Stills
	Produced by Stephen Stills with Bill Halverson and Ron and Howie Albert
	Released on June 1975
	US CHART POSITION #19 . . . UK CHART POSITION #31
	Find it at GEMM
PC 33575 cover [high resolution photo]

A nother change of partners, this time inheriting part of former Manassas-mate Chris Hillman’s backing band with new members Donnie Dacus, Russell Kunkle, and Leland Sklar. Stills (the album) is mellow country-rock with some bittersweet guitar pickin’, high harmonies and an occasional flash of teeth. New guitarist Dacus is given a good share of the spotlight (he’s even featured on the back cover with Stills), cowriting a couple of tracks and slipping in several nice leads. Although Stills’ Columbia recordings (of which this is the first) marked a decline in product, it’s a pretty subtle decline here. The record includes a lot of music, some of it very good (“As I Come of Age”) and some of it no more than a soulful standing in place (“My Angel”). I have yet to read a positive account of this record, which makes me wonder what critics expected. While I might give the nod to Illegal Stills, this record has too many good qualities to dismiss out of hand. There’s an earthy spirituality in Stills’ music that invites comparison to Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, and Crosby & Nash. He may not reach their high plateaus here, but a cool vibe underpinned by muscular playing makes the time pass quickly. Maybe I’ve tempered my musical skin past tenderness after listening to The Beatles’ solo work (whose Ringo Starr makes a cameo here), but to dismiss this as “garbage” (Rolling Stone, I’m looking at you) suggests that someone took a very cursory look at this album, found it wanting, and closed the lid on it too quickly. I mean, I enjoyed Stephen Stills’ first album, but it wasn’t mana from on high. Sure there is filler, light wisdom held in loose melodies (e.g., “First Things First”), but a handful of songs on here are quite good (including Neil Young’s “New Mama” and the single “Turn Back The Pages”). If you enjoy the music of Stephen Stills, I’d take the negative press with a grain of salt (preferably around the rim of a Margarita glass) as a means to prime the palate for Illegal Stills.

PC 33575 back cover	PC 33575 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. TURN BACK THE PAGES    (Stephen Stills/Donnie Dacus)    4:05
2. MY FAVORITE CHANGES    (Stephen Stills)    2:53
3. MY ANGEL    (Stephen Stills/Dallas Taylor)    2:19
4. IN THE WAY    (Stephen Stills)    3:37
5. LOVE STORY    (Stephen Stills)    4:15
6. TO MAMA FROM CHRISTOPHER AND THE OLD MAN    (Stephen Stills)    2:15
7. FIRST THINGS FIRST    (Stephen Stills/Joe Schermie/Jon Smith)    2:16
8. NEW MAMA    (Neil Young)    2:30
9. AS I COME OF AGE    (Stephen Stills)    2:36
10. SHUFFLE JUST AS BAD    (Stephen Stills)    2:42
11. COLD COLD WORLD    (Stephen Stills/Donnie Dacus)    4:35
12. MYTH OF SISYPHUS    (Stephen Stills/Kenny Passarelli)    4:16

CREDITS

STEPHEN STILLS -- lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, piano, bass, clavinet, organ, tambourine, electric piano, engineer, mixdown engineer
DONNIE DACUS -- rhythm guitar, background vocals
JOE LALA -- percussion, conga
Jerry Aiello -- organ, piano
Peggy Clinger -- vocals (2)
David Crosby -- vocals (7,9)
Jimmy Fox -- drums (12)
Danny Hutton -- vocals (2)
Conrad Isidore -- drums (11)
Russell Kunkle -- drums
Claudia Lanier -- background vocals (12)
Marcie Levy -- background vocals (1)
Graham Nash -- vocals (7,9)
Kenny Passarelli -- bass, vocals
Rick Roberts -- vocals (5,8)
Leland Sklar -- bass
Ringo Starr ("English Richie") -- drums (9)
Dallas Taylor -- drums (3,7)
Betty Wright -- backup vocals (11)
Tubby Ziegler -- drums (1,6)
Ron and Howie Albert -- engineers, mixdown engineers
Don Gehman -- engineer
Jeff Guercio -- engineer
Bill Halverson -- engineer
Joel Bernstein -- front cover photo
Bill Ray -- back cover photo
John Berg, Andy Engel -- design

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