DVD Review-Loggins & Messina-Stittin' in Again

Sittin' in Again

Almost 30 years after their 1976 breakup, the hugely successful duo of Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina took their hit-making magic on the road once again in 2005. When they first came together, Loggins was an acclaimed songwriter and Messina a former member of both Buffalo Springfield and Poco. Live finds these two consummate musicians revisiting the music that made them world famous with the passion and energy that have inspired fans for decades. This DVD captures them in front of their hometown audience in Santa Barbara.

The liner notes accompanying Sittin' in Again at Santa Barbara Bowl rank Kenny Loggins & Jimmy Messina among the great pop music duos of all time, including the Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel. That's a serious stretch. Still, there's no denying that back in the day, Loggins & Messina were responsible for a fair share of memorable tunes and commercial hits--and judging from this 2005 concert, recorded nearly thirty years after the pair called it quits, their music has readily stood the test of time. They originally hooked up when Loggins, who was looking for a record deal, found both a producer and a partner in guitarist-singer Messina, a former member of the Buffalo Springfield and Poco; the hits ("Your Mama Don't Dance," "A Love Song," "Danny's Song,"" "House at Pooh Corner") started happening soon thereafter. It was Loggins, not the man he once called his "mentor," who enjoyed the more conspicuously successful solo career after they parted ways in 1976. But while none of his post-Loggins & Messina material is performed here, "Celebrate Me Home" would have been a natural, as this 20-song, two-hour concert has the feel of a joyous family reunion, with the pair's hometown audience very much part of the proceedings. Sure, everyone's hair is shorter and grayer these days (both frontmen were 57 at the time of this recording), and the vibe is a good deal more relaxed (for contrast, check out the breakneck, adrenaline-fueled versions of some of these same tunes from a 1973 appearance on TV's The Midnight Special). But that's precisely what this mellow night in a mellow town called for, and the Loggins & Messina band's country lilt, replete with fiddle, mandolin, and acoustic guitars, flows as freely as the breeze-blown clouds projected on the screen behind them. Clearly, a splendid time was had by all.

Loggins and Messina-Sittin' In Again

Sittin' In Again

These guys are just great songwriters, singers and players. Their talents just blend together so well, and on this CD it comes through better than ever. The band is tight, the vocals are right on, even after all these years. The way the songs are presented shows how much these guys like playing them. You can hear how much they are enjoying playing together again, it seems almost as much as the audience. A real good live performance from a classic rock band that can play any style from "Your Mama Don't Dance" to "Same Old Wine" and "Vahevala."

This is somewhat softrock and country rock kind of music, but I have always like these guys all way back to the eighties. Kenny Loggins just has such a perfect voice for folk music ("A Love Song" "House at Pooh Corner") and Jimmy Messina adds his unique country jazz touch. They were willing to experiment with different kinds of music and always have a tight band with them. The songs "Same Old Wine" "Changes" "Vahevala" and "Angry Eyes" are my favorites on the CD. Want to listen to music that reminds you of a warm summer night with a cold one in your hand, this is the one. 4 stars with something for almost everyone.

This CD is one of the results of that tour, as was the DVD, {a poster, was the only Loggins & Messina product, available for purchase at the 2005 concert.}

With: "Watching The River Run", "Peace Of Mind", "Your Mama Don't Dance", "Changes" "Angry Eyes", "Danny's Song" & "Nobody But You" included here, you DO have an updated Greatest Hits package, performed by {Still} two great voices, backed by an excellent supporting band. What you DON'T have is the rest of the concert. Without: "Be Free" {for many in attendance, the highlight of the entire show!} and the rest of the missing songs, this CD doesn't capture the good ol' timey feelin' of Loggins & Messina.

As it is true, that a double CD set, will not sell as many copies as a single disc package, we at least, have the answer to the question of just why: "Sittin' In Again" was shortchanged for CD release. This CD, is quite simply unfair to the fans of: Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina. And the addition of the nearly new tune: "Same Old Wine" that will make you wonder, just what the new material {no new material was produced for this reunion} would have been like.

But of course, there is the DVD of this concert, and if you want to hear and see the rest of the show, now you can do so {at a small additional cost!)

Kenny Loggins

Kenny Loggins

Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for soft rock music beginning during the 1970s, and later for writing and performing for movie soundtracks in the 1980s. Originally a part of the duo Loggins and Messina, he became a solo artist and has written songs for other artists.
Loggins (born in Everett, Washington) is the youngest of three brothers. His mother was Lina (nee Massie), a homemaker, and his father, Robert George Loggins, was a salesman. They lived in Detroit and Seattle before settling in Alhambra, California. Loggins attended San Gabriel Mission High School, graduating in 1966. He formed a band called the Second Helping, that released three singles during 1968 and 1969 on Viva Records. Greg Shaw described the efforts as "excellent punky folk-pop records" that were written by Loggins who was likely to be the bandleader and singer as well; Shaw included "Let Me In" on both Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 2 and the Pebbles, Volume 9 CD. Loggins had a short gig playing guitar for the "The New Improved" Electric Prunes in 1969 before writing four songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, which were included in their Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy album. During his early twenties, he was part of the band Gator Creek with Mike Deasy. An early version of "Danny's Song" (later recorded by Loggins and Messina) was included in a record on Mercury Records.

Jim Messina, formerly of Poco and Buffalo Springfield, was working as an independent record producer for Columbia Records in 1970 when he was introduced to Kenny Loggins, then a little-known singer/songwriter who was signed to ABC-Dunhill.

The two recorded a number of Loggins' compositions in Messina's home living room. When Columbia signed Loggins to a six-album contract (with the assistance of Messina), recording began in earnest for Loggins' debut album, with Messina as producer. Messina originally intended to lend his name to the Loggins project only to help introduce the unknown Loggins to Messina's well-established Buffalo Springfield and Poco audiences. But by the time the album was completed, Messina had contributed so much to the album - in terms of songwriting, arrangement, instrumentation, and vocals - that an "accidental" duo was born. Thus, the full name of their first album was Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In.

Although the album went unnoticed by radio upon release, it eventually found success by autumn 1972, particularly on college campuses where the pair toured heavily. Loggins' and Messina's harmonies meshed so well that what was begun as a one-off album became an entity unto itself. Audiences regarded the pair as a genuine duo rather than as a solo act with a well-known producer. Instead of continuing to produce Loggins as a sole performer, they decided to record as a duo – Loggins & Messina.

"When our first album, 'Sittin' In', came out, we started receiving a lot of excitement about the music and good sales," Messina recalled in 2005. "We had a choice. It was either I now go on and continue to produce him and we do the solo career or we stay together and let this work. For me, I did not desire to go back out on the road. I had had enough of that, and I wanted to produce records. But Clive Davis (then president of the record company) intervened and said, 'You know, I think you'd be making a mistake if you guys didn't take this opportunity. Things like this only happen once in a lifetime. It may merit you sleeping on it overnight and making a decision that will be in your best interest.' He was absolutely correct. Kenny made the decision as well. It delayed his solo career, but it gave him an opportunity, I think, to have one."

Over the next four years they produced five more albums of original material in the studio, plus one album of covers of other artists' material, and two live albums. They sold 16 million records and were the most successful duo of the early 1970s, surpassed later in the decade only by Hall & Oates.Their work was covered by other artists, such as Lynn Anderson, who recorded "Listen to a Country Song," which was released in 1972 and reaching No. 3 on the charts, and, perhaps most notably, Anne Murray, who reached the U.S. top ten with "Danny's Song" in early 1973 and again with "A Love Song" the following year. A greatest-hits album, The Best of Friends, would be released a year after the duo had separated. The later studio albums often found both Loggins and Messina more as two solo artists sharing the same record rather than as a genuine partnership. As both Loggins and Messina noted in 2005, their collaboration eventually became more a competition - a frequent, almost-inevitable dynamic of show business duos.

The pair had by early 1976 quietly but amicably parted to pursue solo careers, following the release of Native Sons.

Website
HTTP://www.kennyloggins.com

Loggins and Messina -Sittin' In

Sittin' In

Jimmy Messina was a recording engineer and producer for the Buffalo Springfield. When their bass player, Bruce Palmer was arrested for drug possession and deported (twice) Jim Messina stepped in to play bass as a permanent member of the group. Neil Young was also threatening to, and eventually did, leave the group and Messina was also an accomplished electric and acoustic guitar player, so his requirements in the band were often stretched. Eventually the group, comprised of all 5 type-A personalities folded for good on completion of the 3rd and last album, Stills and Young moved on to their super-group and solo careers, and Richie Furay and Jim Messina went on to form Poco. Poco itself was a band of type-A's including Rusty Young and future Eagle, Randy Meisner. Again after 3 albums there was a group shake-up and Jim abandoned the group (as well as others). Once again a producer and engineer, Jim came across a talented young songwriter, Kenny Loggins, trying to become a performer. They began recording in Messina's living room and with Jimmy actually "sitting in" but what began as a producer assisting a new artist in releasing a debut album, turned into the launching of a new group:
Loggins & Messina.

SITTIN IN was not an instant commercial success but over the next year '71-'72, us college kids (and the more adventurous high schoolers) got our hands on it through word of mouth and by L&M engaging in a lot of campus touring. The personnel line up which Jimmy assembled, originally for Loggins studio and touring efforts, were some of the best unknown talent he could find. These musicians would propel Loggins & Messina through all of three critically praised albums and through most of three more studio and one live album. SITTIN IN is the beginnings of another super-group story which recently (2005) toured again to sell-out crowds.

This album is a powerhouse of simple yet complex, acoustic yet electric, country-folk yet rock with a splash of jazz, lyrical yet instrumental-jam, songs and ballads. SITTIN IN, like the follow-up LOGGINS & MESSINA, and FULL SAIL after that, have no clunkers, no weak tracks, no filler, no poor efforts. Every song gives us 100% of pure unadulterated talent and hours of listening pleasure. If you like gentle acoustic love songs, and post-psychedelic lead-exchanging music jam sessions, and thoughtful introspective lyrics, and grass-roots feel-good music, and even a little protest-music, then this album is for you. Ditto for the two follow-on albums. SITTIN IN was a pioneer in the early 70's period as a pioneer of the burgeoning progressive rock, album oriented rock, and all-encompassing classic rock genres. Don't miss this one!
Undoubtedly "Sittin' In" was one of the seminal albums for the singer-songwriter genre of the 1970s, and was also highly typical (and yet influential) of the growing California sound. Kenny Loggins's pairing with Jim Messina was one of those magical happenstances you look back on years later with wonder, like Crosby & Nash inviting Stills over one afternoon.

Although the achingly beautiful "Danny's Song" (with which Anne Murray had a big hit later) is worth the entire purchase price of the CD, there are other standouts as well, including the popular "House at Pooh Corner," "Back to Georgia," and the trilogy of "Lovin' Me," "To Make a Woman Feel Wanted," and "Peace of Mind."

Though their other albums together may not have been as strong, "Sittin' In" is a clear and enjoyable demonstration of the potential they had and the songwriting gifts they both possessed

Loggins and Messina- Full Sail

Full Sail

"Full Sail", the third album by Loggins and Messina, is my second favorite by this talented duo, behind only their fourth album, "Mother Lode". On the first two albums they played primarily light pop music, with enticing bits of country and calypso thrown in to the mix to keep it interesting. On "Full Sail" they begin to stretch out with lengthier instrumental passages that have hints of country-jazz fusion. They would carry this to it's furthest extreme on the next album, "Mother Lode", before retreating back to a more pop sound on their final albums. "Full Sail" features probably the best song of their career, "Watching The River Run", as well as other noteworthy songs such as "You Need A Man/Coming To You" and "Didn't I Know You When". Unfortunately their artistic growth and adventurousness seemed to lead to a decline in their commercial fortunes, so they did not continue to pursue the interesting directions their music had been heading past the fourth album. FULL SAIL, as with the first two L&M albums, deals out a terrific hand of cross-genre styles, island music that would make Jimmy Buffett blush, intense instrumental jams that stuck pistols into the back of Traffic, and endearing ballads to rival Jim Croce at his own game in his own year. The album popped up even higher than LOGGINS & MESSINA and peaked on the charts in the top 10. Again, our college radio stations and FM giants had a ton of meat to eat off of. FULL SAIL even sported 1950's retro pop for the adult contemporary listener of the day. Not that that was a bad thing, nothing L&M penned now was "bad" and even their weakest songwriting put to test their contemporaries of the day. For a third time, Loggins & Messina showed themselves up with a whole album that could stand the test of time and today it is as entertaining and involving as the day it hit the streets. Kenny and Jimmy had full careers ahead of them, they are still active now and have a trail of hits and money-makers behind them both together and alone. They recently reunited (2005) for sellout crowds, and everyone knows that Kenny was the hit-man of the 80's and 90's, scoring top singles and movie soundtracks. Jimmy has been behind so many legends of the 80's and 90's you would be surprised to read about it all. None the less, after this album they would garner some positive critical and commercial praise for an exemplary live album and three more solid studio efforts; but this album, FULL SAIL is a third send up in a trilogy of 5-star perfect works of art. No one should miss adding these to their collection and depending on your own leanings, this one might be the best of three. Each of the first three albums had a slight slant in one slight different direction but the overall arc of the music is one stupendous body of work. LOGGINS & MESSINA was grounded on terra firma, FULL SAIL is light and breezy, and SITTIN IN held to a place somewhere in between. For my money, on a sunny day, if you are anywhere near water, or just want to be, pop this one into the car stereo and just cruise.

Loggins & Messina -Motherlode

Motherlode

This music is without doubt one of the best produced albums of all time. It really is an incredible masterpiece from Loggins and Messina. It is my first album of theirs that I bought and other music of theirs falls dismally flat compared to this beautiful set of songs. I was so excited to see it listed on cd and could not wait for it to arrive when I ordered it a while back now.
Revisiting it brings back all those wonderful 70's memories and I've fallen in love with the music all over again. In fact I've just re-ordered the remastered version about twenty minutes ago and wonder how it could possibly be improved in any way. I'm really thrilled to know it's on it's way to me.
I get chills at the opening notes of the joyous Growin' knowing that the music following will envelop me into a true feeling experience and carry me away on a most exciting musical journey. The musicianship is truely impeccable and is a hallmark of Californian/west coast music from that era. Country rock never sounded this good. I could not recommend this music highly enough. The only way to know is to buy your own copy, sit quietly with headphones and be prepared to be transported into an emotional experience like no other.

Native Son- Loggins & Messina

Over the course of their 5 years together, Loggins and Messina released 5 albums of original studio material. The last of these, "Native Sons", was by far the worst. And as much as I loved the first four, listening to this lackluster album makes me think it really was time for these guys to go their separate ways. Though it's not easy to say exactly what is wrong with this album, there are some clear differences from the earlier material. For one thing, there are some personnel changes. Long time collaborators Al Garth (violin, horns) and Michael Omartian (keyboards) are gone. The resulting overall sound is much more lite-rock/pop. The country influences have been downplayed, the band seldom jams, the playing is almost never "hot", and Jimmy Messina's excellent guitar work is barely in evidence. Instead, we get more flute, less sax, more string orchestration. The vocal sound leans more heavily on hired-gun harmonizers. In fact, Messina doesn't sing at all on most of Loggins' songs. To me, it seems that the songwriting doesn't hold up as well, either, although perhaps it is the arrangements that make me feel this way, rather than the songs themselves. A lot of the changes in the sound would later be further amplified on Kenny Loggins' early solo albums, so if you like those a lot you'll probably like this album more than I do.