This longtime Loggins and Messina fan was not fortunate enough to catch the legendary 1970s country-rock duo's summer reunion tour in person, so the arrival of Loggins & Messina Sittin' In Again made for a superb pre-holiday gift.
Here's a little background to introduce/reintroduce L&M:
In the mid-1960s, Jim Messina earned a stellar reputation as the talented teenaged recording engineer and producer (and later, bass player) behind the seminal band Buffalo Springfield. He followed that experience by forming the terrific country-rock group Poco with Springfield mate Richie Furay. After Poco's second LP release, Messina left the band to become a staff producer for Columbia Records.
In 1970, the then-21-year-old Messina encountered Kenny Loggins, a singer-songwriter from Everett, WA. Messina took the month-younger Loggins under his wing and agreed to produce his debut album. As recording progressed, the pair found that working together produced some magical music. The result, 1971's Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In, was intended to be a joint work by two solo artists. When the project was embraced by audiences, the musicians realized that their partnership, which featured stirring vocal harmonies and a Messina-led eclectic mix of breezy yet intricate country, rock, bluegrass, jazz, calypso and pop, had a lot of potential. Solo artists became, officially, a duo, and Loggins and Messina was born. Between 1971 and 1976, the pair scored a number of gold and platinum album releases (selling a total of more than 16 million records) and won devoted fans from coast to coast.
At some point during the band's run, Loggins felt a need to spread his wings. As he describes it, the "student" had learned all he could from his "mentor," so in 1976, the duo parted ways. Loggins went on to a hugely successful solo career, charting hits from the late 1970s through the early '90s. Messina produced a number of solo albums, but his career didn't catch the same sort of fire. He went on to forge his own successes as a producer and painter, and as the force behind Jim Messina's Songwriters' Performance Workshop.
Fast-forward to 2004: Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina performed together for the first time in nearly 30 years at a benefit concert. Reconnecting musically and personally turned out to be a terrific experience for both artists. Afterward, they decided to team up for a reunion tour that would allow them to do things that had eluded them during their initial partnership — to work together as true equals and to have fun. If the 2005 DVD Loggins & Messina Sittin' In Again at the Santa Barbara Bowl is any indication, the old friends succeeded on both counts.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Davis
We made Advance? Cool, and thanks.
2 - LauraH
Thanks, Natalie, for a wonderful, and honest, review. I found songs on the DVD that I'd forgotten were so fun, especially "Growin'". Both Kenny & Jimmy have just gotten better with age; perhaps it's a refined sense of harmony and true friendship. Who else could sing of geing a friend but these two.
3 - Kejo
They plain old suck