Music Video Of the Week - June 12, 2026

"Another Rainy Day In New York City" by Chicago  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - May 29, 2026

"Kid Charlemagne" by Steely Dan  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - March 13, 2026

"Breezin'" by George Benson  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - February 20, 2026

"Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - January 30, 2026

"Run With the Pack" by Bad Company  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video of the Week - January 23, 2026

"Golden Years" by David Bowie  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - January 16, 2026

"Show Me the Way" by Peter Frampton  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - January 2, 2026

"One More Cup of Coffee" by Bob Dylan  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - July 11, 2025

"Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Christmas Music Video Of the Week

"Ring Out, Solstice Bells" by Jethro Tull  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - May 24, 2024

"Forever Young" by Bob Dylan and the Band  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - May 10, 2024

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - April 12, 2024

"Call Me the Breeze" by Lynyrd Skynyrd  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week- January 26, 2024

 "Jet" by Paul McCartney and Wings (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - August 18, 2023

"Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand-corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - May 12, 2023

"The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

 

Still Stills - The Best of Stephen Stills (1976)

As a solo artist, Stephen Stills was the most prolific member of Crosby, Stills and Nash in the seventies, having produced four albums, including the two Manassas LPs - the first of which was a double set - between 1970 and 1973.  Atlantic Records didn't do much to promote Stills' solo projects, though, which makes its decision to put out a greatest-hits compilation of such work in 1976 somewhat ironic.

Ironic, and opportunistic - Still Stills was issued while Steve was pursuing his solo career at Columbia, having gotten fed up with Atlantic's disinterest in his solo efforts.  (He had also been involved with Neil Young in the recording of their namesake band's only album, Long May You Run, released on Reprise.)  In that sense, Still Stills was pure product - released just in time for the 1976 Christmas market - meant to cash in on Stills' reputation.  But the selection of material demonstrates the value in his reputation; there are a lot of strong tracks here that demonstrate his abilities as a guitarist, a singer and a songwriter.

Of course, "Love the One You're With," his cheeky ode to hippie ecstasy, opens the record, and his other hit single, the charming country waltz "Change Partners," strategically kicks off side two, but the rest of Still Stills emphasizes more diverse aspects of his talent.  The selections here range from the Buffalo Springfield pastiche "It Doesn't Matter" from the first Manassas album and the deeply spiritual gospel-tinged "We Are Not Helpless" from his 1970 solo debut to the tougher blues and rock of "Go Back Home," his guitar duet with Eric Clapton, and the tight rock of "Sit Yourself Down" (both from the 1970 LP).  And while I wouldn't have represented the inferior second Manassas LP with "Isn't It About Time" - here only because it was a single - it's still indicative of the energy that Stills has always put into his heavier songs.  Atlantic also threw in a few curves by including the lighthearted "Marianne" (from his 1971 solo release Stephen Stills 2) and also Mike Brewer and Tom Mastin's composition "Bound To Fall" (from the 1972 Manassas release), with its quick, biting acoustic arrangement.  Also, Crosby, Stills and Nash fans will find the Manassas country shuffle "Johnny's Garden" and that band's freewheeling single "Rock and Roll Crazies / Cuban Bluegrass" to be familiar territory, both of them songs from a musician known to explore different musical landscapes and determined to exceed his own expectations.

The punning title is appropriate.  Still Stills is a portrait of an artist whose music remains consistent even as it moves across different pop genres; many of the songs from the two Columbia albums Stills had already put out at the time of this album's release would have fit in well here and made a more well-rounded retrospective.  But, as greatest-hits packages go, this is nonetheless a solid, tight overview.  Out of print for decades, it makes a good Christmas present for the rare-record collector in your life who wants to dig a little deeper into the less remembered side of a rock icon's work.  (Though, if you prefer to buy the CSN fan on your gift list one studio LP from Stills' seventies albums outside the group, spring for the first Manassas album; it's not only his best such effort, it's also available on compact disc.)     

David Crosby and Graham Nash - Whistling Down the Wire (1976)

Released a mere nine months after their Wind On the Water album, David Crosby and Graham Nash's  Whistling Down the Wire, their third duo effort, is a somewhat sedate, more relaxed record compared to its predecessor.  But this was apparently more by design than by accident; Nash later admitted that he and Crosby felt "amped-out" by Wind On the Water.  It's also a somewhat unformed and inconsistent album; there's no cohesive, overall sound to it, and the songs are somewhat abstruse.  To be honest, though, Whistling Down the Wire, while being a lesser album, has some surprises and lucid moments that would be a sneak preview of the more interesting songs that Crosby and Nash would contribute to their 1977 reunion album with Stephen Stills.

Whistling Down the Wire has some measured rock in two standout Nash tunes self-referencing his musical career - "Spotlight," his wry take on stardom, and the sharper "Mutiny," with its allusions to the ongoing strife in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.  Both songs feature sharp guitar lines and dry drums that underline but do not shout out Nash's sentiments.  The rest of the album moves between light rock and folk, with elements of jazz and blues coloring some of the arrangements.  The bass and drum sections produce a tension that's smoothed out somewhat by the melodic lines of guitars and keyboards.  As befits the title, Whistling Down the Wire is a conversation between Crosby and Nash, between the two of them and their audience, and also between themselves and friends, lovers, and acquaintances.  "Broken Bird," a understated ballad about Nash's girlfriend Susan Sennett (later his second wife) and the source of the LP's title, is as unnerving as a telegraph signal but has a soothing veneer to its message, while Nash's more cryptic "Marguerita" makes good use of drinks as metaphors for romantic interplay to a low-key arrangement in which piano and guitar talk to each other in hushed, chilling tones.  

There's a great deal of confessional songwriting in  Whistling Down the Wire, the product of two men who are calling themselves into question.  Nash's "J.B.'s Blues" (addressed to their photographer friend Joel Bernstein) and "Taken At All" are somewhat cynical admissions of the precarious state of the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young partnership, with some tight music to match, while Crosby admits to his own shortcomings in his lackadaisical but pensive, blues-based "Foolish Man."  For that, and more, Whistling Down the Wire seems to be a rather erratic album.  Still, it's a good one; the duo's harmonies are as strong as ever, and you don't want to be without Crosby's engaging ballad "Time After Time" or the cathartic, uplifting closer, "Out Of the Darkness."  Written by Crosby and Nash with their sideman keyboardist Craig Doerge in a folk-gospel vibe, "Out Of the Darkness" is an affirmation of hope for the future and an expression of relief in the aftermath of trouble.  It was a perfect song for 1976, written in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate and on the eve of the first Crosby, Stills and Nash studio collaboration in years.  In retrospect, given everything that's happened to CSN (and CSNY) and America since, it's a reminder that bliss, like Whistling Down the Wire itself, is fragile but still something to value.        

Music Video Of the Week - June 28, 2019

"Such a Night" by Dr. John with the Band  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - May 10, 2019

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)