{"id":14166,"date":"2018-02-27T05:30:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T10:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=14166"},"modified":"2018-02-27T07:49:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T12:49:40","slug":"pocos-rusty-young-a-good-feelin-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/27\/pocos-rusty-young-a-good-feelin-to-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Poco’s Rusty Young: A Good Feelin’ to Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

The genre of country rock has its origins in west coast bands of the late 1960s, including late-period Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield and Poco. And while perhaps the biggest claim to fame enjoyed by Poco is its reputation as a kind of \u201cfarm team\u201d for big-league, higher-profile acts, the band co-founded in 1968 by pedal steel guitarist Rusty Young has amassed an impressive body of work. Though he describes himself as semi-retired, Young recently released a solo album, Waitin’ for the Sun<\/i>. And he still leads a lineup of Poco today.<\/p>\n

The earliest lineup of Poco, as showcased on the group’s debut album Pickin’ up the Pieces<\/i>, featured Young along with Richie Furay and Jim Messina (both from Buffalo Springfield), Randy Meisner and George Grantham. By the early ’70s, Messina had left, replaced by guitarist Paul Cotton; bassist Meisner, too had left, and his place was taken by Timothy B. Schmit.<\/p>\n

Messina went on to form a successful duo with Kenny Loggins, enjoying several hit albums and singles including \u201cYour Mama Don’t Dance.\u201d Meisner and Schmit both eventually landed in Eagles, perhaps the most successful of all country-leaning rock bands. \u201cI do wish the [original] band could have stayed together more,\u201d Young admits, noting that the first lineup didn’t even last through the making of that first album.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Poco today.<\/p><\/div>\n

But Young isn’t bitter about the way things went. \u201cI\u2019m proud of how the guys went on,\u201d he says. \u201cI always believed in those guys a lot, and so when they went onto that kind of success, it made me feel great.\u201d <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rusty Young kept the Poco fires burning. He guided the band through many lineup changes, and is the only musician to appear on every one of the group’s more than two dozen albums. By 1978, he was the sole remaining original member, leading the band as it enjoyed some of the biggest hits of its career. \u201cCrazy Love\u201d and \u201cHeart of the Night\u201d (both from 1979’s Legend<\/i> LP) rose high on the singles charts in both the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n

Young announced his retirement from performance in 2015 (\u201cthat was the plan,\u201d he says with a chuckle), but apparently he couldn’t stay away. \u201cI wasn’t gonna completely retire,\u201d he says today. \u201cI just wanted to do things that were fun, like going out and playing with my friends like Jimmy [Messina] and Richie [Furay], and maybe a Poco show here and there.\u201d And he’s been doing that ever since; Poco’s January 20 show in Saratoga kicks off a string of more than fifteen shows for Young, either with the band, solo, or with some of those friends. <\/p>\n

Young recalls a fan who approached him backstage after a show not long ago. \u201cHe said, ‘Have you ever thought about doing a solo record? I\u2019ve got a label, and we\u2019d love to sign you.’\u201d In all his years as a professional musician, Young had never made a solo record, so he agreed. Waitin’ for the Sun<\/i> displays both his skills on pedal steel guitar and his songwriting. And it features a familiar cast backing Young on its ten tracks. <\/p>\n

The current members of Poco all play on the album. \u201cThey\u2019re the best musicians I know,\u201d young says. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve played together so much, whatever I\u2019m thinking of, they know how to play it.\u201d And several of Young’s former band mates guest on the record as well, including all members of the band that made 1969’s Pickin’ Up the Pieces<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Poco’s live shows feature several of Young’s solo songs, but for the most part the concerts focus on the hits. \u201cWe\u2019re doing the songs that people come to the show are expecting to hear,\u201d Young says. <\/p>\n

Over the years, Young’s role within his band has changed. He says that early on, his job was \u201cto provide all those background instruments.\u201d These days, he focuses on writing songs, and singing. \u201cBut yet, I still play dobro, mandolin, lap steel and guitar in the band,\u201d he notes. \u201cI\u2019m a better musician than I was back then. And these guys that I\u2019m playing with in Poco are as good as, or better than, anyone I\u2019ve ever played with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The genre of country rock has its origins in west coast bands of the late 1960s, including late-period Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield and Poco. And while perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,41,49,51,62],"tags":[1711,3346],"class_list":["post-14166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alt-country","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-poco","tag-rusty-young","cat-4-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14167,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166\/revisions\/14167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}