Stephen Stills
Right By You

THE REVIEW

1) "50/50": Caribbean rhythm with everything you need - percussion, horns, etc... and Jimmy Page delivers a nice blues solo at the end.

2) "STRANGER": Very eighties, full of keyboards, leaning towards danceable.

3) "FLAMING HEART": A delight of rock blues, three guitarists in action - Stills, Page, and Bernie Leadon from the Eagles, two solos both by Page.

4) "LOVE AGAIN": Again, Caribbean atmosphere, this time fully synthetic, truly danceable.

5) "NO PROBLEM": Typical eighties, with all the breaks in the right places, light, a filler. Stills performs a bass solo...

6) "CAN'T LET GO": A magnificent rhythm & blues ballad with Stills singing the verses and leaving the choruses to the great, soulful voice of his keyboardist Mike Finnigan, and then he ups the ante with a great final solo. Very warm.

7) "GREY TO GREEN": Melody inspired by friend Neil Young, but still trying to get people dancing, after all, those were the years. Graham Nash provides the usual high and precise vocal harmonies.

8) "ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART": It's Young's. Stills turns it into a cadenced waltz, without Neil's whine, and since they've always playfully "teased" each other, he adds a verse that evidently he thought was missing...

9) "NO HIDING PLACE": Country! Six people sing, there’s even a banjo, Chris Hillman performs a short mandolin solo.

10) "RIGHT BY YOU": Blues! Raw, dragging, Page this time plays at home and delivers a spine-chilling performance, the two share the solos and battle it out in a long jam session.

Stephen Stills is no fool. He’s not a California folky. He was born in Texas, lived in Central America as a child, absorbed many different types of music, made them his own, and has always been able to deliver them effectively. An excellent guitarist especially with acoustic, a prolific composer, my favorite from the well-known supergroup Crosby Stills Nash & Young, although in this, in Italy, I feel like a minority: preferences usually go to the grumpy Canadian Young or, at most, the hippy David Crosby. Currently, there's a car commercial on TV with his "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield, 1968) as the soundtrack, a folk blues masterpiece with a sound that is still magical and perfect. He is great.

"Right By You" is from 1984, suffers from the flaws of that very opportunistic decade, with a bit disco-reminiscent and booming rhythms and buzzing synthesizers, but there are three or four amazing tracks, some great friends helping out, there’s a nice variety of styles and, in short, the album has the necessary content to age well.