Poco
Deliverin'

THE REVIEW

By their third career release, Poco have already reached the time for a single live album. The band is in flux... the new bassist Tim Schmit has settled in for a while, and founding guitarist Jim Messina is on his way out, tired of touring America and more drawn to the simpler role of producer. So, it’s not really the ideal time to look for a new sound alchemist and lock themselves in the studio... instead, they resort to selecting the best recordings from concerts held the previous year (1970), agreeing to release previously unreleased tracks directly in live versions.

The album turns out excellent and sells much more than the two previous studio records, from which, by the way, it pulls out some of the main highlights. The reason is that on stage the band is gritty and determined, more captivating than in Messina's studio productions. And then the instrumental sections, as is good practice in rock, are extended and varied in an enthralling way; moreover, the guys sing well and really go for it (even within a soft rock context, or electrified country still indebted to the lessons of Gram Parsons, Stephen Stills, The Band, and other pioneers of this musical genre).

Four tracks date back to the debut album “Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” only one from the self-titled second album, the other half of the record is unreleased; to this is added only one cover, in medley form by the way.

In the concerts captured by this work, Rusty Young’s talent stands out—he doesn’t sing (yet) but he plays brilliantly; perfectly at ease even in those bluegrass excursions which, from personal experience, are very, very tough to pull off; much more so than hard rock, for example: the clean, silvery sounds are unforgiving, you can hear everything, there’s no distortion to blur and hide things, and you have to be precise and decisive, agile and powerful.

With this album the first phase of the band ends, that somewhat anonymous stage, decidedly leaning toward country. With the arrival of Paul Cotton, who brings a musical taste quite different from his bandmates, and not long after the defection of the “ordinary” Richie Furay, the real personal and pioneering phase of this excellent, exquisite, underrated band will begin.