Best Stephen Stills - Blues Man
Another one from the vaults... Charting the career of celebrated guitarist Stephen Stills. All the big tunes; from his early solo efforts and Buffalo Springfield days to CSN & CSNY superstardom and then through the Manassas period and solo years and countless tours to his essential comeback in the 2000's and a surprise project in 2017.
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Texan Stephen Stills was always an exceptionally gifted singer-songwriter and guitarst and was responsible for some of the most striking music of the late 60's & early 70's. Buffalo Springfield formed with Richie Furay & a youthful Neil Young in 1966 and had a major hit with the Stills' penned For What its Worth that year. They'd finally split up by 1968 after releasing three albums. Stills went to to record sessions with Al Cooper and Joni Mitchell before joining forces with David Crosby (ex-Byrds) & Graham Nash (The Hollies) to form Crosby, Stills & Nash. CSN's debut 1969 album was a multi-platinum success while they welcomed Neil Young into the fold for the tours and enjoyed raging success with the monumental Deja Vu LP as super-group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1970. The live double album 4 Way Street followed in 1971 before the band stepped down to concentrate on their various solo projects while Young walked away.
Stephen Stills, the first full solo album in 1970 was a success with session contributions from, among others, luninaries like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr & Rita Coolidge. Stephen Stills 2 then came out in 1971 before two sets with his new group Manassas (1971-72). He continued to enjoy acclaim with high profile concert & television appearances and sellout tours through the 70s with a great Live LP in 1975 and a short-lived Stills-Young Band collaboration in 1976 though, being honest, his solo studio albums were to increasingly become patchy affairs. What sounds fantastic in the studio after a half ounce of coke unfortunately seldom comes across half as well to the wider world on release. Too much heavy rock, too little blues. A CSN reunion in 1976/77 was successful despite a new album failing quite to reach former heights. Another followed in 1982 as well as two more CSNY LPs (1988 & 1999) with varying results. CSN toured annually through most of the 1980's & 90's. The solo acoustic Stills Alone received positive reviews in 1991 and he had a strong comeback from 2005 with the excellent Man Alive and Live at Shepherd's Bush (2009) tours & sets. More CSN tours ensued until the group finally called it a day in 2016. In 2017 a surprise collaborative album with his former sweetheart and longtime muse Judy Collins cheekily entitled Everybody Knows was released to positive reviews.
Stills had officially retired by 2019 though has made some rockin' stage appearances alongside Neil Young and others as recently as 2025. David Crosby's passing ended any lingering hopes of a final CSN tour. He is respected as an inspiration to many and as one of the leading voices of his generation. A lack of insight together with erratic career and lifestyle choices which, while legendary, were probably all that stopped him attaining the levels of sustained success that contemporaries like Young and Mitchell have earned over decades as household names. He did, nonetheless, provide us with a lot of great, smooth, varied American roots music as you'll hear on this 3 hour mixtape. A personal favourite artist of many I'm sure.
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