Now Available: Stephen Stills - Carry On 4-CD Box Set
Stephen Stills' CARRY ON is in stores today! The 4-CD boxed set features classic cuts from the legendary singer-songwriter's Buffalo Springfield, CSN and solo years, and includes 25 previously unreleased recordings.
Legendary singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Stills has released more than 250 songs since 1966, some solo, others with iconic bands including Buffalo Springfield, Manassas and, most famously, with David Crosby, Graham Nash and Neil Young. On the new four-CD set CARRY ON, producers Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein—in collaboration with Stills—outline the remarkable 50-year scope of Stills' career with 82 tracks, 25 of them previously unreleased. In retracing the musical paths he’s explored, it’s clear that Stills is more than a prolific hit-maker (“Love The One You’re With,” “Southern Cross”)—he is also a songwriter who speaks his mind (“For What It’s Worth”) and his heart (“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”) equally well, and is comfortable playing diverse genres including folk, rock, blues, jazz, country, and Latin.
The tracks unfold mostly in chronological order, and the anthology leads off with its oldest entry: “Travelin’”—a previously unreleased recording that Stills made at age 17 in Costa Rica (one of the many places he lived growing up in a military family). The youngest track, recorded only a few months ago, features CSN performing “Girl From The North Country” in New York City during a sold-out five-night run at the Beacon Theater that closed the group’s acclaimed 2012 world tour. CARRY ON, which features a 113-page booklet with rare photos and extensive liner notes by Michael O’Hara Garcia, David Bender, and NY Times Best Selling author Daniel Levitin, will be available as a 4-CD boxed set on March 26 from Rhino for a suggested price of $54.98. A digital version of the set will also be available.
In addition to essential studio and live recordings, CARRY ON covers new ground with more than an hour’s worth of previously unreleased material including “No-Name Jam,” a 1970 recording of Stills in London trading guitar licks with his friend Jimi Hendrix. Other previously unissued highlights include the songs “Welfare Blues” (1984), “Little Miss Bright Eyes” (1973), and “Who Ran Away?” (1968), and early demo versions of “Forty-Nine Reasons” and “The Lee Shore,” and “Black Coral,” a song Stills and Young released as a duo in 1976—the version here features all four members of CSNY. “The Treasure” offers a peek into Stills’ process—originally released in 1972 on Manassas’s self-titled debut, this version was recorded by Stills three years earlier with bassist Calvin Samuels and drummer Conrad Isidore during sessions for Stephen Stills 2.
CARRY ON also features a number of classic songs newly remixed by Nash and Stanley Tajima Johnston, including “Everydays,” “To A Flame,” “See The Changes,” “4+20” and “Change Partners,” the latter with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar. There is also a newly edited version of Stills performing “Cuba Al Fin” at the Havana Jam in 1979.
Several songs make their CD-debut with CARRY ON, including “Uno Mundo,” “War Games” and the single mix of “Love The One You’re With.” Stills’ time on stage is represented as well with a number of previously released performances, including several from his acclaimed 2005 album Man Alive. The collection boasts new live tracks, including CSN singing “No Tears Left” in 1997 at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and CSNY on stage in 2002 at Madison Square Garden with Memphis Horns Booker T. Jones and Donald “Duck” Dunn covering Otis Redding’s “Ole Man Trouble.” Other famous players turn up on CARRY ON’s wealth of material as well, including Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Maynard Ferguson, Ray Baretto, Willie Bobo, and Larry Harlow.
