This was the final performance in a short British tour and it would be fair to say that I, along with many other members of the audience, approached this with a degree of trepidation. Stills' contributions to CSN (and occasionally Y) over the past twenty years have been more than patchy. His guitar playing remained more than fine, but his vocals were largely shot and his songwriting contributions often no more than perfunctory.
Indeed, when it was announced last year that Stills was suffering from prostate cancer it must have seemed that this would draw a conclusion to a long career but where his significant contribution (and it was extremely significant) was largely restricted to the decade from 1966 through to 1975.
However, he successfully came through surgery and, whether directly or indirectly, this has resulted in something of a transformation in Stills. He's lost a lot of weight - no longer the bloated musician that appears in the recent CSNY Deja Vu movie - and has started wearing hearing aids which has resulted in the return of his voice to something much more functional than has been in evidence in the past twenty years even if it is still not quite the voice that you might remember from the classic tracks. Nevertheless it's a voice ingrained with experiences both good and bad and, whilst sometimes struggling to hit some notes, it's gratifying to hear some of the notes that he goes for and hits with some aplomb.
The show was played to a reasonably full house although clearly not sold out. The audience was fairly restrained - almost as if they had turned up to see someone perform on a tightrope and weren't looking to make too much noise in case it interrupted the concentration of the man hovering above the abyss below.
The first half kicked off with the band present for the opener which was Helplessly Hoping from the debut CSN album. Stills was then left alone and played a number of fine songs on his acoustic guitar including such classics as 4 + 20, Treetop Flyer, Daylight Again, Change Partners and closing with Suite : Judy Blue Eyes with the band returning for the climax of the song.
There was a twenty minute interval after which returned with the band to perform an electric set - no more wooden music here!! Starting with Isn't It About Time from the underrated second Manassas album Down The Road it was clear that Stills meant business. His guitar was loud - it's no wonder he's as deaf as a post - but this was a man in full control of his destiny. A hard rocking Rock And Roll Woman from Buffalo Springfield days followed, and then a Tom Petty cover from the recent Mudcrutch album.
All evening Stills' soloing was sharp and inventive from slow blues through to the fiercest of rockers. What I wasn't expecting though was for him to play a song from the largely unloved Stills-Young Band album but we were treated to Make Love To You.
Encoring with Love The One You're With and returning one more time for Dark Star the audience were finally roused from their torpor and gave a hearty cheer to the departing musicians.
Hopefully, Stills can take this forward and turn this experience into some new songs whether these appear as a solo effort or as a contribution to a future CSN album. I, for one, will be looking forward to his songs in a way that I haven't truly been doing for some time
Posts
