Manassas

Manassas

(1972)

It’s hard to understand how this album has faded into a bit of obscurity among the general population. It somehow did not have any high charting singles despite the songs all being of extremely high quality and craftsmanship—maybe some poor choices about which ones they released. While there is a consistency to the musical influences and themes over the course of the whole album, one of its notable aspects is that each side is named and exhibits a particular overarching tone and character:

The Raven is mostly full of slide guitar blues and tinges of Latin, obviously a reflection of Stills’ penchant for these sounds. The opener “Song of Love” starts off a laidback groove that continues through the entire set until it finishes with a ethereal “Bound to Lose”.

The Wilderness is a fiddle-heavy bluegrass country jamboree, a sound that Hillman is very much known for. While I’m not as huge a fan of this twangy set, it does include Stills beautiful performances enhanced by masterful steel pedal guitar on the downhome “Colorado” and “So Begins the Task”, one of my favorite songs of the album with its shuffling beat, plaintive lyrics, and rich harmonies.

Consider is a more varied set of songs but ones that seem much more intentionally focused on highlighting the skills of the band as a whole with some great interplay of guitars and percussion (“It Doesn’t Matter”) and keyboard (“Move Around”) as well as some of the best vocal harmonies of the album. It also has what are considered some of the most standout compositions of the album like “Johnny’s Garden”.

Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay is obviously the side that has some of the most lead guitar, anchored mostly by an 8 minute track called “The Treasure” that finishes with a electric ramble.

While the album did hit in the top 10 and went gold, it does not have the long-lasting recognition that it should. Perhaps it was just too much at once and has all gotten lost in the mix. One can imagine what would have happened if they had released this double album slowly in pieces with each side as its own individual album.

Down the Road

(1973)

Though it did reach up to number 26 on the charts at its release, it’s hard to disagree that the second album of Manassas has nowhere near the craftsmanship and quality for their first. It didn’t help that the members of the group themselves weren’t much interested by that point either. While it continues with their strengths (blues and folk and country rock tinged with Latin), many of the songs seem like forgettable filler. Indeed, it’s not only largely forgotten but finding a modern copy of it (on CD) is nearly impossible.

That said, you can’t have musicians of their level of craft and not have a few good songs. They released the opening “Isn’t It About Time” as a single and it does have a great groove to it. The melody isn’t quite catchy enough to be a staple (especially with the forced pronunciation) but there’s definitely some nice touches. For me, the best song on the album by far is the good-old boy twangy country blues title song “Down the Road”, sung in a purposefully humorous swagger by Stills highlighting the funny ‘I’m tired of partying’ lyrics.