There are rock and roll cynics out there who are incredulous that a dozen years into the 21st century, Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, and David Crosby are all alive, well, and making new music. Epiphone editorial saw Jerry Lee last spring and his voice was in fine form as was his piano playing, which had moments that bordered on Monk and Cecil Taylor if they had been raised in a den of iniquity.

As for David Crosby, his voice--the subtle though vital ingredient to The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, is intact as his memory. Our friends at American Songwriter are in high Dylan gear this month and talked to David about his long friendship with Bobby, which began in earnest when the Byrds kicked off their career with their genre smearing version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" (which may have featured both Glen Campbell and Leon Russell in the studio band if you can imagine that).

"It was a great song and it was the first time anybody put real poetry on the radio… as far as I know. It was a good exchange," recalled Crosby.  "When he came to the studio to listen to The Byrds we got something terrific from him, which was to use his songs, rearrange them, and turn them into radio songs. We did that several times and I think that [Roger] McGuinn was better than anybody who ever did it, but Bob learned something too. When he saw us doing “Mr. Tambourine Man” as a rock and roll band, it sparked something completely different in him."

Crosby describes Dylan as "pretty much fascinating. He’s brilliant, and he likes to puzzle people. He doesn’t like to speak in direct, clear communication. Not that he doesn’t tell you what he means to tell you, but it’s usually not an outright statement. He’s always been a nice person to me, but yeah, he will take a shot at, particularly, qualities that he doesn’t like such as hypocrisy, greed, or ignorance. Also, the more obvious human failings like violence and racism. He has not problem taking a swipe at them. Bob does the town crier and troubadour part of our gig as well as, or better than, anybody."

If you really want to blow your mind, check out CSNY as they try to keep up with Tom Jones. Can you name the guitar that Graham Nash is playing? It appears to be an Epiphone...