Artist: Poco: mp3 download Genre(s): Other Rock Discography: Running Horse Year: 2003 Tracks: 11 Ghost Town Year: 1982 Tracks: 10 Under The Gun Year: 1980 Tracks: 10 Legend Year: 1978 Tracks: 9 Cantamos Year: 1976 Tracks: 9 The Very Best Of Year: 1975 Tracks: 16 Seven Year: 1974 Tracks: 8 Crazy Eyes Year: 1973 Tracks: 8 From The Inside Year: 1971 Tracks: 10 Pickin' Up The Pieces Year: 1969 Tracks: 14 In Concert Year: Tracks: 14 A Good Feelin' to Know Year: Tracks: 9 One of the first and longest-lasting country-rock groups, Poco had their roots in the dying embers of Buffalo Springfield. After Neil Young and Stephen Stills, the co-founders of that mathematical group, exited in the give of 1968, only guitarist/singer Richie Furay and bassist Jim Messina remained to dispatch the group's undulate birdcall, Terminal Time Around. The final Springfield cut, "Kind Woman," included only Furay and Messina, with a guest appearance on steel guitar by Rusty Young -- at the fourth dimension, he was something of a curio as a talented lap-steel guitar player wHO was comfortable on the job in a rock candy phrase, and had previously belonged to a Boenzee Cryque. Young stuck with Furay and Messina, in the march skipping a scheduled audition for a new mathematical group that ex-Byrds member Gram Parsons was putt together. Auditions followed beforehand the freshman group reached out, at Young's importunity, to ex-Boenzee Cryque drummer/vocalist George Grantham, and as well to bassist/singer Randy Meisner, worldly concern Health Organization had previously played with a band called the Poor. This lineup rehearsed for four months before making their debut at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, in November of 1968. A month by and by, they made their low show at the Fillmore West on a beak with the Steve Miller Band and Sly & the Family Stone. At the fourth dimension, they were exploitation the key out Pogo, but that didn't last. Walt Kelly, the creator of the mirthful strip Pogo, from which they'd freely admitted borrowing the key out, didn't take account the group's option and filed a case. Not deficient to lose all of the recognition and grace they'd built up locally all over the premature basketball team months, the final result was a change of simply unrivaled consonant, to Poco. They impressed everyone world Health Organization heard them, but getting them a recording squeeze was itself a unmanageable proposition -- Meisner, Young, and Grantham weren't a problem, as they were basically unsigned to whatever pronounce, just Messina and Furay, as members of Buffalo Springfield, were most decidedly tied to Atlantic Records. As it happened, Columbia Records was concerned in the group -- and hovering somewhere around this situation was David Geffen, then a young talent agent wHO was firm on his feet and persuasive in his manner. He, in turn, was trying to sort out the contractual site circumferent ex-Springfield guitarist/singer Stephen Stills, and his new affiliation with ex-Byrds singer/guitarist David Crosby, and Graham Nash, erst of the Hollies, world Health Organization wanted to record together only had the setback trouble; Stills was signed to Atlantic by means of Buffalo Springfield (which identical much cherished Crosby, Stills & Nash), spell Crosby and Nash, through their former memberships in the Byrds and the Hollies, respectively, were both tied contractually to Columbia Records. With Geffen playacting as catalyst between Atlantic boss Ahmet Ertegun and Columbia president Clive Davis, Messina and Furay had their contracts traded to Columbia in central for Crosby and Nash going to Atlantic. The group's lineup problems, which proved to be perennial, started well-nigh immediately after Poco was signed to Columbia Records' Epic pronounce in early 1969. During the recording of their debut album, Meisner short left the band -- accounts depart as to on the dot when this took seat; he left either at the offset of the recording, or afterwards finishing the album. But the basic discrepancy concerned the fact that Messina, wHO had have as both an railroad engineer and producer, would not permission Meisner (or anyone else) to take part in the admixture of the album. Whatever the circumstances, Meisner went on to play with Rick Nelson for a few months earlier gravitating to a country-rock outfit that finally christened themselves the Eagles. Poco concluded up recording their debut album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, as a quartette, with Messina handling the bass parts. The record album was issued in June of 1969 to enthusiastic reviews simply not consuming gross sales, a figure that would come after the band for near of its history. Poco was back to existence a quintet in 1970 with the plus of bassist/vocalist Timothy B. Schmit, whose arriver coincided with the recording of their s album, Poco, on which he had two co-writing credits. The record album showed the group push its stove and received even bettor reviews at the time than its herald, just failed to generate a hit individual or climb above the lour reaches of the charts. It wasn't long later on that Messina decided to lead, feeling that Furay had started to exert to a fault much control over the group's sound. Before departing, yet, he secured the services of a more-than-capable replacement member, guitarist/singer Paul Cotton, a quondam member of the country band Illinois Speed Press, which had recorded for Epic. Messina likewise played on and produced their subsequent live album, Deliverin' -- the latter represented an interesting change in strategy for the judge and the lot, which, after two artistically successful merely commercially unsatisfying albums, was now looking to present itself in the strongest light as possible. A live album consisting completely of novel material, Deliverin' offered the record-buying world a glimpse of the group's onstage sound, which melded the inflammation and energy of stone & roll with the lyricism and romanticism of area music. And it seemed to work to a degree, the album arrival act 26 and yielding a minor hit in "C'mon." Messina's going left the group in need of a producer, and for their succeeding album, From the Inside (1971), they turned to Booker T. & the M.G.'s guitar player Steve Cropper, wHO was an experienced manufacturer merely one for the most part associated with Southern soul music. The resulting record album had a heavier and more soulful sound than their before studio releases, only lacked the freewheeling heart that had driven those albums. And, in a surprising development, this lineup -- Furay, Cotton, Young, Schmit, and Grantham -- lasted for more than than one studio album. The mathematical group distinct to make their succeeding handout around one of their to the highest degree popular concert numbers pool, a Furay strain called "A Good Feeling to Know," which was likewise issued as a exclusive -- the album A Good Feelin' to Know (1972) ne'er got whatsoever higher than number 69, and the single never charted at all. By this time, even Furay had begun to mislay nerve over the band's want of commercial success, and began qualification plans to move on. The band made one renewed attempt, Brainsick Eyes, their nearly established studio album to particular date. Released late in 1973, it became their most successful LP up to that time, stretch number 38 and staying on the charts for virtually six months. Any right news circumferent its sales was softened by the going of Furay from the band upon its release, all the same -- he linked up with Chris Hillman and John David Souther to descriptor the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. Most medicine columnists were predicting Poco's likely demise, merely the group was able-bodied to extend as a quartet. Their following album, Seven-spot, released in the bound of 1974, failed to copy the succeeder of Crazy Eyes, although it was good sufficiency to restrain he fans concerned. The group was at a critical spot in their history following the clit of one more Epic album, Cantamos, which appeared in the fall of 1974 and got no higher than telephone number 76 -- it was the starting time album on which the bandmembers produced themselves, however, and offered a orthodontic braces of beautiful songs and gorgeous harmonizing, as well as virtuoso-level playing and beautiful textures, incarnate in harder-rocking tracks such as "High and Dry," which seemed to active up to all of the promise the ring had shown in 1968; and it included unusually potent songwriting contributions by both Rusty Young and Timothy B. Schmit. At this point, the group and their record label came to a parting the shipway, as Columbia's executives felt that they'd given the set every chance for succeeder across a period of nearly heptad long time, without more than than middling results despite often sterling reviews and a healthy concert interview for the isthmus. Poco gestural with ABC Records in 1975, and their first base album for the raw label, Head Over Heels (1975), surpassed the sales of any of their late Epic releases, mounting to number 48, and also generated a moderately successful undivided in "Keep on Tryin'," which reached number 50 on the Billboard chart. It was also maybe revelatory of the sensing of their aging invoke inside the industry that the single as well got to number 45 on Cashbox's listings, which are based solely on record gross sales (as opposed to Billboard's mix of gross sales and radiocommunication act) -- the group seemed able-bodied to draw fans more easily to their records than their tag could induce radio stations to playact those records. The album's performance was all the more impressive, given that Epic issued a double-LP compilation, The Very Best of Poco, just two weeks after Head Over Heels came extinct. That compilation reached number 90, which was credibly just sufficiency to price Head Over Heels a snick or two in its have graph placement, competing for the tending of the fans. Rose of Cimarron (1976) offered a gorgeous title track by Rusty Young, with a melody it was nigh impossible not to keep humming once heard, and as high a "frequent count" as anything the group had ever released -- and the song was later covered by Emmylou Harris and turned into the de facto title track of her Rocky Mountain sheep album, and was as well included on her Songs of the West compilation in the 1990s. But the Poco album only reached number 89, and their single button of the lead merely made the Top 50 in front disappearing. The album's release was complicated, as was its predecessor, by Epic's topic of some former catalog relic, this prison term a antecedently unreleased concert recording, Alive, exactly a twosome of months ahead. The group came close to ripping up at the sentence, and new member Al Garth, world Health Organization had antecedently played with Loggins & Messina, did exit the lineup midway through the class. In the spring of 1977, Poco released Red Indian Summer, which, fortunately, did moderately better than its foretell, peaking at number 57. But those and other recent releases were not the genial of numbers racket game that countenance a band to long conserve itself, demur through a lot of hard have for and extensive touring -- and regular the to the highest arcdegree enthusiastic musician, after a few eld of that pace, bath feel as though they're on a life history treadmill. 4 months after Red Indian Summer's release, it was Timothy B. Schmit's turn to leave. His going took station under more amicable circumstances, however. He was happy in the mathematical group as anyone, and had been in at that place yearner than anyone leave out Young and Grantham, and they were all having to work a forgetful as well concentrated to trade fewer records than their music merited, and in spades harder than they power feature liked afterwards a tenner, just to bring up what momentum they had -- merely he power well make stayed for the long haul. That summertime, however, lightning abruptly smitten Schmit's career from an unexpected venue. Long-ago bypast Poco cofounder Randy Meisner, wHO had been with the Eagles from the extraction of their story, had foreswear the latter grouping just as they were riding a wave of mega-platinum flagrant sales, and the kind of top-ticket, top-of-the-bill arena-scale bookings that most bands dreaming of. And just as it had happened when Meisner renounce Poco in 1969, Schmit was offered his bassist/vocalist patch in the Eagles -- and not as a leased musician, which would hold been the common approach made to a potentiality replacement member, only with a full share in a chemical grouping that was reckoning both their annual album arrant sales and their concert net income in the millions. The early members of Poco non exclusively didn't try to dissuade him, but actively bucked up Schmit to accept the offer. Grantham, world Health Organization had been in the striation longer than anyone still there demur Rusty Young, left field in January of 1978 -- he later linked Ricky Skaggs' band. Meanwhile, Poco re-formed with two British musicians, bassist/singer Charlie Harrison and drummer Steve Chapman joining Young and Cotton; Kim Bullard, a Crosby, Stills & Nash alumna, came in on keyboards in December of that year, and Poco was once over again a quintet. All of these personnel changes seemed to have done the trick, because their next album, Caption, released late in 1978, became the best-selling LP in their history, earning a gold record in the trend of rising to turn 14. The ensuant single, the ethereal "Crazy Love," became their biggest hit ever so, arrival number 17 on the pop charts (and turn one as an adult contemporary tally); and it was nearly matched by Cotton's "Warmness of the Night," one of the well-nigh beautiful songs in the group's history, which got to number 20 during the summer of 1979. Lamentable to say, the group was never able to replicate that sudden flash of success at the end of the '70s. Their adjacent album, Under the Gun (1980), was maybe besides accurate in its title, reflecting the sudden insistency they were under to re-create the tally position of Fable; Dispirited and Gray (1981) was an ambitious Civil War-based concept album that failed to catch the public's imagination; and Cowboys & Englishmen (1982) was their leak think up from MCA Records, which had taken over ABC, and showed as little inhalation as most contractual indebtedness releases. Each of their last three records performed more poorly than its predecessor, and the group's problem seemed to go deeper than a want of inspiration or time to generate expert material. A generational agitate in music took shoes in the early '80s, as a whole newfangled wave of post-punk/post-new wave bands started ascendent the market and the airwaves, and veteran soldier acts of the Apostles such as Poco -- whose audience had already been identified as "an aging draw" in one reexamination, back in 1977 -- were left in arrears. This new generation of acts was specially well midazolam in the new marketing medium of the music picture, which, with the rise of MTV, completely altered the personal manner in which new singles gained vulnerability. In the thick of this transition, and a jump to Atlantic Records, the mathematical group issued Touch Town in late 1982 -- it was superscript to at least deuce of their trinity preceding albums, h some beautiful melodies and playing, only it unwell at an anaemic number 195. In 1984, the mathematical group seemed to address backward for the low gear metre in their history as Furay and Schmit came back aboard as invitee artists for Inamorata, which scarcely made whatever shock. The grouping was on hiatus for the next five old age. And then, in 1989, came the most unexpected turn of all in their history. Furay, Messina, Young, Grantham, and Meisner, wHO had last all worked in concert in 1968, were abruptly back talk to each former and working together, and recording as Poco, and tied touring. Their comeback unmarried, "Call It Love," remove the Top 20, attended by the album Legacy, which made it to issue 40. Although the 1968 lineup didn't stay unitedly past the go, Poco was restored as a on the job band, and from that point on worked under the leadership of Young and Cotton at their cORE, coupled by Grantham for a time. Studio albums were few and far betwixt, as the changes in the music marketplace made the radical less appealing to record labels in the 1990s and beyond, merely they did release a new record, Running Horse, through their internet site, wWW.poconut.com, in 2002, and The Last Roundup followed two years later on Future Edge. George Grantham was with them until 2004, when he suffered a crippling stroke during a performance. Retention the Legend Alive (2004), released as a CD and a DVD, was a concert recording that brought Richie Furay back into the flock as a invitee artist, and Bareback at Big Sky, released in 2005, found Poco with their low unplugged live record album. Two more live recordings, Keep on Tryin' and Alive in the Heart of the Night, followed in 2006, and some other live release, The Wildwood Tapes, appeared on CD in early 2007. Poco in 2007 consisted of Rusty Young (performing an impressive array of stringed instruments, including mandolin) and Paul Cotton, with longtime bassist/singer Jack Sundrud, and drummer George Lawrence, wHO stepped into the breach when Grantham fell ill in 2004. Their set was weighted toward their eye days, in the seventies, though Young and Cotton did a few of their own book of Numbers from the early Epic Records eRA, and rescued a few worthy favourite numbers from obscurity in their set. They and Sundrud harmonized beautifully, and one year short of the group's fortieth anniversary, they could still sell out 2 shows in a single night in a major suburban northeastern market. |