By Nick McCabe - A majority of text and information in this article is derived from Stephen Stills website and Beth Harts' press release.
The Rides - A Blues-Rock Summit formed by Stephen Stills, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg is coming to the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. The tour begins in Atlantic City New Jersey on September 1st and lands in Reno on September 27th.
No stranger to top flight musical partnerships, legendary singer-songwriter Stephen Stills unites with fellow guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Electric Flag keyboardist Barry Goldberg to form the new all-star blues-rock group The Rides. As The Rides bring a historic and distinctively American musical form into the 21st century, Stills calls them "the blues band of my dreams." Stills and Goldberg were both participants in the historic Super Sessions album recorded in 1968 with the late Mike Bloomfield (Bloomfield had founded Electric Flag with Goldberg), and Blood, Sweat & Tears keyboardist Al Kooper.
The multi-generational outfit's debut album produced by Jerry Harrison, Can't Get Enough, is set for Ltd Edition CD, Standard CD, digital, and vinyl release August 26 on Provogue Records.
According to their video on Stephen's website the idea for the group originated when he and Barry got together at Steven's studio and spent 5 days playing together. It felt so good they decided it might be a good idea to do another Super Sessions type of record. It seems that they had missed each other at the original Super Sessions recordings by just a day. Barry suggested bringing in Kenny Wayne Shepherd as a third member. Stephen and Kenny had known each other for several years and had grew within about 20 miles of each other, albeit at different points in time. The Stills family is from Ruston, Louisiana and Kenny is from Shreveport, so it was an easy decision. “We shared the swamp”, Steven says.
Barry: “Kenny and Stephen could bounce off of each other, and groove together. With that in mind, it left a lot of room for the playing.”
Kenny:”What was originally a cool idea, turned into something special.”
To round out the band they brought it Kenny’s drummer, Chris Layton (of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Double Trouble) and Stephen's bass player, Kevin McCormick.
Opening for them will be Beth Hart. Beth paid her dues with an acoustic guitar around LA, but her break came in 1993, when a $50 bet with a friend led her onto a TV talent show. “And I won,” she grins. “I won a lot of money, over $100,000. But instead of being happy the night I won, I went into total depression, I was so afraid of the pressure. But boy, I took that money. I lived in a basement, and my piano was full of roaches, so I got new furniture, moved into a great apartment. I was on cloud nine. I did a lot of drugs. And I spent that money in less than six months.”
Beth Hart is an amazingly passionate and talented performer. She puts everything out there when she performs. She's as hard as rock and as gently as the wind all at once. With her opening for The Rides it's like getting two headliners for the price of one.
This is going to be a show of epic performance. New bands of this caliber don’t come around often. Seeing this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity, so don’t find yourself in the ‘why didn’t I go' position when it’s too late. Visit the Grand Sierra Resorts web site and get your tickets now.
