Stephen Stills Manassas – Down The Road

Contains a NM picture inner.

After their mammoth dble LP, Stephen Stills’ all-star grouping of West Coast luminaries and session hotshots should have spent the rest of the ’70s as multi-million selling superstars. The Eagles should have met their match. But with already inflated egos now propelled by an endless supply of top grade chemicals and offers of better paid work flying in from elsewhere (not to mention the damage done by Stills’ notorious 72-hour marathon jam sessions), Manassas’s exit was swift. A parting gift was quickly constructed in the form of this lost 10-track collection of electrifying country-blues, rock’n’soul boogie and bluegrass swing, and while Down The Road is often dismissed as the lowly, bastard cousin of its satisfyingly cohesive predecessor, a proper listen and some critical distance proves that couldn’t be further from the truth. For a start, the playing remains masterful throughout. Al Perkins’ banjo on Do You Remember The Americans and Stills’ guitar grooves during Rollin’ My Stone and Lies are highlights, but as one of their country’s finest collection of musicians, Manassas managed to deliver all of this quintessentially American music at their rhythmic, technical and instinctive best.