When three voices joined as one in an impromptu jam at Joni Mitchell's Laurel Canyon home on July 3 that year, those who witnessed it reportedly bathed in the moment's heart-warming afterglow.
Tucked away in their semirural Californian oasis of peace, art and poetry, the growing community of singer-songwriters, rock musicians and hangers-on were ready to embrace the gentler form of social commentary embodied in the music of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.
The trio's debut album Crosby, Stills & Nash was released in May 1969 to immediate success, peaking at No 6 on the Billboard charts on the back of top-40 hits Marrakesh Express and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.
The coming together of three very different strands of musical lineage had proved powerful indeed, with ex-Byrd Crosby, Buffalo Springfield alumnus Stills and ex-Hollies pop star Nash each bringing his strengths to the table.
The album, while now wearing its blue-jeans-and-tasselled-jacket period costume a little awkwardly, cannot be faulted for its measured performances and tightly layered harmonies. It is the sound of three individual talents, each relishing the chance to tell his story aided and abetted by sympathetic partners, creating in the process an entirely new amalgam of folk, blues and jazz.
The honeyed combination of voices remains instantly recognisable, and from the distance of 40-plus years the flavour of the times cuts through as sharply as it ever has.
From the romance in Stills' opening odyssey to Judy Collins, Crosby's mellifluous Guinnevere and Nash's Pre-Road Downs to the politics in Wooden Ships and Long Time Gone, the pursuit of personal and social harmony is couched in the amiable language of folk rock.
