Pioneering country-rock band Poco, led now by co-founder Rusty Young, is on the road celebrating its 50th anniversary and Young’s new solo album, “Waitin’ for the Sun,” and the group will bring the party to the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills Friday night, November 10.
The band – Young (guitars, pedal steel), Jack Sundrud (bass, vocals), Michael Webb (keyboards, guitars, accordion) and Rick Lonow (drums) – delivers Poco classics like “Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” “Rose of Cimarron,” “Crazy Love,” “Heart of the Night” and “A Good Feelin’ to Know.”
Their 2017 sets are also showcasing new songs from “Waitin’ For the Sun,” like the title track, “Gonna Let the Rain” and “My Friend,” the latter an homage to some of Young’s partners in rhyme over the decades.
Poco’s catalog includes 19 studio albums, from “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” in 1969 to 2013’s “All Fired Up,” and seven live albums, from “Deliverin'” in 1970 to “The Wildwood Sessions” in 2006, the most famous being “Legend” in 1978. Compilations? A couple of dozen.
Along with many memorable songs, stellar musicianship, and harmonies, Young has been a Poco constant from the start.
“In 1967, a young musician from Denver was invited to play steel guitar on what would become the final album by Buffalo Springfield,” reads the nutshell bio on Young’s website. (That, of course, was “Kind Woman” on “Last Time Around,” one of country-rock’s greatest albums.) “Soon after, he – along with Richie Furay, George Grantham, and Jim Messina – would form the seminal West Coast country-rock band Poco.”
(When Springfield broke up acrimoniously in summer 1968, Neil Young (no relation) went solo. Stephen Stills jammed with Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper before connecting with David Crosby and Graham Nash to form CS&N. And BS drummer Dewey Martin wondered what hit him, as he told me in 1987. Poco’s acclaimed debut album wasn’t titled “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” just for grins.)
“Over the next five decades, alongside bandmates that would also include Paul Cotton, Randy Meisner, and Timothy B. Schmit, Young became not only the musical core of the band, but also the writer and vocalist behind hits including ‘Rose of Cimarron’ and the No. 1 smash ‘Crazy Love,'” ends Rusty’s mini-bio.
That was especially true after Meisner, and later Schmitt exited Poco to join the Eagles.
What’s really crazy is that “Waitin’ For the Sun” is Rusty Young’s first solo album. Either he was too busy, or wanted to take his sweet-ass time. Whatever, like the sunrise after an all-nighter, it was worth the wait.
Young wrote all the songs, played most of the instrumental parts, and his vocals remain distinctive and strong.
He co-produced the sessions with longtime Poco bandmate Jack Sundrud at Cash Cabin, the former home studio of Johnny Cash and wife June Carter Cash, in Henderson, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. Joe Hardy (ZZ Top, Steve Earle, The Replacements) mixed and mastered the album, released on the Blu’Elan imprint on September 15.
“I learned how to write songs not only from the guys in Poco, but the people I hung out with, too,” Young said on the “Waitin’ For the Sun” Amazon order page.
“People like Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Gerry Beckley from the band America all made a big impression on me,” Young said. “As the sole writer on this record, I got to visit all kinds of different places that relate to my musical heritage and experiences. Most of all, I wanted to take people on a journey that was fun to listen to from the first note to the last.”
As fan DJ Rick noted in his five-star review on Amazon: “This is the best Poco (album) that Poco never released.”
Tickets for Poco’s November 10 Canyon Club show are $24, $28, and $34 plus applicable fees. Here’s a link. Poco fans younger than 18 have to pester a paying adult to take them. Doors open at 6 p.m. and showtime is 7 p.m., with opening sets by Chelsea Williams, Lookin for Trouble, and Calico the Band. Poco and Rusty Young are set to hit the stage at 9 p.m.
The Canyon Club is a dinner-concert venue, so with a ticket for a seat at a table, you also get to feed your face before feeding your musical soul. That also means you have to be seated by 7 and spend $25 per person on dinner.
Find the Canyon at 28912 Roadside Drive, Agoura Hills 91301. Phone 818-593-0135. Visit the website here and get directions here.
Meanwhile, anyway, bye-bye.
Santa Clarita journalist Stephen K. Peeples grew up a music, radio and records lover and jazz-rock drummer in North Miami, Florida. He landed in L.A. in summer 1968 at age 16 and saw the original “Pogo” band at the Cheetah in Venice that fall. Peeples’ first music industry gig was as an associate editor at Cash Box magazine in 1975. He went on to be the original, award-winning producer of “The Lost Lennon Tapes” radio series for Westwood One from 1988-1990. He is also a Grammy-nominated record producer (“Monterey International Pop Festival” box, Rhino/MIPF, 1992). He was a record company PR executive for Capitol Records (1977-1980), Elektra/Asylum Records (1980-1983) and Rhino Entertainment (1992-1998). He was Rhino’s first web editor (1996-1998), and then editor of Warner Music Group websites (1998-2001). In California’s Santa Clarita Valley, Peeples was the award-winning Online Editor for The Signal newspaper’s website from 2007-2011, and wrote-hosted-co-produced SCVTV’s WAVE-nominated “House Blend” local music show from 2010-2015. He is now VP/New Media Emeritus for Rare Cool Stuff Unltd. and CEO of Pet Me Happy Treats. For more stories and info, visit https://stephenkpeeples.com/. For exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews, subscribe to his YouTube channel.
Article: Country-Rock Pioneers Poco, Rusty Young at Canyon Club Nov. 10
Author: Stephen K. Peeples
Category: News & Reviews
Article Source: StephenKPeeples.com
