The Morning Call

David Crosby is returning to Musikfest Cafe with his band

- By John J. Moser Morning Call Lehigh Valley Music reporter and columnist John J. Moser can be reached at 610-820-6722 or jmoser@mcall.com

David Crosby, a founding member of the Byrds and of Crosby, Stills & Nash, and twice a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will return to Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center, it has been announced.

But this time he’s bringing a band.

Crosby, 78, will perform at 7 p.m. June 1 with his five-person band, Sky Trails Band. The two previous times Crosby played the venue, in 2015 and 2016, were solo acoustic shows. Tickets are $60-$85.

Also announced were shows by Grammy Award-winning funk band Here Come The Mummies, Fleetwood Mac tribute band Tusk and Tom Petty & The Heartbreak­ers tribute Damn The Torpedoes.

Tickets for all the shows are on sale to ArtsQuest members now and go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Friday www.steelstack­s.org and 610-332-3378.

Crosby will perform some of his best-loved songs and greatest hits, as well as material from the forthcomin­g Sky Trails Band album, according to an announceme­nt.

The disc will be the latest for Crosby since 2018’s “Here If You Listen.” The disc will be his fifth solo effort in five years, since 2014’s “Croz,” which was his first solo studio recording in 20 years, broke the Top 40 as his highest-charting disc since his debut.

But it also will be Crosby’s first disc with a band other than Crosby, Stills & Nash since 2001’s “Just Like Gravity” with his band CPR.

As a member of the Byrds and CS&N, Crosby’s high voice, guitar work and harmonies are featured on some of rock’s best-known songs, including the Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Eight Miles High,” and CS&N’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Our House,” “Wooden Ships,” “Teach Your Children,” “Wasted on the Way” and “Southern Cross.”

Crosby was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Byrds in 1991 and with Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with Neil Young, is the only band to have all its members inducted into the hall twice.

Crosby, Stills & Nash have sold more than 30 million albums (including three No. 1s). In all, the group has released 18 studio, live and compilatio­n albums, seven of which have gone gold or platinum. The album “Deja Vu” in 1970 sold 7 million copies, the 1974 compilatio­n “So Far” sold 6 million, and three other discs of theirs sold at least 4 million copies.

The group’s most recent disc was the 2012 live disc “CSN 2012.”

The Byrds, who with Bob Dylan helped popularize folkrock music, put five albums in the Top 30 in the 1960s. Both “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” hit No. 1.

Crosby also is a founding member of CPR, the band he formed with his son, James Raymond, and Jeff Pevar. The group has released four discs, the most recent of which was 2001’s “Just Like Gravity.”

Crosby has written two autobiogra­phies, “Long Time Gone” and “Since Then.”

Crosby has released more than a half-dozen solo albums, starting with 1971’s “If Only I Could Remember My Name,” which hit the Top 15 and went gold.

Crosby, with Crosby, Stills & Nash, played Sands Bethlehem Event Center in July and also in June 2012.

The group also sold out Musikfest’s 6,500-capacity former RiverPlace main stage in 2004 and played to a nearsellou­t crowd of 6,200 in 2009. It drew 5,392 people to the Great Allentown Fair in 2003, and also played the fair in 1985, 1989 (when it drew more than 8,000) and 1996.

Crosby and Nash played a duo show without Stills at Easton’s State Theatre in May 2011. Here Come The Mummies

will perform at 7:30 p.m. April 16. Tickets are $20-$35.

Made up of eight rockers dressed as 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies, the band has performed with P-Funk, Al Green, Mavis Staples, KC and the Sunshine Band and Cheap Trick.

Other new shows are:

Damn The Torpedoes ,8 p.m. May 23. Tickets are $20$25. Tusk, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27- 28, 2020. Tickets are $30-$35.

 ?? HANDOUT/WILL SCOTT ?? David Crosby is set to play Musikfest Cafe, this time with his five-person Sky Trails Band.
HANDOUT/WILL SCOTT David Crosby is set to play Musikfest Cafe, this time with his five-person Sky Trails Band.

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