Pickin' up the Pieces

Performer: Poco
Artist: Randy Meisner
Engineer: Terry Donovan
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Poco: Jim Messina (vocals, electric guitar, guitar); Richie Furay (vocals, 12-string guitar); George Grantham (vocals, drums); Rusty Young (dobro, pedal steel guitar). Additional personnel includes: Randy Meisner (bass, background vocals). Reissue producer: Bob Irwin. PICKIN' UP THE PIECES is the bridge between early country-rock hybrids and the more commercially successful sound of the Eagles and their mellow ilk. Formed by ex-Buffalo Springfielders Richie Furay and Jim Messina with steel guitarist Rusty Young and drummer George Grantham, Poco didn't have the ego squabbles and differing artistic visions that sank Springfield or the Byrds. As a result, PICKIN' UP THE PIECES is a far more cohesive and self-assured blend of folk, country, bluegrass, Beatlesque pop, and rock than those more explosive bands could ever manage. Furay is in strict control here, writing or co-writing every song, except for Young's acid-bluegrass instrumental "Grand Junction," and taking a good chunk of the vocals. The country feel is more implicit than on later albums, though "Nobody's Fool" and "Consequently, So Long" sound as much like Crosby Stills and Nash as they do Gram Parsons.

Poco was part of the first wave of West Coast country-rock bands, emerging from the ashes of the seminal Buffalo Springfield and initially built around Springfield's singer/guitarist Richie Furay and producer/sessionman Randy Meisner. They combined the harmony-laden folk-rock sound of the '60s with a country twang (mostly courtesy of pedal steel guitarist Rusty Young) and made a few noted country-rock albums in the early '70s before their sound turned slicker and poppier later in the decade.

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