While he was preparing for the transplant, Crosby was notified that his long lost son had been searching for him. (Faroutmag)
In July 2020 Beckett Cypher, the son of Melissa Etheridge and her former partner filmmaker Julie Cypher has died. He was 21. Beckett’s death was related to opioid addiction.
While Beckett, whose biological father is singer David Crosby, had a high media profile as an infant and toddler, in recent years he and his siblings were photographed relatively rarely.
Following the successful transplant operation, Crosby finally reunited with his son, James Raymond. As fate would have it, Raymond is a budding musician who had built up a successful career as a keyboardist and composer.
When Raymond was born, his father was just 21 years old, and so he and the mother, whom Crosby declines to publicly identify, immediately put the newborn up for adoption. While waiting for his new liver at the hospital in the mid-1990s, Crosby began thinking of his son. “I was in the hospital dying, and I knew that I had a son out there someplace,” Crosby told The Baltimore Sun. “I had been beating myself up for years about not being there for this kid.”
Fortunately, Raymond was given a supportive childhood and became successful in his career, which has been highlighted by collaborations with Chaka Khan and a role as musical director for a popular Nickelodeon series. From a young age, Raymond was aware that he was adopted but didn’t seek out his birth father until he was in his late 20s. When he finally realised that his father was David Crosby, it came as quite a shock.
After meeting, the pair got on extremely well and naturally had a lot in common. “He was this nice, decent young guy, and we became friends immediately,” Crosby said. Before long, the reunited father and son decided to form a jazz-rock band and called it CPR (Crosby, Pevar and Raymond). By January 1997, CPR were touring and performing together.
Lately last July, David Crosby has announced a new record entitled For Free, and shared the record’s first single River Rise, which you can hear below.
Joining Crosby on the record will be Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen, Sarah Jarosz, and his son James Raymond, who also served as the album’s producer. (Guitar.com)
For Free also features a number of the musicians who joined Crosby on 2017’s Sky Trails, including saxophonist Steve Tavaglione and drummer Steve DiStanislao.
The album’s title comes from Crosby’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s For Free. In a release, Crosby said of the track, which sees him joined by Jarosz: “Joni’s the greatest living singer-songwriter, and For Free is one of her simplest It’s one of my favourite songs because I love what it says about the spirit of music and what compels you to play.”
The collaboration with Donald Fagen of Steely Dan was also meaningful for Crosby as he explained: “Steely Dan’s my favourite band and I’ve admired Donald a long time, so that was a thrill for us.”
Even visually as well as musically, the album is steeped in collaborations: the cover art has been painted by singer-songwriter Joan Baez.
The album opener, River Rise, features Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers, who also co-wrote the song with Raymond. Raymond said of the track: “River Rise came from wanting to write something very evocative of California, but almost with a country-song perspective – something that speaks to the empowerment of the everyman or everywoman.”
