Poco - Inamorata

Inamorata

For Poco fans the early eighties were pretty much an arrid desert. Long gone were leading lights Richie Furay and Timothy B. Schmit. Drummer George Grantham (for my money the best male harmony vocalist ever to come out of the country-rock scene) had also departed for session work. Most annoyingly, The Eagles continued to make megabucks.
With the commercial and critical acclaim of "Legend" now behind them, Poco opened the decade with the lacklustre "Under The Gun". The promising Civil War themed "Blue and Gray" was followed by the lows that were "Cowboys and Englishmen" and "Ghost Town" - I for one thought that the band was no longer capable of producing the musical delights we had long come to expect from Poco.

And then I heard "Inamorata". Oh Wow.

It was as if Rusty Young and Paul Cotton had decided to call it a day and go out on a blaze of glory by bringng in all the old heroes for one last round-up. First track; "Days Gone By" - the famous five (Young, Cotton, Furay, Schmit and Grantham) are in full vocal flight and sounding - as good as, no, BETTER than anything they'd produced in their early 70's heyday. The song sets the pace for the whole album, which is beautifully produced and arranged. The vocal harmonies are especially noteworthy on such tracks as "Daylight", "Save A Corner of your Heart" and Reed Neilson's heart-tugging "This Old Flame", sung by Paul Cotton who also provides us with two of his most sensuous songs ("How Many Moons" and "Brenda X") and a great Springsteen style industrial rocker "Standing in the Fire". Rusty Young was by now the band's most prolific writer, and none of his five songs drop below the great standards set by the opening track. The boys finally did it! After 15 heroic attempts Poco at last make an album where every single track is pure aural gold. The fact that this album wasn't a smash, when your consider the dross that sold in tons when this was released (1984) infuriates but doesn't surprise me in the least; that some Poco fans can dismiss "Inamorata" as an 'inferior album' totally drives me to distraction. I absolutely love Poco, have bought everything they ever made, and can tell you - they never made a better album than this either before or (sadly) since. And if that wasn't enough the cover painting is so beautifully weird.---Mr Stephen Reid