Description
Label Review.
A Good Feelin’ To Know, Crazy Eyes, Seven, Cantamos, Live, plus 5 bonus tracks.
Our Overview.
The highly influential Poco are, along with the likes of the Flying Burrito Brothers, best known for being early proponents of what would soon become recognised as country rock. Poco were originally formed by Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Rusty Young when Buffalo Springfield split in 1968, joined by George Grantham on drums and future Eagle Randy Meisner on bass. Playing their debut at LA’s legendary Troubadour in October 1968, they signed to Epic Records in 1969. When Randy Meisner left to join the newly hatched Eagles, he was replaced on bass guitar by another future Eagle bass guitarist, Timothy B. Schmit.
This set kicks off with their fourth album, ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know’, released in September 1972, by which time they had been joined by Paul Cotton on guitar and vocals. Despite being packed with strong songs and a more commercial production than their previous albums, it resulted in disappointment for the band when it became their weakest seller to date. Richie Furay in particular grew disillusioned with the band after this.
Released a year later, their fifth LP ‘Crazy Eyes’ was issued in September 1973. Recorded at RCA Victor studios in Los Angeles, it was produced by Jack Richardson, best known for his work with Alice Cooper, Bob Seger and Canada’s The Guess Who. It would be Richie Furay’s last Poco record for more than a decade, as he was already planning to jump ship to the newly formed country rock super-group, the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band with J.D. Souther and Chris Hillman. ‘Crazy Eyes’ became their best charting studio record to date.
Their seventh album, ‘Seven’, was their sixth studio record, and first without Furay. Released in April 1974, it featured the single “Faith In The Families”. Bands didn’t hang around in the 1970s, and a mere six months later Poco followed ‘Seven’ with ‘Cantamos’, Spanish for “to sing” or “we sing”, which features the single “High And Dry”.
Switching to ABC Records for the rest of the decade, Epic released a ‘best of’ collection and then a ‘Live’ album which had been recorded shortly after the ‘Cantamos’ album in November 1974, but not released until 1976. Although going into semi-retirement in 2013, Poco continue today. Already a fertile ground for a lot of talented musicians, Timothy B. Schmit would play on his final Poco record in 1977 before he was invited to join the Eagles for their ‘The Long Run’ album, and with whom he tours with until the present day.