Manassas

                               Happy Birthday Stephen Stills (Dallas (Texas), 3 januari 1945)
Stephen Stills, vocals & guitar (ex-CSNY, Buffalo Springfield)
Chris Hillman, vocals & guitar (ex-Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers)
Al Perkins, steel guitar & guitar (played with Gram Parsons, among others)
Paul Harris, keyboards
DallasTaylor, drums (played with CSNY, ex-Clear Light)
Joe Lala, percussion (ex-Blues Image)



 Hide is So Deep

The band actually formed during the recording sessions for Stephen Still's third solo album. Playing together went so well that they decided to perform as a group. When the album was finished, the group still had no name. During a small tour they stopped at a station in Manassas, a group photo was taken under the place name and the group. Manassas was born. The photo was used for the cover of their first album.



During the band's three-hour live performance, they opened with a rock set, then Stephen Stills with an acoustic set, then Hillman and Perkins with bluegrass, then a rock and country set with the entire band, and the closing was an acoustic set. I have a recording from the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) myself, very beautiful.

 

It doesnt Matter

Manassas' toured all over the world, also visited the Netherlands several times (unfortunately missed) and in Paris Stephen Stills met the French singer/songwriter Veronique Sanson. A year later they married and their son Chris was born (later also a talented singer/songwriter). Stills and Joe Lala (and later Manassas member Kenny Passarelli) played on Veronique's album Le Maudit.


In addition to the extensive touring, time was also made available to record a second album. Partly due to the influence of drink and drugs, it was not as beautiful an album as their beautiful first. Much of the recorded material was not used (including a recording with Stevie Wonder on lead vocals). The recording for the first album was done by producers Ron Albert and Howard Albert, but they stopped recording the second album due to poor band performance halfway through. The album was completed in Colorado and Los Angeles. Down the Road was Ultimately not a bad album, but it did not reach the level of their first.



Another added bonus was the ever-present shadow of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. Atlantic Records considered Manassas more of a side project of StephenStills and did not do much to promote the two albums. In 1973, CSN&Y reunited to record a new album. Afterwards, Stephen returned to Colorado to continue. with Manassas, but it was no longer possible to get the band together in the old line-up. Dallas Taylor was addicted to heroin, Fuzzy Samuels was no longer interested. The band did two more small tours with bassist Kenny Passarelli, but it was the swan song of the band. Hillman became part of the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band and Stills went on the solo tour with Donnie Dacus of Veronique Sanson's band, veteran Russ Kunkel, and keyboardist Jerry Aiello.

 


Beautiful registration of Manassas' performance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The band, with Stephen Stills in top form, plays a mix of Country, Rock and Bluesgrass, both electric and acoustic. There is not much "live" material from Manassas, so that's why is this almost three-hour set, collected on two CDs