***Featured Release
Stephen Stills - Just Roll Tape - April 26th, 1968
In the liner notes, Stills recalls that he was at a Judy Collins recording session in New York and after she was finished laying down tracks, he stuck around and paid the engineer privately to let him record some of his demos. But Stills left the tapes in the studio and eventually considered them lost.

When the studio was about to close in 1978, musician Joe Colasurdo was told by the owner that he could take away any tapes he wanted to before they cleared the place out. After seeing Stills' names on several of the boxes, Colasurdo kept them safe until he could find a reel-to-reel machine to play them on. Colasurdo began attempting to get the masters safely back into Stills's hands, an undertaking that took 25 years. In 2003, he was connected to Graham Nash after happening to meet a close friend of his. Nash received the tapes, passed them on to Stills, encouraging him to release them. (courtesy of Wikipedia).

Just coming out of Buffalo Springfield and just before his work with Crosby and Nash, Stills shows his blues, folk, rock and country influences. Even moreso, he shows clearly how he can play guitar, sing with feeling and how adept he was at a young age at writing and structuring a song.

*** Featured Artist
Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon
Phish bassist Mike Gordon joins one of American's best acoustic guitarists, Leo Kottke to collaborat on their second album togehter that pays homage to island rhythms. Sixty Six Steps is a mixture of originals and interpretations performed in ways that are vaguely familiar yet largely without precedent. Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion' is a great cover and unexpected, but sung in a deadpan monotone and performed on baglama (a Turkish banjo / mandolin type instrument) layered with guitar and bass.

Recorded in the relaxed Bahamas, this disc reflects two musicians who are comfortable with their playing and influenced by their location. We look foward to more.

Side note: Leo Kottke will perform a free concert on Mackinac Island, August 15, 2013 in Marquette Park. For more information, click on www.mackinacartscouncil.org.

***For the Mackinac Island Music Festival, Grand Hotel Labor Day Jazz Weekend and other Island events, click here.