Following the collapse of Manassas and prior to the monumental 1974 reunion tour of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Stephen Stills hit the road with one of the hardest rocking bands he ever assembled. Stills was arguably at his peak as a songwriter, with a wealth of strong material in his performing repertoire.

He retained the services of Manassas percussionist, Joe Lala, but otherwise recruited a whole new aggregation of talented musicians. To provide his trademark lead guitar interplays, he brought in Donnie Dacus, a talented guitar player who would play a major role on the studio sessions for his Illegal Stills album and later become the lead guitarist for Chicago. Session man, Jerry Aiello fleshed out the sound on keyboards and the rhythm section featured the Section drummer, Russ Kunkel and bassist, Kenny Passarelli, fresh off a stint with Joe Walsh's band Barnstorm. Stills handled all of the lead vocals, with Dacus and Passarelli adding impressive harmonies. Stills has remained an active member of CSN and CSNY ever since, and has also found time to continue recording and touring on his own.