The Vinyl Dialogues Blog

Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Tag: Poco

Looking back 50 years: Jim Messina revisits a better sounding Poco album

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On June 12, 2020

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

As a producer, Jim Messina became very aware while working at CBS studios that most of the engineers at the Epic Records label there were quite competent at what they had been doing, which was jazz, pop and classical music. 

But when it came to rock and roll, Messina believed it just didn’t register with those engineers. They had been educated in a different way.

So when Buffalo Springfield split up in May 1968 before the release of its third and final studio album, Last Time Around a few months later, Messina and Richie Furay — who had been members of the Springfield at the end — joined with Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner to form the band Poco.

Jim Messina
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Poco’s first album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces, released May 19, 1969, on the Epic Label — which Messina would produce — was … Read more

Timothy B. Schmit keeps on tryin’ and Havana crowd head over heels for him

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On May 12, 2017

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

In a conversation with Timothy B. Schmit for an advance story on his solo show May 11 at Havana in New Hope, Pennsylvania, we talked about what it was like to play in different-sized venues.

Schmit, the bassist for Poco and more famously, the Eagles, said he likes playing in all sizes of venues, big and small. But he did point to the obvious difference of the intimacy of a smaller venue as compared to a stadium concert.

“It’s almost easier in some ways to play for thousands and thousands of people than it is to play at a smaller place,” said Schmit. “When I play my show in these smaller places . . . it’s almost like you’re in someone’s living room. It can be a little intimidating. Sometimes people are sitting right at my feet. They’re very close.”

Well, now I know firsthand what’s he talking about. For … Read more

Exchanging autographs with folk rock royalty Jim Messina

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On March 4, 2017

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

My dad always said, “Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, act like you do. Act like you’ve been there before.”

He also practiced what he preached. One time several years ago he and my mom were at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, during the filming of an Easter Seals telethon that was to feature performances by several country music stars. Seeing a clipboard laying unattended, Dad snapped it up and got into the area where the stars were waiting to perform, pretending to be, well, a guy with a clipboard acting like he had been there before. Before anyone figured out who he was, he had secured the autographs of Conway Twitty, Lee Greenwood, all of the Oak Ridge Boys and a then-unknown Vince Gill.

That lesson came in handy recently at a show by Jim Messina at the Sellersville Theatre 1894. Messina has a pretty good … Read more

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