Greatness comes in threes. The Three Stooges. The Animaniacs. The Triforce. De La Soul. One of the most widely used religious analogies to describe the pinnacle of a certain topic is “the holy trinity.” There is something about a well-balanced trio. It showcases a diversity of elements without being too unwieldy to come together into a cohesive whole. When it comes to music, the best supergroups likewise tend to pull from three projects for their members. In our contemporary moment, the current supergroup trio that is burning up the Spotify playlists and uniting sad people the world over is Boygenius.

Boygenius released their first full-length album The Record on March 31 to critical acclaim. The trio, composed of singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, has been received as a landmark of modern female-lead indie. The project bolsters the strengths of each collaborator as the members amplify the best in each other, resulting in a record that, to my ears, is more immediate and consistent than anything that each (genuinely talented) singer has turned out on their own.

It brings to mind another seminal trio, one that combined and elevated the powers of three songwriters to create era defining music. That era just happened to be 50 years ago. Yep, I’m talking about the Laurel Canyon allstars themselves: Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

Each member of CSN displayed a very distinctive personality and brought immediately identifiable traits to the band’s sound. Both bands are also composed of singer-songwriters, and utilizes a supplementary non-super rhythm section to fill out the arrangements. 

The ladies in Boygenius made the connection explicit when they referenced CSN’s iconic 1969 debut album with the cover for their eponymous 2018 debut EP. Both album covers show the respective trios sitting on a couch in the exact same positions, with the one in the center holding a guitar. Coincidence?? Considering that Boygenious’ name is an explicit goof on the often male-centered world of “rock greats,” I think not. 

Upon looking at it all on paper, I couldn’t help but ask the question: who in Boygenius is the Crosby, who is the Stills, and who is the Nash? So, here is my unimpeachable matchup between these two groups that share more in common than it initially may seem. I definitely did not come up with this in about 60 seconds just now.

Julien Baker: The Stills

In CSN, Stephen Stills was in many ways the leader. He played lead guitar and as such was a major driver in the group’s arrangements. He also had the roughest voice, lending a gravelly pathos to what he sang. Likewise, Baker is the lead guitarist in Boygenius, and the music on The Record bears the most resemblance overall to her solo work, with grungy guitars bolstering the emotive lyrics. While Julien Baker has a very un-gravelly voice, it is also the least traditionally strong. Rather than a drawback, her wispy voice adds a sense of wounded vulnerability to her words. “Wounded vulnerability” is a great way to describe Stills at his most romantic, as well.

Lucy Dacus: The Nash

Graham Nash was the former singer for The Hollies when he joined up with S and C, the only Brit in the group. He does not play guitar, but stood center stage between his bandmates and sang high clear harmony. While the least prolific songwriter of the three, Nash had very distinct voice that imbued his songs with a sort of wizened domesticity. His visage: thin and wiry, with long hair and a scraggly beard, helped to instill a bit of peaceful hippy gravitas. Lucy Dacus, similarly, does not play guitar, but earns her place in the group with her strong alto voice and commanding songwriting. Her story songs carry the same sense of earned wisdom as Nash’s, and her calming, knowing presence seems to station her as the “mother” of Boygenius.

Phoebe Bridgers: The Crosby

Phoebe Bridgers is obviously the David Crosby of her group. Croz joined CSN freshly out of The Byrds and was by far the biggest celebrity of his group. He played rhythm guitar and took the middle ground in group harmonies. His songwriting was distinctive in its psychedelic and circularity. Likewise, his public persona, from style to personality, was flamboyantly counterculture, and he continued to be an outspoken, transgressive media presence until his death in 2023. Bridgers also comes to Boygenius with the most outside fame for her solo career plus collaboration with Conor Oberst. But she is also the most active online and in celebrity culture, with a sardonic, winking personality, fashion forward presentation, and natural waifish good looks. In a twist of fate that perhaps isn’t coincidence, Bridgers and Crosby got into some Twitter beef when Croz criticized her smashing her guitar during an SNL performance. She gave as good as she got, and for the rest of his life, the two kept up a (friendly?) rivalry on the social media website. When Crosby passed, Bridgers posted a sincere farewell.

So there you have it. History is circular, and what comes around in one era as a trio of male folk-rock singer-songwriters, comes back as a trio of female indie-rock singer-songwriters. But the distinctive 3-part harmonies and simpatico songwriting remain the same. (Even if Bridgers and Dacus sit in the wrong place on their couch, I’m confident that my comparison holds up.) It will be interesting to see where the collective and individual careers of boygenius go.

Just, this all begs the question – who is their Young?