Illegal Stills

A closer listen to what many folks consider to be a minor Stephen Stills album reveals an undervalued set of songs that are exceptionally written, produced, and performed. (Even the credits read like a who’s-who of session players). And by the time of the album’s release in 1976, Stills was nearly three years out of his band Manassas but he still had a foot inside the forever-feuding Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. And it sounds like it. The Latin-tinged “Soldier” and the dobro-stoked “Stateline Blues” would’ve fit on any CSN&Y album, while the closer, “Circlin’," with its piano riffs and guitar jams, sounds like a wonderful cosmic folk song that Manassas forgot to record. Stills gets feed-the-people political on the great “Buyin’ Time,” pleads to a lost love on the Spanish-sung “No Me Niegas,” and takes Neil Young’s “The Loner” out for an unexpected spin, adding an extra layer of percussion, vocals, organ, and guitars. Stills and a young Don Gehman, who here was earning his first production credit, produced the album. (Gehman later helmed multiplatinum albums by John Mellencamp, Hootie & The Blowfish, and R.E.M.)