Loggins Messina House at Pooh Lp the Very Best of

It'southward late July of 1973 and we're driving by the Hampton Roads Coliseum northward of Norfolk, Virginia.  The sign says a concert with Loggins & Messina and Jim Croce is coming August 6th.  Our friends, Don & Linda MacLeod, are with us.  We determine to pull in and buy 4 tickets…and we go the second row!  The Coliseum was just 3 years old at the time and a beautiful venue.

Jim Croce opens the bear witness accompanied by some other singer-guitarist, Maury Muehleisen.  They are then adept.  Of course they play Croce's hits…"Operator", "You Don't Mess Around With Jim", "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" (a #one hit), and other songs from his first two albums, including "Fourth dimension In A Canteen".

It'south really absurd to hear some excellent songs from Croce'due south almost finished album.  They practice about v new songs, including  "I'll Take To Say I Love You lot In A Song", "I Got A Name" and "Working At The Car Launder Blues"…which Croce actually introduces as having the world's longest vocal title…"Steadily Depressin', Low Down Mind Messin', Working At The Car Launder Blues".

(Concert photos are by my friend, Don MacLeod, except the next three shots below are mine.  Photos enlarge with a click.)

We can tell the new album will be bully, and we're then impressed with the 2 performers that we wonder if Loggins & Messina could be as good.  (More on Jim Croce later.)

Kenny Loggins comes out with his acoustic guitar and sits down at the edge of the phase.  His voice and guitar fill up the auditorium, no worries about quality.

Jim Messina joins Kenny, and that sounds even better.  As they go into another song, the other musicians make their fashion behind them, and before long the whole band joins in.   Wow, they sound just the way a land-stone band should!

I recognized Al Garth in the band (from photos and credits on the backs of albums).  He played violin and reed instruments.  I'1000 guessing the other players that night were also session pros.

Jim Messina had been a member of Buffalo Springfield in their latter stages, and had produced for them, likewise as his group Poco.  By 1971, he was producing the first solo anthology for Kenny Loggins.

As Messina took a more active part, it was decided to beak the album as "Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina" and the championship was Sittin' In .  Best cuts include…"Danny's Song", "Nobody But You", "House at Pooh Corner", and "Heed To A Country Song".

Past their 2d album, they were definitely a duo. Loggins And Messina was released in November of 1972.  "Your Mamma Don't Dance" was a fun, uptempo hit, and other solid cuts were "Thinking Of Y'all", "Lady Of My Centre", "Aroused Optics", and "Whiskey".

At the time of the concert in 1973, they were on the rise with another striking unmarried, "My Music", and about to release their excellent anthology, Full Sail.  Besides the single, it included "A Dearest Song" (some other hit for Anne Murray, after "Danny'south Song"), "Travelin' Blues", "Watching The River Run" and "Sailing The Current of air".  I call back they were on the cover of the Rolling Stone with the title "At that place's golden in the middle of the route".

Loggins and Messina'south success continued, and three more studio albums followed, merely I recall we were lucky enough to catch Fifty&M at a great time.  The oversupply loved them.

Every bit fans left their seats and came forward for the encores, we had to motility to the back.  We didn't want my married woman, Jeannette, to get pushed against the stage, because she was eight months pregnant.  It wasn't our time to come son'southward get-go concert, nosotros had been to other concerts in contempo months, merely this was the all-time ane.

At that place was horrible tragedy for Jim Croce and Maury Meuhleisen.  The month following the concert, on September 20th, 1973, both were killed when their pilot took off in foggy darkness and flew their small plane into a tree.  Croce was only 30, and Meuhleisen (who was also a vocaliser-songwriter) was just 24.  Besides the terrible personal loss for their families, it was a big loss for music fans.

Their piece of work on the posthumously released album, I Got A Name, showed a maturing of their writing and singing.  Jim Croce and Maury Meuhleisen were certainly poised for much more than success.

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Source: https://ontherecords.net/2017/07/jim-croce-loggins-messina/