{"id":41769,"date":"2009-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/pieces\/"},"modified":"2009-11-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-03T00:00:00","slug":"pieces","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Stills has been a member of The Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young); he has also issued any number of solo albums, but I have always considered his work with the group Manassas<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> as among his best.<\/p>\n

Stills formed Manassas<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in 1971 with Chris Hillman. Hillman was the perfect counterpoint to Stills, keeping him centered and in control. They were joined by guitarist Al Perkins, bassist Fuzzy Samuels, keyboardist Paul Harris, percussionist Joe Lala, and drummer Dallas Taylor. Together, they formed a tight-knit outfit that was powerful in concert.<\/p>\n

Their first self-titled double album was released in April of 1972 and contained some of the finest rock music produced during the early \u201870s. It was a huge commercial hit, reaching number four on the American album charts. Their 1973 release, Down The Road, <\/i>was not of the same quality, and by October of that year they had disbanded.<\/p>\n

Pieces <\/i>is comprised of material that was recorded between their two album releases. It is far superior to Down The Road<\/i>, <\/i>and why it was not issued at the time is beyond me. There are works in progress and what appear to be unfinished songs. The fifteen tracks clock in at just under 45 minutes, which leaves the listener wishing that some could have been finished. Still, there are a number of very good cuts here that rank among Stills\u2019 finest work.<\/p>\n

Chris Hillman\u2019s influence is felt throughout the album. \u201cLies\u201d is a rare straight rock song from him. A different version would appear on \u201cDown The Road,\u201d but here guest Joe Walsh provides some ringing guitar work. His \u201cLove and Satisfy\u201d would reappear on his album Souther-Hillman-Furay Band <\/i>and returned him to his country\/rock roots. Two acoustic bluegrass pieces also show his influence. The classic \u201cPanhandle Red\u201d presents what a great mandolin player he could be in the right setting, while \u201cUncle Pen\u201d unites Stills\u2019 pickin\u2019 style with more of Hillman\u2019s classic mandolin playing. <\/p>\n

Stephen Stills is mostly responsible for the rock part of the album. \u201cLike A Fox\u201d has an unfinished feel, but what is there is very good, especially Stills\u2019 vocal. \u201cWord Game\u201d is a harder version than the one that appears on his second solo album. \u201cMy Love Is A Gentle Thing\u201d features some CSN&Y harmonies. \u201cFit To Be Tied\u201d is Stills at his best, breaking out the wah-wah sound and going in a blues direction. <\/p>\n

The album production is surprisingly good for material that has been in the vault for over 35 years. It is crisp, clear, and was mixed well.<\/p>\n

Manassas is one of those what-if groups. Much of their small catalogue seemed to indicate that Stills would have thrived in this band, but such is life. Pieces <\/i>is a wonderful artifact from a bygone era and is a good listen in its own right as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":30130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8484],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41769","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-manassas","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41769"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}