Personnel: Stephen Stills (dobro).

Over the years since Neil Young's godlike status has grown, it is easy to forget about the jaw-dropping breadth of talent that was Crosby, Stills & Nash, his sometimes former bandmates. Crosby had the silken voice and Nash the impossibly high harmony, but, as the remarkable official bootleg JUST ROLL TAPE: April 26th 1968 proves, Stephen Stills was a complete talent as a singer, writer, and guitarist. Reportedly recorded in one long take after he bribed the engineer of a Judy Collins session on the title date to continue recording long into the night, JUST ROLL TAPE is what its title suggests: a roll of inspired performances of songs from Still's embryonic catalog just before Crosby and Nash's angelic voices stormed the pop charts with him.

In fact, the whole night seems designed by the infamously raw producer David Briggs: tracks are brisk, mistakes are kept, the sound is rough, and every song sounds like a first take. And what a string of first takes: "So Begins the Task"--later released on MANASSAS--anticipates the finger-picked bleakness of DEJA VU's "4 & 20"; "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" finds particular starkness as a solo song despite the jubilant open chords; and "The Doctor Will See You Now" holds its own against anything in Young's catalog. While his songwriting and guitar playing are stellar, Stills's voice is equally stunning, with its tender, affecting rasp making an AM weeper like "Helplessly Hoping" sound tough. A rough gem of a listen, but a must-have for any fans of Stills or of Crosby, Stills & Nash.

When listening to this rather remarkable document, it becomes alarmingly clear what the post-Buffalo Springfield Stephen Stills brought to the partnership of Crosby, Stills & Nash. This 13-song set was recorded solo with an acoustic in a recording studio in 1968, preceding by a few months the first CS&N recording (he bribed a recording engineer after a Judy Collins session). According to Stills' brief liner notes, the tape had been lost for nearly 40 years, until the release of this edition. Meaning, of course, that these versions of these songs haven't been widely available on the bootleg circuit, either. The tracks contain early versions of cuts recorded in the trio such as "Suite: Judy Blues Eyes," "Helplessly Hoping," and "Wooden Ships." But these are near the very end of the collection. There are also a number of cuts here that Stills recorded on his solo records such as "Black Queen" from his self-titled debut, "Change Partners" and "Know You Got to Run" from Two Originals, "So Begins the Task" from Manassas, and even a very earlier and much longer version of "Treetop Flyer" with Stills playing dobro. In addition to the better-known material are the haunting "The Doctor Will See You Now," the melancholy yet tender melodrama of "Dreaming of Snakes," and "Judy," a short tune that is, coincidentally and perhaps, a precursor to the "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." These are demos, unpolished, unfinished, sketches -- albeit most of them fully realized -- of classic material. It's unexplainable as to why some of the unreleased material didn't ultimately make it onto finished records: quality is not the issue. The sound is a little distorted and uneven but the quality is very good considering this tape sat basically neglected for nearly four decades. Sadly, the sheer quality of the material, even in this raw state, also brings into the glaring light of day the fact that Stills is now but a ghost of his former self creatively. His reunion appearances with CS&N and CSN&Y, and latter recordings reveal his songwriting well to be run dry. One has to wonder if he could ever again be so inspired and what it might take. (Many still wonder what inspired Dylan to scale the heights once more after a long period of lackluster recordings.) Nonetheless, Stills' lack of good material in later years doesn't diminish his lasting contribution. The work from those early years is so substantial that his songs remain a watermark for anyone who aspires to be a songwriter. ~ Thom Jurek

Rolling Stone (p.95) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he melodic craft and poetic romance that Stills rushed to tape suggest that the singer-guitarist was, in the beginning, also CSN's most formidable composer."

Uncut (p.96) - "For all his funky folk strumming and bluesy accents, JUST ROLL TAPE underscores just how soulful Stills' voice was."

Dirty Linen (p.82) - "Stills is in great voice on these recordings....This is an intriguing historical document..."

No Depression (p.88) - "four previously unreleased titles and a even-minute studio version of 'Treetop Flyer' round out a must-have for Stills fans."