Stills returns with new band

The Island Now

Get ready for The Rides: Stephen Stills, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg with special guest Beth Hart at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Sunday, Sept. 8. The Rides is a new all-star blues-rock trio formed by legendary singer-songwriter and Buffalo Springfield/ Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young principal Stephen Stills, fellow guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Electric Flag keyboardist Barry Goldberg. 

The group will tour throughout September in support of its debut album, “Can’t Get Enough,” set for release Aug. 27 on 429 Records. The series of dates kicks off with the band filming a concert for television from New York City’s iconic Iridium Jazz Club on Aug. 28 and 29, and wraps on Sept. 27 at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, NV.   

Singer-songwriter Beth Hart is the tour’s special guest. Last December, Hart captured the spotlight when she joined Jeff Beck at the Kennedy Center Honors to pay musical tribute to Buddy Guy, and she recently sang at Eric Clapton’s Crossroad Guitar Festival at New York’s Madison Square Garden. 

The Rides took shape after Stills and Goldberg wrote together at their mutual manager Elliot Roberts’ recommendation. 

“It was like finding a long lost soul brother,” said Goldberg, who hadn’t met Stills before, their shared 1968 credit notwithstanding. “We connected on so many things, started jamming, and soon had begun writing our first song.” 

Kenny Wayne Shepherd was the last piece of the puzzle. 

“The Rides are a perfect mix of generations, where three musicians who love and play the blues collide and create music that goes beyond all our other individual life experiences and career achievement,” said the 36-year-old, Shepherd, who’s had six No. 1 Blues albums.

“Can’t Get Enough” is inspired by — and is an homage to — the now-classic 1968 album “Super Session,” which featured Stills on guitar on one side, and the late Mike Bloomfield on the other (Bloomfield had founded Electric Flag with Goldberg, who also played on Super Session). Stills calls The Rides, “the Blues band of my dreams.”

Among the highlights on “Can’t Get Enough” are four Stills/Shepherd/Goldberg co-writes, including the song “RoadHouse,” about the life of an itinerant bluesman, the Crosby, Stills, Nash influenced “Don’t Want Lies,” and the title track, a guitar-heavy anthem with a soul-baring lead vocal by Stills. There’s also a Crazy Horse-caliber send-up of “Rockin’ In The Free World,” and four additional covers on which Shepherd sings lead, including “Talk To Me Baby,” and “Honey Bee,” by Elmore James and Muddy Waters, respectively, and Iggy Pop and The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy.”

The album was recorded in the studio over the course of about a week at EastWest in Los Angeles.

“In the spirit of that simple, raw authentic 40s and 50s blues music the three of us love, we got in there and boom! A few takes and we were done,” Stills said.

The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $39.50, $49.50, and $69.50 plus all applicable taxes and fees. Tickets are available online at www.livenation.com, charge by phone at (800) 745-3000, and at the Westbury box office. Event, date and time are subject to change. Tickets are subject to applicable service charges. For membership information, visit www.westburymembership.com. For further venue information, visit www.TheTheatreAtWestbury.com.

Share this Article