You expect to see Stephen Stills as part of a trio, but not this trio: The Rides are Stills, Barry Goldberg (ex-Electric Flag keyboardist), and co-lead guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd. (Drummer Kevin McCormick and bassist Tommy Shannon aren’t officially members though they play on every track.) What they’ve made is a proudly old-fashioned blues-rock album—full of guitar duels, live-sounding roadhouse jams (hell, the first song is even called “Roadhouse”), and covers ranging from really obvious (“Rockin’ in the Free World,” which Stills played plenty of times with Neil Young) to not-at-all obvious (Shepherd turning the Stooges’ “Search & Destroy” into arena rock).
Producer Jerry Harrison (yes, the ex-Talking Head) makes it sound as if it wasn’t produced at all, but he does make some good judgment calls—like cutting all the guitar solos off before that one extra chorus that would’ve pushed it to overkill. As guitarists, Stills and Shepherd meet each other halfway, with Shepherd playing a little more tastefully and Stills a bit more excessively than usual. After living through some health shakeups, Stills has got his voice back, and “Don’t Want Lies” features non-Autotuned high notes you wouldn’t think he could still hit. It’s the best of his new contributions, despite (or maybe because of) the guitar lick’s being pinched straight from the Guess Who’s “Clap for the Wolfman.”
For Stills fans it’s a mixed blessing, especially if you discovered his recent boxed set (Carry On, Rhino) and got reminded that his early solo albums (especially the double Manassas debut) ranked with the very finest of California country-rock. He’s been an underachiever lately, with CSN chronically unable to finish a studio album—and while it’s good to hear him reinvigorated here as a singer/guitarist, he’s still coasting as a songwriter. The disc ends with “Word Game,” a rocked-up version of a tune that appeared acoustically on his second solo album. The lyrics start out attacking racism and winds up standing up for misfits of all stripes; it’s the edgiest thing here and it’s a 40-year-old song.
