Stephen Stills Returns

Stephen Stills is one of my favorite musician and he was once poised to become one of the great voices in American song. He was getting there as well, if one looks at his work from the late 60s and early 70s, every song is nearly flawless. But somewhere towards the end of the 1970s Stills lost much of his creative power, particularly his song writing ability, turning out a number of uneven albums that had only a few good songs. This slew of sub par albums caused him to fall out of many music listeners earshot. Stills himself has stated that he has lost his creative gifts and over the past thirty years the majority of Stills' albums have gone largely unnoticed. Yet his guitar playing, which rivals that of Eric Clapton, has remained excellent and his concert tours over the years, both solo and with his buddies David Crosby, Graham Nash, and sometimes Neil Young, have drawn packed crowds.

I hope Stills' fall from grace will change with the release of a number of his albums from the 60s and 70s that have never been heard before. The first of these came out in 2007 the "Just Roll Tape" (see photo below) album was an impromptu recording from 1968 which Stills performed with just an acoustic guitar.

This album of early demos reminded listeners of the genius that Stills once possessed and apparently spurred him to open his audio archives and find more unreleased music. He released a similar album in early 2009 with the group Crosby, Stills and Nash called "Demos" which was a collection of early demo songs that later ended up on their albums.

Then on September 2, 2009 came the best "unreleased" album so far in "Manassas Pieces."

The original Manassas album is widely regarded as a masterpiece and the Manassas group that Stills formed is considered one of the high points in his career. So after the excellent first album and a terrible second album ("Down the Road") comes this album of great songs that should have been the group's second album. The songs on "Pieces" are of spectacular sound quality, all of these were intended for album so there are no demo sounds here. Some of the songs, particularly toward the end, are a little short (one or two minutes) which kind of shows they were not fully realized but none the less this is an excellent album and one of Stills' best in years.

This fine release is only the beginning, on Oct. 27, 2009 Stills will release his first full length live album in the double disc "Live at Shepherd's Bush" recorded during his 2008 concert tour. Also announced are a Manassas Live album (one can only dream of this greatness), a number of recordings between Stills and Jimi Hendrix (who appeared on Stills debut and was Stills' guitar teacher) and a solo box set. All these bring water to my mouth. One can only hope these other releases are as good as "Manassas Pieces." And maybe this journey into the past will spark Stills' creative energy again. Here's hoping and happy listening everyone.