Manassas (band)

Manassas
Manassas (TopPop, 1972)
Background information
Origin	Miami, Florida, United States
Genres	Blues-rock, country rock
Years active	1971–1973
Labels	Atlantic, Rhino
Associated acts	Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Pacific Gas & Electric, Blues Image, Joe Walsh, Barnstorm, John Sebastian
Past members	Stephen Stills Chris Hillman Al Perkins Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels Paul Harris Dallas Taylor (deceased) Joe Lala (deceased) Kenny Passarelli John Barbata

Manassas was an American rock band formed by Stephen Stills in 1971. Predominantly a vehicle for Stills’ artistic vision, the band released two albums during its active tenure, 1972’s Manassas and 1973’s Down the Road. The band dissolved in October 1973.

Manassas was formed in the fall of 1971, following Stills' concert tour to support his album Stephen Stills 2 (1971). While Stephen Stills 2 was Stills’ second solo album, it was his first completed following the acrimonious 1970 breakup of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY), and was not critically well received. After a chance meeting with Flying Burrito Brothers singer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Hillman in Cleveland, where Stills’ tour schedule crossed paths with that of the Burritos – a band that, by late 1971, had undergone multiple personnel changes and was in financial trouble – Stills saw an opportunity to change his artistic direction. He subsequently contacted Hillman, asking him, along with Burritos’ guitarist Al Perkins and fiddler Byron Berline, to join him in Miami at Criteria Studios to jam. Stills also invited several members of his touring band – drummer Dallas Taylor, bassist Calvin “Fuzzy” Samuels, keyboardist Paul Harris and vocalist/percussionist Joe Lala – to play at the session.

The musicians quickly gelled in the studio, and within several weeks had recorded enough material at Criteria to fill a double-LP album release. The band was capable of a wide musical range, with a repertoire including blues, folk, country, latin, and rock songs. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, a friend of both Hillman and Stills who visited Criteria during the sessions, was an early fan of the band, at one point expressing an interest in joining. (Wyman would contribute to the sessions by helping Stills re-write his to-date unrecorded song from 1968, “Bumblebee,” as the blues/funk tune “The Love Gangster,” with Wyman also playing bass on the track.) The band christened itself Manassas after Stills, who had an interest in American Civil War history, orchestrated a photo shoot for them in Manassas, Virginia, the site of the First and Second Battles of Bull Run (1861 and 1862, respectively).