Hear David Crosby’s Contemplative, Jazzy New Song ‘Sell Me a Diamond’
David Crosby searches for an elusive sense of serenity on his new song, “Sell Me a Diamond.” The track will appear on the singer-songwriter’s upcoming LP Sky Trails, out September 29th.
The song, which premiered via NPR, opens with Crosby recounting a meeting with a jeweler, who promises to sell him a “conflict-free diamond.” Over a steady drum beat, resonant piano and starry-eyed steel guitar, Crosby extrapolates the jewelers’ comments into a meditation on finding peace in an often menacing world. “Sell me a diamond,” Crosby sings, “One fluid moment/ You know, seven crows above could be an omen.”
Crosby wrote “Sell Me a Diamond” with his son, James Raymond, who produced the track and plays keys. The song also features Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and guitarist Jeff Pevar, who cuts through the song’s jazzy vibe with a explosive closing solo.
“Sell Me a Diamond” follows Crosby’s previous Sky Trails release, “She’s Got to be Somewhere,” which he performed on The Tonight Show in May. The album marks Crosby’s third album in three years following 2014’s Croz and 2016’s Lighthouse.
“I always write in bursts,” Crosby told to Rolling Stone in 2016. “The last couple of years have been the densest, longest writing surge I think I’ve ever had.”
“Most people at my age are either lazy or they’re just pulling the handle trying to get another hit,” he added. “They feel that maybe they’ve said everything they want to say. They also just don’t work at it. I’m not smarter or better than they are. It’s just that the songs are coming to me.”