David Crosby announces new solo album – Sky Trails

David Crosby

David Crosby is set to release his new solo album Sky Trails – his third solo album in four years – on September 29th via BMG. Sky Trails continues Crosby’s unexpected late-period resurgence; in his eighth decade, Crosby is not only surviving, but thriving personally and creatively.

The album takes Crosby in a new musical direction as the set tilts toward a full band sound and deep, soulful grooves. “It’s a natural thing for me,” says Crosby, who joyously embraced the challenge of the shifting song structures. “I’ve always felt more comfortable there. There’s complexity, intricacy and subtleties in the music. I like that stuff.”

The core of the band are saxophonist Steve Tavaglione, bassist Mai Agan, drummer Steve DiStanislao, and Crosby’s son, multi-instrumentalist James Raymond, who also produced the album. Crosby and Raymond recorded some of the songs at Raymond’s home studio and then moved to Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters studio in Santa Monica for tunes that feature the full band.

Sky Trails follows last year’s critically acclaimed Lighthouse – which received praise from outlets including Rolling Stone, Stereogum and NPR Music – which was preceded by 2014’s Croz, Crosby’s first solo album in 20 years. Though Crosby wrote many of the songs for Sky Trails as he was working on Lighthouse, the two are distinctly different projects. “Lighthouse was conspicuously and deliberately acoustic,” Crosby says. “Sky Trails was intended to be a full band record from the start.”

At 75, Crosby remains as engaged and energized as ever, with no end in sight. The creative floodgates that opened a few years ago continue to flow and Crosby delights that the songs are still pouring forth. He doesn’t think too hard about why the muse has alighted upon him at this late stage in his career, but offers up that perhaps once CS&N ended, “there was a lot of pent-up creative juice. It’s as if I’d been in a dark room and someone turned on the lights,” he says. “I don’t want to take it for granted, but it’s been absolutely amazing.”

In Crosby’s unparalleled six-decade career, the native Californian has created songs that resonate as indelible cultural touchstones for more than three generations, not only as a solo artist, but as a founding member of The Byrds in the mid-60s, Crosby, Stills & Nash (recipients of the Grammy for best new artist in 1969), and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. He’s collaborated with dozens of artists, including Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Phil Collins, Elton John and Carole King.

The folk rock pioneer, who was inducted into the prestigious Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009, has also served as our social conscience, not only eloquently writing about societal issues on such songs as “Almost Cut My Hair” and “Wooden Ships,” but continuously donating concert proceeds to like-minded causes. His towering influence and brilliant ability to capture the spirit of our times in his music remains undiminished.

Artist’s website: davidcrosby.com