A genuine, collectible 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert handbill.

This item was designed and printed weeks before the concert and distributed as an incentive to get people to buy tickets.

The guys were right in the middle of recording their 2^nd LP, Deju Vu, when this 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young window display was printed.

And just two days prior, they had put the finishing touches on the song “Helpless” from that album. I can’t recall if they sang it at the show…. yes, that’s right, I was there in person!!

This 1969 CSN&Y flyer is rather small… just 5” by 8.5”.

And it was made on very thin paper… pink paper, to catch the eye… so if posted outside, the weather would’ve quickly eaten it up.

Much better for the collector would be a 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young poster, made of cardboard and of larger size.

Some have turned up from their few dozen dates in 1969, but not a whole lot – just the usual Bill Graham one.

The lettering on this 1969 CSNY concert leaflet is hand-drawn and very folksy… I love it, more than something professionally done.

In fact, it looks like a little goof was made in “Surprise” and it was just fixed on the spot, like you and I would do in a note to someone.

What I’d really like to find is a 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tour poster, but maybe that’s being greedy.

But since I attended this show as a 16-year-old high school student, getting a poster of it, if they were made, would be awesome.

But anyway, this 1969 CSN&Y appearance sheet is frameable in its own right… it looks really cool in a small frame.

But I took it out of its frame just to shoot this video, so you could get a feel for the flimsy paper it was printed on.

The most obvious thing about my 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young handout is that the photo shows… only half of them!

So that’s great for Graham Nash and David Crosby, but what happened to Neil Young and Stephen Stills? Weird, isn’t it?

Notice the way the lettering at the top of this 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert slinger is somewhat psychedelic, but then quickly becomes normal halfway down.

I’m guessing that was the designer trying to make it look a little like the well-known S.F. posters of the day.

But I believe it’s wishful thinking to think there may have been a 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert sign done for this show.

The handbill is too amateurish… surely they would’ve hired a pro to do the bigger and smaller pieces together.

I dig the fact that my 1969 CSNY herald is from Santa Barbara, CA… where both Nash and Crosby have lived at various times.

And not just Santa Barbara, but UCSB, too… who can ever forget the Bank of America that burned there at the hands of student protesters back in that era?

Have you noticed yet that Sweetwater’s name is on this 1969 CSN&Y showbill?

They were the Los Angeles group scheduled to open at Woodstock in August of that year, but they ran late, and instead were simply the first band to play at Woodstock – still not a bad claim.

If they even made a 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young placard for this show, I wonder if it would’ve been on pink paper, too?

Probably not – because white cardboard was usually used for those.

As for the “Special Guest Star” teased on this 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young billboard… any guesses?

Well, it was STEVE MILLER that was supposed to show up and surprise the crowd – which included me, remember – but alas, Miller never turned up. Instead, the L.A. band Dayspring took that slot.

You don’t run across a 1969 CSNY flier like this very often, because most of their stuff is from the 1970s-onward.

But the fact that this doesn’t state the year on it makes one have to research it to discover it’s from ’69.

Of historic note, this 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in-person poster falls right between the foursome’s appearances at two famous festivals that year: Woodstock in August and Altamont in December.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have this item framed on your wall in between the posters for those two events… what a conversation starter that would be!

This item of 1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert memorabilia is enthusiastically dissected by collector Peter Howard, who is me, and I can be reached at pete@postercentral.com or simply by calling (805) 540.0020. And please do remember that I pay TOP DOLLAR IN THE HOBBY, period, for great, early CSNY collectibles like this.

To see a few more vintage collectable concert handbills and fliers, just slide over to this page right here on my Web site: http://www.postercentral.com/handbillsandflyers.htm