Thanks for the review Liam. That acoustic set sounds especially tasty. Seeing him Saturday, and am looking forward to it, especially Girl From the North Country and Johnny's Garden. Here is a recent setlist Tandan (w/ me on Sat) sent me from a recent show, though he did not say which one:

Set 1: <----------------------------------------------------acoustic solo
Helplessly Hoping
(Crosby, Stills & Nash song)
Change Partners
Thoroughfare Gap
Everybody's Talkin'
(Fred Neil cover)
Girl From the North Country
(Bob Dylan cover)
Reason to Believe
(Tim Hardin cover)
Ballad of Hollis Brown
(Bob Dylan cover)
Daylight Again / Find the Cost of Freedom
(Crosby, Stills & Nash song)
I Used to Be a King
(Graham Nash cover)
Johnny's Garden
(Manassas song)
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
(Crosby, Stills & Nash song)
Set 2:
Southern Cross <--------------------------------------------------- electric with band
(Crosby, Stills & Nash song)
Treetop Flyer
Don't Want Lies
(The Rides song)
Roadhouse
(The Rides song)
Make Love to You
(The Stills–Young Band song)
Virtual World
(The Rides song)
Bluebird
(Buffalo Springfield song)
Rockin' in the Free World
(Neil Young cover)
Encore:
For What It's Worth
(Buffalo Springfield song)
Love the One You're With

I'm excited to hear your perspective Brock.

I know you'll have a great time!

Hey guys could y'all answer a question for me? What is the song "Johnny's Garden" about? I've sorta been turned on to it recently and was wondering what the meaning/impetus behind the tune was. I thought It may have been about Lennon, but then realized it was on Manassas. Hoping y'all could offer some insight. Thanks in advance.

iirc, Stills bought Ringo Starr's old house here in Surrey, England.

He "inherited" an eccentric gardener about whom the song is written.

I think he may have sold the house to Peter Sellers who modelled his character in the movie Being There on the same gardener.

Alternatively, I may have dreamt the whole of that.....

Edit - Voila!!!

http://fuckyeahpetersellers.tumblr.com/post/175603435/sixbucks-peter-sellars-and-stephen-stills-with

The IMDB entry for Being There was no help but yielded the fact that "Shirley MacLaine's masturbation scene was shot 17 times"! Go, Shirley!!!!

[Edited on 7/17/2015 by Shavian]

Hey, cool link and story there, thanks for posting.

I saw Stills at Wanee a few years ago, but it wasn't too good for me. His time slot had him at the big stage, during the heat of the day. Too large of a stage for his acoustic stuff, too damn hot, not enjoyable for me.

^Wow, that is cool, as Being There is one of my favorite movies ever. Thanks.

And to bring it all full circle, Oteil appears in the film as one of the young toughs who accost Chauncey in the Raphael scene.

I was taking a Humanities class when "Being There" came out. We were reading the book for class, the Professor was unaware the movie was being released. A couple of us from the class dosed and went to the film. The Professor got some great class discussions and esoteric papers out of us. 😉

Thanks Shavian. That's funny Billy. I had a class on horror movies. I did the same thing and went to see the first Howling movie. It really freaked me out. I had to do my paper on another movie. 😮

Great night of music in the beautiful sold-out Buckhead Theatre last night, though tampered by the fact that TanDan couldn't make it (I was set to blow it off too, but Dan wanted me to "go for him," and I could not refuse that).

Setlist was the same as I posted above except that It Doesn't Matter was played, and Rockin' in the Free World was not (a good tradeoff, as I have owned and loved Manassas since I was 12-13).

Agree w/ BillyBlastoff that Hollis Brown was the high point as Stephen's oft-gravelly voice suited the song perfectly. I wanted N Country to be better as it may be my favorite song ever, but it paled next to Hollis.

Also a treat to hear Make Love to You from the also long-owned Stills-Young Album, and it was nicely done by Stephen and the band, and not hurried at all (I yelled Eat a Peach at the conclusion!). The Rides songs were very strong too w/ the night's best guitar solos (great album, and Stephen said a new one comes out in February). His voice was often strained, but a few times he hit some vocals from the younger Stephen that wowed us.

Ironically, he told the Johnny's Garden gardener story, relating that the house had been owned by Wm Burroughs, Sellers and Ringo, then mentioned that John made he and (I think) the Manassas bandmates some lysergic tea and they thence began climbing about the garden and wrote 27 songs ("7 of which we wrote down, including this one"). Funny stuff!

I am very glad Dan encouraged me to go.

Stephen Stills is still going strong. Last night saw the 70 year old musician give Richmond a fulfilling and rousing show highlighting his bands’ songbooks, paying homage to Dylan, and tossing in a couple new songs because - well, like he said, “I’m a musician!”

I was fortunate to get a great seat, second row pit, which worked out really well for the mostly acoustic first set. The stage lighting bled over the apron and illuminated the folks in the pit giving me the feeling of being at a rehearsal more than a show. Stills was comfortable and engaged, smiling and waving from the moment he took the stage. I liked that he stuck to the 7:30 curtain call walking out around 7:35.

After a moment or two of acknowledging the crowd his band, keyboard, drums and bass, joined Stills in the opening of “Helplessly Hoping”. It was immediately obvious that Stephen wouldn’t be hitting all the high notes. I wondered for a moment why he hadn’t enlisted a cadre of back up singers, but soon, the muscle memory in my mind and ears filled in the gaps of his voice with memories of his music and the impact those songs had on my life.

His voice, although aged and strained, still sounded like Stephen Stills. There are no background singers who could have emulated that signature.

“Change Partners” and “Thoroughfare Gap” seemed easier for him to sing. Remembering the lyrics, especially to “Thoroughfare Gap”, could have been another story, but Stills gleefully bragged about the power of the teleprompter. He introduced the song by saying he wrote it during his “Dylan” period a time when he used too many words. Then he went on to play “Girl From North Country” and “Ballad of Hollis Brown”.

I think “Ballad of Hollis Brown” was the most heartfelt and emotional song of the night. It was just Stills on an acoustic Gretsch guitar. The band had left the stage. He really poured his heart into the song and his voice did an excellent job interpreting the story. Unfortunately the usher seated some late comers in the row behind me during the song. Stills stopped singing and chastised the usher. Was visibly pissed and ended up translating that anger into the last three versus of the song. It kinda worked out.

The rest of the set maintained the acoustic warmth of that tune but was expanded by the rest of the band. I’m pretty sure Stills only used Gretsch guitars during the first set. He played a couple different Fenders during the second set.

The setlist following Hollis Brown went like this: “Daylight Again” > “Find the Cost of Freedom”, “It Doesn’t Matter”, “I Used to Be a King”, “Johnny’s Garden”, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”.

“I Used to Be A King” was a stunner. Again great vocal interpretation of the lyrics. “Johnny’s Garden” was also a stand out. The “Find the Cost of Freedom” was good but a little confused. I couldn’t tell if Stills wanted the audience to join in the song. Neither could the audience. Regardless the first set worked really well providing warm emotional tones and some really heartfelt and musically high moments. I was moved.

The second set was more rocking and had some moments but the sound mix was changed focusing more on the expanse of the theatre and pretty much forgetting the pit. I wasn’t surprised, I usually try to get seats on the 7th - 12th row in theatres the size of the Carpenter. Sitting too close can really mess up the sound. The three EAW speakers sitting on the lip of the stage became dedicated to Stills guitar. The vocals were moved into the larger house arrays. I had to sit further up in my chair and move my head backwards to get even a decent mix. For me, after the excellent sound of the first set, the change was annoying and pulled my focus from the music.

It also seemed that Stills became less engaged. I don’t know if he sparked up, or had one too many cognacs during the break but he and the band seemed more rushed during the second set. It could have been the nature of the songs. Although “Southern Cross” and “Treetop Flyer” were both really good. Then he played a couple new tunes that were solid rockers but didn’t resonate. At least not for me. They did give him plenty of opportunity to show off his guitar skills and the crowd responded in kind.

“Bluebird” was a very hurried version. I wish he had played it in the first set. In my opinion you don’t have to turn that tune into a rocker, but the instrumental parts of the song were exceptional. Stills does have a great signature style of guitar. “BlueBird” ran right into Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World”. It was played with plenty of distortion and political angst. The crowd were all on their feet, well at least up on their walkers and canes, singing and dancing the best they might.

The encore was “For What It’s Worth” into a reggae “Love the One You’re With”. I thought the “For What It’s Worth” was rushed and would have preferred that in the first set... but I got a great night of music. It was very enjoyable and I’m really happy I made the effort to attend.

i was there too. nice stills mixed up the setlist a bit. he added a new rides song aand added a mannassas song too. thanks for telling me it was the ushers fault. i couldn't tell what happened when he stopped the song. i agree opening with "helplessly hoping" might be too much for his voice now. needs a few tunes to warm up before doing that song. i was in the balcony, the mix for the 2nd set was really bad. could hardly hear his voice on most of the songs.

for those wondering, stills was suppose to tour with THE RIDES this summer and the album was due out in late may or june. when van halen picked kenny wayne sheperd to open the already finished album got moved to eraly 2016 so they could tour for it