Interview: Rusty Young

In 1968, multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young co-founded the pioneering country rock band Poco along with Richie Furay and Jim Messina, who he met when he was asked to add pedal steel guitar to Furay’s signature song “Kind Woman” in the waning days of the great Buffalo Springfield. He is Poco’s only continuous member over the band’s illustrious career and two dozen albums, and wrote their biggest hit “Crazy Love”.

This interview was for the 9/13/15 concert at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara billed as Jim Messina with special guest Poco’s Rusty Young “Sittin’ In”. It was done by phone on 8/31/15.

Interview: Jim Messina

Jim Messina is best known for the duo Loggins & Messina, which gave us songs like “Danny’s Song”, “House at Pooh Corner”, and “Your Mama Don’t Dance”. But by the time he and Kenny Loggins got together, he had already acquired quite an impressive musical resume, including the following highlights. He was the recording engineer for the album Buffalo Springfield Again, which ultimately led to him joining the band and producing their final album Last Time Around. Then, with Richie Furay from Buffalo Springfield, he co-founded the seminal country-rock band Poco, whose classic first albums he also produced. Next up was Loggins & Messina, which has been described as the most successful pop/rock duo in the first half of the 1970’s.

This interview was for a preview article for his 2/15/14 concert with Richie Furay at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. It was done by phone on 2/7/14.

Concert Review: Richie Furay

Review of The Richie Furay Band at the Maverick Saloon, Santa Ynez, California, 2/1/12. This was part of the series Tales From the Tavern.

Interview: Richie Furay

Richie Furay is best known for co-founding two notable bands: Buffalo Springfield, which is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and for which Furay was one of the primary songwriters along with Neil Young and Stephen Stills, and Poco, which is regarded as one of the pioneering bands of the country-rock genre. After leaving Poco in the early 1970’s, Furay was in the short-lived supergroup Souther-Hillman-Furay, and has since released several solo records. His song credits include “Kind Woman”, “A Child’s Claim To Fame”, “Hurry Up”, “Keep On Believin'”, “You Are The One”, and “Let’s Dance Tonight”. Furay answered these questions by email on 1/5/12, and this interview formed the basis of a preview article for his 2/1/12 performance at the Maverick Saloon in Santa Ynez, California.

Interview: Paul Cotton

Paul Cotton was a songwriter, guitarist, and singer for the country rock band Poco from 1970, when he replaced Poco co-founder Jim Messina, until 2010. His compositions for Poco include “The Heart of the Night”, “Bad Weather”, “Indian Summer”, and “Ride The Country”. He has also released three solo albums, and is currently working on his fourth.

This interview was done for a preview article for Cotton’s show at SOhO in Santa Barbara on 1/14/12. He emailed his answers on 1/10/12.