Francesco Lucarelli

THE BOOK :

“This is a wonderful collection of information about Crosby Stills & Nash, and the photographs bring the reader even closer to the band. This information has been collected over years and years and is a must read for anyone interested in the band. I’ve enjoyed reading and looking at these stories for a while now, and I’m pleased that you get a chance to do the same.” ~ Graham Nash, June 20th, 2022, New York City

"Crosby Stills & Nash : Music Is Love" is the result of more than 40 years of dedication to the music of Crosby Stills & Nash by author Francesco Lucarelli. He began collecting different official releases, bootlegs and magazines from all over the world, and when he founded the Crosby Stills Nash & Young fanzine Wooden Nickel, fans from all corners of the globe shared their stories and memorabilia.

This is the largest collection of Crosby Stills & Nash stories and visuals ever put together, tickets, playbills, backstage passes, flyers, laminated passes, posters, magazine covers, picture sleeve singles, as well as many never seen before photographs. The result is an amazing journey covering almost 6 decades of music with contributions from all 5 continents.

About the author:

Born and raised in Rome, Italy, as a teenager Francesco Lucarelli fell in love with the beautiful music created by a handful of singer songwriters living in Laurel Canyon. It was because of their songs and vocal harmonies that, in the early 80’s, he founded the infamous CSN&Y fanzine Wooden Nickel, which reached fans all over the world. Later, after becoming part of the CSNY family, he contributed to the booklet of Crosby Stills & Nash’s box set and, in the early 10’s, he was one of the main contributors to the official CSN iPad app, both as a photographer and as an archivist. As a photographer, his work has been displayed on the booklet of CPR’s “Just Like Gravity”, on Stephen Stills’ box-set “Carry On” and on David Crosby’s book “Since Then : How I Survived Everything And Lived to Tell About it”. He is also one of the authors of the 3 book biography “Crosby Stills Nash and sometimes Young”.

Among the many CSNY related experiences, there’s at least a couple of memorable musical moments. In 1988, when he spent one week playing with Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot of Crazy Horse in Billy’s garage in California, and in 1993 when Graham Nash invited him to join CSN on stage in Roma for the encores of their concert. Over the years, Francesco performed live with Talbot both in California and in Italy for a number of acoustic dates. In 2010, he released the album “Find The Light”, mixed by Stephen Barncard, and featuring guest appearances by Graham Nash, Jeff Pevar, James Raymond and Kenny Passarelli. To support the record, Francesco founded a band and, in the Summer of 2022, their eponymous record “Rawstars” was finally released. Among the guests, Mike Finnigan, Greg Leisz, Jeff Young, Jeff Pevar and Inger Nova Jorgensen.

Francesco loves soccer, guitars, birdwatching, AS Roma, avocados, bodysurfing, natural light photography, not necessarily in this order. Currently he lives in Rome, with the love of his life, Isabella, their 2 sons Andrea and Filippo, and two cats, Perry and Lola.

THE MUSIC :

"Music has always been part of my life. From the soundtrack of a collection of fairy tales I listened to as a child, to the hit singles played on the local Hit Parade radio show during my early teens, to any other kind of music I fell in love with later. I have been an avid listener since I was a kid, playing my parents' records and spending the few coins in my piggy bank, buying the new ones I liked.

Bacharach, Beatles, classical music and big orchestras were constantly filling the living room and those melodies urged me to look for more. It was just a matter of time before I finally had the chance to put my clumsy fingers on the fretboard of a nearly impossible to play cheap guitar.

Playing music made me feel good, and singing with my friends made me feel even better. With all due respect, the pleasure I feel making music is definitely stronger than what shakes me when I listen to the masters, but it's the 2 of them combined which keeps me going.

Rock on!"