''Poco'' is the second
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American
country rock
Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...
band
Poco
Poco was an American country rock band originally formed in 1968 after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. Guitarists Richie Furay and Jim Messina, former members of Buffalo Springfield, were joined by multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young, bassi ...
. This is the band's first album to feature
Timothy B. Schmit
Timothy Bruce Schmit (born October 30, 1947) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He has performed as the bassist and vocalist for Poco and the Eagles (band), Eagles, having replaced bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner in both cases ...
who replaced
Randy Meisner
Randall Herman Meisner (born March 8, 1946) is a retired American musician, singer, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles. Throughout his professional musical career, Meisner's main role was that of bassist and backing high-harmony vocal ...
on electric bass. The Messina-penned "You Better Think Twice" became a signature song for the band. A copy of this album hangs in the Poco exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville along with the jacket
Rusty Young wears on the back cover. The album was dedicated to
David Geffen
David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American business magnate, producer and film studio executive. He co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 199 ...
who "picked up the pieces".
Reception
In his
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
review, music critic Bruce Eder called the album "These songs represent the group's blend of country and rock at its finest and brightest, with the happy harmonies of "Hurry Up" and "Keep on Believin'" totally irresistible... The knock was "too country for rock, too rock for country," but in fact, they were just ahead of their time, a tough spot to be in the world of popular entertainment."
In his review,
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
wrote; "The most overrated underrated group in America. All of
CSNY's preciosity with none of the inspiration, all of bluegrass's ramifications with none of its roots. In short, the perfect commentary on the vacuity of competence."
Track listing
Charts
Personnel
;Poco
*
Jim Messina –
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
,
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*
Richie Furay
Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruc ...
– guitar, vocals
*
Rusty Young –
steel guitar
A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
, guitar, dobro, vocals
*
Timothy B. Schmit
Timothy Bruce Schmit (born October 30, 1947) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He has performed as the bassist and vocalist for Poco and the Eagles (band), Eagles, having replaced bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner in both cases ...
–
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
, vocals
*
George Grantham George Grantham may refer to:
* George Grantham (baseball)
* George Grantham (musician)
George Grantham (born January 20, 1947) is an American drummer and vocalist best known for his work with pioneering country rock band Poco.
Grantham and p ...
–
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
, vocals
With:
*
Bobby Doyle –
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
*
Larry Knechtel
Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles-based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon ...
– piano
*
Milt Holland
Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percu ...
–
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
Production
* Jim Messina - producer
* Terry Dunavan, Alex Kazanegras - engineer
*
Gary Burden
Gary Burden (May 23, 1933 – March 7, 2018) was an American artist specializing in the field of album covers. He is considered one of the pioneers of the concept of album cover art.
Early life
Gary Burden was born on May 23, 1933, in Cleveland, ...
- art direction, design
*
Henry Diltz
Henry Stanford Diltz (born September 6, 1938, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American folk musician and photographer who has been active since the 1960s.
Career
Among the bands Diltz played with was the Modern Folk Quartet. While a member of ...
- photography
* Morris Ovsey - cover drawing
References
{{Authority control
Poco albums
1970 albums
Albums produced by Jim Messina (musician)
Epic Records albums