Poco
Cantamos

The Poco, in my opinion, were the number two in country rock, after the Eagles. This album from 1974, their eighth in five years(!) of career up to that point, captures them in their "classic" lineup, the best despite having progressively lost the country rock "nobility" that had founded the band. I'm referring to Randy Meisner (who left after the first album, only to co-found the Eagles a couple of years later), Jim Messina (former Buffalo Springfield, who left after the third album with Poco to also get rich in a duo with Kenny Loggins), Ritchie Furay (also former Buffalo Springfield, left after the sixth album with Poco to not get rich at all, in a vain supergroup with John David Souther and former Byrds Chris Hilman).

In the titular quartet of "Cantamos", the surviving founding members are Rusty Young (virtuoso of steel guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin and basically all the gear of a country guitarist... Californian obviously with no relation to the Canadian Neil) and George Grantham (drummer and responsible for the falsetto parts in the choruses). Those who joined later include Californian bassist and singer Tim Schmit (in since the second album, replacing Meisner... and he will pull off the same trick in 1977 with the Eagles!) and finally Paul Cotton (singer and guitarist from Chicago, on board since the fourth album after being recommended to the group by... Chicago).

The composers at work are three: Cotton with four pieces, Young with three, and Schmit with two. Cotton is the lead singer on his pieces, Schmit takes care of the rest; his timbre, famously (thanks to his ongoing career with the Eagles) high, graceful, precise, and very clean, is a delight for the ears and inevitably outshines the baritone, competent but much less special timbre of Cotton. The latter provides the electric and acoustic guitar solos, again competent but once more overshadowed, this time by Rusty’s brilliant solo work, whatever instrument he pulls from his vast arsenal.

The album opens with a dazzling gem, a country-rock masterpiece creditable to Rusty Young and titled "Sagebrush Serenade". It is divided into two parts: the first opens with the chimes of a stunning, wide acoustic arpeggio, over which Schmit’s fluted voice rests, first alone and then harmonized in an increasingly rich manner, while being traversed by the long, sinuous notes of a celestial steel guitar. After less than three minutes of paradise on earth, a joyful instrumental coda bursts in the bluegrass style, with the whirling alternation of banjos and guitars of all kinds, in the hands of the group's two soloists but especially Young, on a very tight rhythmic base full of stop&go. The brief return of the vocal part concludes the exquisite, grandiose saraband.

It is impossible to replicate at these levels, but Cotton almost manages with the excellent "Another Time Around", characterized by a driving and elegant rock'n'roll riff from his Fender, which energetically crosses paths from start to finish with his singing and then the whirl of solos both his and Young’s, the latter grappling with a Steel Guitar completely transformed compared to the dreamy timbre of "Sagebrush...", loaded with phasing, very gritty and harsh.

"High & Dry" is another great rock moment, this time due to Young's pen, sung in chorus by all four from start to finish (Schmit’s voice is still made to stand out) and again embellished by a brilliant instrumental break, where even the drummer Grantham comes to the forefront.  

Cotton is in good form on this record, and even if his musical stature is not that of an outclassed talent, he is always a pleasure to listen to as an author and performer, both in "Susannah", a languid blues that ignites (a bit) in the chorus, as in "Western Waterloo", admittedly a bit predictable, and in "One Horse Blue".

Schmit offers his share mainly with the semi-acoustic "Bitter Blue", one of those songs that starts off great with a tense and interesting verse, but then diminishes with a bland chorus. His other contribution, the whimsical "Whatever Happened to your Smile" is not much and shows his little propensity as this excellent bassist/singer for composition, supported by the five negligible solo albums he released in his career.

No big deal for him, having become a billionaire over the past thirty years and boasting an stellar curriculum of contributions as a background singer on others' albums (Steely Dan, Toto, Bob Seger, Boz Scaggs, Richard Marx and, dulcis in fundo, as a substitute for David Crosby when he was too clouded by drugs). But he never had an inflated ego, still long-haired Tim, which is why he is still and always welcomed by his former Poco companions, on stage and in front of a few hundred faithful, when during breaks from the crowded world tours of his current band he finds the opportunity to make a guest appearance with them, to sing some of the old tracks where he also played a part, possibly "Sagebrush Serenade".