Crosby, Stills & Nash dust off old demos

DETROIT (Billboard) – Early recordings of a dozen Crosby, Stills & Nash tracks -- including favorites such as "Marrakesh Express," "Almost Cut My Hair," "Deja Vu," "Love the One You're With" and "Chicago" -- will be featured on an album of demos due in stores on June 2.

The release of the Rhino Records set, "Crosby, Stills & Nash Demos," coincides with the trio's June 18 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and a brief summer tour of the United States and Europe.

"It's fascinating stuff," Graham Nash, who co-produced the set with Joel Bernstein, told Billboard.com. "On some of these songs you really hear us becoming a band, trying out different ideas in our songwriting and singing and harmonies. It really is a time capsule."

The "Demos" version of "Long Time Gone," for instance, features just Crosby and Stills during June of 1968, a few weeks before Nash joined the group. "Marrakesh Express," meanwhile, was recorded four months before CSN's first album came out in 1969. The set also includes: a Crosby solo demo of "Almost Cut My Hair;" a Stills solo take of "My Love is a Gentle Thing" form 1969; Neil Young joining Crosby and Nash on "Music is Love" for Crosby's 1971 solo debut album "If I Could Only Remember My Name;" and demos of three tracks for Nash's 1971 solo debut "Songs For Beginners" -- "Sleep Song," "Be Yourself" and "Chicago."

The full "Demos" track stack included: "Marrakesh Express," "Almost Cut My Hair," "You Don't Have To Cry," "Deja Vu," "Sleep Song," "My Love Is A Gentle Thing," "Be Yourself," "Music Is Love," "Singing Call," "Long Time Gone," "Chicago" and "Love The One You're With."

"Demos" is the latest result from a spate of vault trolling that's produced box sets for Crosby and Nash, a demos collection from Stills and expanded editions of "If I Could Only Remember My Name" and "Songs For Beginners." Stills is currently working on his box set, while CSN is recording an album of covers that's being supervised by Rick Rubin.