‘Carry On’ with Stephen Stills Boxed Set

The much-anticipated Stephen Stills “Carry On” boxed set is due from Rhino Entertainment on March 26, four CDs stuffed with classics and rarities spanning the first 50 years of the singer, writer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and bandleader’s colorful career, from the edge of 17 to just last year.

Produced by Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein with Stills, “Carry On” includes essential recordings, live cuts and new mixes. Of the 82 tracks included, 25 are previously unreleased. A 113-page booklet is packed with rare photos and extensive liner notes by Michael O’Hara Garcia, David Bender, and NY Times best-selling author Daniel Levitin.

The set’s list price is $54.98; a digital version will also be available. Each iteration includes more than five hours of music.

Stills, who turned 68 on Jan. 3, 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.

In retracing the remarkable scope of Stills’ career and the musical paths he has explored over half a century, the producers show he’s more than a prolific hit-maker (“Love The One You’re With,” “Southern Cross”). He’s 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 and mashing up diverse genres including folk, rock, blues, jazz, country, and Latin.

The “Carry On” tracks unfold mostly in chronological order, leading off with the collection’s oldest entry: “Travelin’”— a previously unreleased recording Stills made in 1962 at age 17 in Costa Rica (one of the many places he lived growing up in a military family).

The newest 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” features 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,” “The Lee Shore,” and “Black Coral,” the latter 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 1973 on Manassas’s eponymous debut, the “Carry On” 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 on “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 the Memphis Horns, Booker T. Jones, and Donald “Duck” Dunn covering Otis Redding’s “Ole Man Trouble.”

Other famous players turn up on “Carry On” as well, including Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Maynard Ferguson, Ray Baretto, Willie Bobo, and Larry Harlow.

Here’s the tracklist (* = previously unreleased):

Disc One
1.      “Travelin’” – Stills*
2.      “High Flyin’ Bird” – The Au Go Go Singers
3.      “Sit Down I Think I Love You” – Buffalo Springfield
4.      “Go And Say Goodbye” – Buffalo Springfield
5.      “For What It’s Worth” – Buffalo Springfield
6.      “Everydays” – Buffalo Springfield*
7.      “Pretty Girl Why” – Buffalo Springfield
8.      “Bluebird” – Buffalo Springfield
9.      “Rock ’n’ Roll Woman” – Buffalo Springfield
10.  “Special Care” – Buffalo Springfield
11.  “Questions” – Buffalo Springfield
12.  “Uno Mundo” – Buffalo Springfield
13.  “Four Days Gone” – Buffalo Springfield
14.  “Who Ran Away?” – Stills*
15.  “Forty-Nine Reasons” – Stills*
16.  “Helplessly Hoping” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
17.  “You Don’t Have To Cry” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
18.  “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
19.  “4+20” – Stills*
20.  “So Begins The Task” – Stills*
21.  “The Lee Shore” – Stills*
22.  “Carry On/Questions” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
23.  “Woodstock” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Disc Two
1.      “Love The One You’re With” – Stills
2.      “Old Times Good Times” – Stills
3.      “Black Queen” – Stills
4.      “No-Name Jam” – Stephen Stills & Jimi Hendrix*
5.      “Go Back Home” – Stills
6.      “Marianne” – Stills
7.      “My Love Is A Gentle Thing” – Stills
8.      “Fishes And Scorpions” – Stills
9.      “The Treasure” – Stills*
10.  “To A Flame” – Stills*
11.  “Cherokee” – Stills
12.  “Song Of Love” – Stills
13.  “Rock ’n’ Roll Crazies/Cuban Bluegrass” – Stills
14.  “Jet Set (Sigh)” – Stills
15.  “It Doesn’t Matter” – Stills
16.  “Colorado” – Stills
17.  “Johnny’s Garden” – Stills
18.  “Change Partners” – Stills*
19.  “Do For Others” – Stephen Stills and Steve Fromholz*
20.  “Find The Cost Of Freedom” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young*
21.  “Little Miss Bright Eyes” – Stills*
22.  “Isn’t It About Time” – Stills

Disc Three
1.      “Turn Back The Pages” – Stills
2.      “First Things First” – Stills*
3.      “My Angel” – Stills*
4.      “Love Story” – Stills
5.      “As I Come Of Age” – Stills
6.      “Know You Got To Run” – Stills*
7.      “Black Coral” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young*
8.      “I Give You Give Blind” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
9.      “Crossroads/You Can’t Catch Me” – Stills*
10.  “See The Changes” – Crosby, Stills & Nash*
11.  “Thoroughfare Gap” – Stills
12.  “Lowdown” – Stills
13.  “Cuba Al Fin” (edit) – Stills
14.  “Dear Mr. Fantasy” – Stephen Stills & Graham Nash
15.  “Spanish Suite” – Stills
16.  “Feel Your Love” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
17.  “Raise A Voice” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
18.  “Daylight Again” – Crosby, Stills & Nash

Disc Four
1.      “Southern Cross” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
2.      “Dark Star” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
3.      “Turn Your Back On Love” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
4.      “War Games” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
5.      “50/50” – Stephen Stills
6.      “Welfare Blues” – Stephen Stills*
7.      “Church (Part Of Someone)” – Stephen Stills*
8.      “I Don’t Get It” – Stephen Stills
9.      “Isn’t It So” – Stephen Stills
10.  “Haven’t We Lost Enough?” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
11.  “Ballad Of Hollis Brown” – Stephen Stills
12.  “Treetop Flyer” – Stephen Stills
13.  “Heart’s Gate” – Stephen Stills
14.  “Girl From The North Country” – Crosby, Stills & Nash*
15.  “Feed The People” – Stephen Stills
16.  “Panama” – Crosby, Stills & Nash
17.  “No Tears Left” – Crosby, Stills & Nash*
18.  “Ole Man Trouble” – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young*
19.  “Ain’t It Always” – Stephen Stills

Special thanks to Jason Elzy and Michael Jensen.

Visit the Peeples Place at KHTS front page.

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In addition to his “Peeples Place at KHTS” blog, Stephen K. Peeples is a features writer/reporter and photographer for KHTS Radio News (hometownstation.com) and SCVNews.com, and host, writer and co-producer of the weekly “House Blend” music and interview television show on SCVTV, community television for the Santa Clarita Valley (scvhouseblend.com). A former SCV music and entertainment columnist for The Signal (2004-2011) and drummer with SCV jazz group RainTree (raintreejazz.com, 2010-2011), Peeples is a Grammy-nominated record producer (“Monterey International Pop Festival,” MIPF/Rhino, 1992), an award-winning radio producer (“The Lost Lennon Tapes,” Westwood One, 1988-1990) and an award-winning online editor (The Signal website, 2007-2011). For more information, email skp@stephenkpeeples.com or visit stephenkpeeples.com.