Poco

Featuring members of Buffalo Springfield and Eagles, Poco helped pioneer California's country-rock sound during the late 1960s and 1970s. The group formed in Los Angeles in 1968, with guitar players Richie Furay and Jim Messina — both former members of the folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield, which had broken up earlier that same year — recruiting steel guitarist Rusty Young, bassist Randy Meisner, and drummer George Grantham to complete the lineup. Meisner left the group in 1969 and later became a founding member of Eagles. He was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, who would also leave the band several years later to join Eagles. Despite the lineup changes, Poco remained an influential band whose music merged the rootsy sounds of country with the guitar-driven spirit of rock & roll. The group's 1969 debut, Pickin' Up the Pieces, helped jumpstart the country-rock genre, while the 1971 live album Deliverin' peaked at Number 26 on the Billboard 200. Following a number of album releases and personnel changes (including the departure of Jim Messina and the arrival of his replacement, singer/guitarist Paul Cotton), Poco scored its first hit singles with 1978's Legend, a gold-certified album that included the Number 1 adult contemporary smash "Crazy Love" and the Top 20 single "Heart of the Night." More than a decade later, Poco returned to the upper reaches of the Billboard charts with the band's seventeenth album, 1989's Legacy, which featured all five original members. "Call It Love" and "Nothin' to Hide" became crossover hits on the rock, pop, and adult contemporary charts. The group continued to tour throughout the following three decades, often documenting those tours with live albums like 2006's The Wildwood Sessions and 2019's Amsterdamed. With Rusty Young serving as the band's frontman, Poco recorded new albums like 2013's All Fired Up, too. After logging 53 years with the group, he suffered a fatal heart attack in April 2021 and passed away at 75 years old, leaving Poco without any original members. Paul Cotton passed away several months later, dying at age 78 on August 1, 2021.