The early ’90s release was rightly acclaimed as the band’s studio pinnacle for its thematic breadth and sonic innovation.
Author: Sam Sutherland
Sam Sutherland
Sam Sutherland has worked both sides of the music biz street as music industry journalist at Billboard and Record World (as well as freelancing for Phonograph Record, Musician Magazine, High Fidelity and Rolling Stone), and in the label trenches with Elektra/Asylum, Windham Hill Productions and Discovery Records. In the ‘90s, he was beamed up to the digital rapture via software and early online projects for Microsoft and Amazon’s original music and video storefronts. He’s since produced entertainment content for Windows Media and, most recently, MSN Music. Nevertheless, he still prefers vinyl to digital. A New York ex-pat, Sutherland lives near Seattle.
The 1969 album’s streamlined band sound offered a direct connection to Young’s emerging power as a live musician, and launched a career-long partnership
The 1976 LP proved divisive, augmenting the leaner ensemble core of prior albums with more aggressive ensemble arrangements
For the sessions, instead of his own new material, he breathed authentic life into lively new versions of hometown classics.
By any standard, it was an enormous success. But when CSN added a new member for their second album, it was an alliance that would both define and bedevil them
Stills’ third full-length as leader showcased a collaborative ensemble flexible enough to cover a broad stylistic palette.
Just when her career needed a boost, Raitt switched labels and came up with her biggest hit album, which took her all the way to number one
With hits like “Back on the Chain Gang” and “My City Was Gone,” the band successfully rebounded from tragedy.
Their partnership is among the purest, boasting a celestial vocal blend, rooted in mutual admiration and the sheer joy of making music
She reached beyond folk, rock and blues influences then dominant among Los Angeles’ singer-songwriters, looking to earlier generations of songsmiths.