Poco- Cantamos

Cantomos

On Cantamos, Poco shows that they did indeed have life after the departure of founder Richie Furay. Cantamos is significant in the history of Poco in that it signals the arrival of Rusty Young as a songwriter as he does an excellent job of filling the songwriting gap left by Furay. The strength of the new material by Young in conjunction with the contributions of Paul Cotton and Tim Schmit result in the strongest song set since the classic "A Good Feelin' to Know" album.

Cantamos provides a vehicle for Poco to show the full range of their talents. Cotton does what he does best, delivering rockers like "Western Waterloo" and "One Horse Blue." Schmit's "What Ever Happened to Your Smile" falls right in line with the relatively laid back acoustic tunes that he specializes in. But it is the great Rusty Young who provides the highlights on Cantamos. The album opens and closes with Young classics "Sagebrush Serenade" and "All the Ways" and his "High and Dry" provides both the literal and figurative centerpiece. "Sagebrush" and "High and Dry" also provide an opportunity for Young to blow us away with his superhuman skills on the pedal steel guitar.

Cantamos has a little bit of everything for Poco fans - great harmonies, lots of energy, and great guitar and pedal steel work. Most importantly, it offers us a peak at things to come; Grantham, Cotton, Schmit and Young were not finished with creating some great music and Poco was ready to carry on a great tradition and were still very much at home on the throne as the kings of country-rock.