David Crosby

Singer-songwriter David Crosby's solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, was dismissed by critics when it came out in 1971. Over the years, however, appreciation has grown for the album's adventurous aesthetic, stacked harmonies and haunting lyrics about loss and confusion. Billed as Crosby's solo debut, the album was anything but a one-man project.

After spending nearly nine months as a guest of the Texas penal system, veteran rocker David Crosby emerged from his incarceration sober and brimming with ideas that had previously been stunted due to decades of substance abuse. In many ways Oh Yes I Can (1989)—Crosby’s second solo effort during his two-decade-plus career—is a musical rebuttal to his equally vital debut effort, If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971). Even the album’s title appears to indicate his newly achieved success and freedom from the haze that so indelibly influenced the earlier compositions.

With the appearance of Lighthouse, singer/songwriter David Crosby, age 75, continues a late career renaissance that began with 2014's Croz – his proper studio follow-up to 1971's classic If I Could Only Remember My Name. This set was produced by Snarky Puppy boss Michael League, who co-wrote five of these nine tunes with Crosby. The producer, a lifelong fan of the 1971 album, approached Crosby about recording something quick and dirty over a couple of weeks. He was met with incredulousness. The artist was used to working on albums for months, even years. After three days, they completed three new songs, and Crosby was all in.

In some ways, For Free plays like the culmination of David Crosby's late career purple patch. Working once again with James Raymond – his son who has turned out to be an unusually empathetic and intuitive producer – Crosby mines similar territory as he has on the records he's released since 2014's Croz, yet For Free contains its own distinctive vibe…

Continuing to forge new paths in his eighth decade, Crosby again joins forces with Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis and Michael League, the three musicians known as The Lighthouse Band, who he’s been working with since 2016’s Lighthouse album. Far from just a solo live album/ DVD, working with his first new band since CSNY, Crosby and The Lighthouse Band quickly discovered the chemistry took a collaborative leap during their 2018 tour together in support of Crosby’s sixth solo album Sky Trails (2017, BMG) culminating in this live recorded set on the last night of the run.