see Crosby Stills and Nash. We were unable to get tickets to the local version of the show, so opted to drive about three hours away to see the group’s summer tour at the Maryhill Winery.
Crosby Stills and Nash or the other variation of the group, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, is one of my favorite musical groups. The music’s been a part of the fabric of society for decades and ranges from old classics that we can all sing by heart to some of the best political protest music of this era.
It was eight years ago that we saw CSNY in their Y2K tour in Portland. Hands down of the numerous concerts I’ve been to, that show was the top. It was passionate, filled with great music and there was an energy in the Rose Garden that you could feel during the full show. CSNY have some of the best harmonizing going in music and their musicianship is incredible.
I mention the older tour because had last evening been my first experience seeing CSN live, I think I would have been disappointed. The show wasn’t bad, but unlike the show from eight years ago, the group’s age showed at times. Harmonies were a bit off, especially on the first number of each set and the event had more of a feeling of nostalgia as much as anything else. The Seattle Times ran a review from the concert in Seattle and it strikes pretty close to what I’d say about the one we saw.
The Maryhill winery itself seems like it could be a nice place for a summer concert. The weather when we went was chilly and windy but the setting itself by the Columbia River was pleasant. It offers an amphitheater with a little more than 1,000 reserved seats with hill seating for a few more thousand. Overall acoustics at the venue are reasonable for an outdoor facility but when there’s a strong breeze, sound from the stage gets a bit wavy.
On the way home we stopped off at the Boulder Creek National Recreation Trail for a bit of a hike. It was a great hike along the edge of a creek down to a cave that’s thousands of years old. The path winds through a forest and the sound of the wind through the pines and the smells and sounds of the forest remind me how much beauty Washington has to offer.
I enjoy these sorts of hikes also because they are a great way to exercise mobility skills. There’s nothing like walking along a trail with a cliff on the edge to heighten you’re the attention you pay to where you are walking. This trail offered many twists and turns and moderate hills and it was especially nice to be able to handle the hike with success with some of the vestibular issues I’ve been working on for the past year.