The Legendary Jim Messina And His Band Come to the Harris Center

Jim Messina's legacy spans five decades and three acclaimed rock super groups: Loggins & Messina, Buffalo Springfield, and Poco. And he's had a vibrant solo career, plus a dizzying array of producing and engineering credits for such luminaries as The Doors, Joni Mitchell, and Herb Alpert. Performing with his band in Folsom, the concert will include songs we all know and love, from across his storied career. Get ready for "...a splendid good-timey sensibility and professionalism" (Los Angeles Times).

Jim Messina will perform with his band on Saturday, November 3, 2018, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $22-$48; Premium $58, 50% discount for Student with ID and children under 12. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 12 noon to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street. Special thanks to our event partner, Sea Escape Travel in Folsom.

"An influential figure in southern California's ... country rock community ... [Messina] lent his considerable talents as singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist, engineer, and producer to many of America's best known groups" (Guitar Player Magazine).

Jim Messina's career is nothing if not unique. Few musical résumés include membership in a band inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame; fewer still can lay claim to co-founding the seminal band that created country rock; only one artist can include all the above in addition to being one-half of the most successful duo of the 1970s. When chronicling the current commercial and critical success of artists like Keith Urban, Brooks & Dunn, and the pairing of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant for Raising Sand (the 2009 Album Of The Year), one can draw a direct line back to Jim Messina's legacy with Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and Loggins & Messina.

The songs are beloved and familiar."Your Mama Don't Dance" "Thinking of You" "You Better Think Twice" "Listen to a Country Song" "Angry Eyes" "Watching the River Run" all made the Billboard charts or were bona-fide hit singles.

A supremely talented guitarist, Jim Messina began working with the legendary Buffalo Springfield in 1966 as a recording engineer on their second album Buffalo Springfield Again. In 1967, at the request of the group and Atlantic Records founder and president Ahmet Ertegun, Messina was asked to produce the band's third and final album. Shortly thereafter, he replaced Bruce Palmer, the bass player, touring and recording with the band until the completion and release of their album Last Time Around.

When Buffalo Springfield disbanded, Messina, in December of 1968, signed a contract with Epic Records as a producer and a recording artist. Along with fellow Buffalo Springfield member Richie Furay, Poco was born. (The band was originally named "Pogo" after the famous comic strip character). The band's aptly titled debut Pickin' Up The Pieces is the only debut album ever to receive a perfect rating from Rolling Stone magazine; the landmark album laid the blueprint for a new musical genre uniting country with rock music (and in so doing, blazed the pathway for future artists like the Eagles).

A copy of the band's, self-titled second album Poco now hangs in the Country Music Hall Of Fame. After producing three albums for the band, Messina departed and signed on as an independent producer with Columbia Records.

In November of 1970, Messina opened up his living room to record a number of compositions for a promising young songwriter named Kenny Loggins. With the songs Loggins presented leaning more toward folk (a style Messina felt could resign Loggins to the "past"), Messina suggested to Columbia Records president Clive Davis that he consider letting Messina "sit in" in much the same way that jazz artists had done in the past, and that Loggins incorporate more upbeat material into his album.

Says Loggins: "Right from the beginning, Jimmy was the producer, I was the artist. I'd never made a record. I'd never put a band together. I'd never found a manager or an agent. So, Jimmy was the leader..." Leading the way as producer, arranger, vocalist, and guitarist, and contributing the signature songs "Listen To A Country Song" (subsequently also recorded by country music legend Lynn Anderson who had a #3 hit with the song in 1972) "Nobody But You," "Same Old Wine" and "Peace Of Mind" (from "Trilogy") the album Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In was released one year later in November of 1971 and an accidental duo was born.

In the next few years, a series of albums would follow in rapid order - 1972's Loggins & Messina, 1973's Full Sail, 1974's double-live On Stage, the same year's Mother Lode, 1975's cover song set So Fine and 1976's Native Sons. The Best of Friends greatest hits collection followed later that year and in 1977 another live album fittingly called Finale.

When the dust had settled, Loggins & Messina had sold sixteen million albums, become one of rock's biggest live draws, and cemented their legacy as one of the most successful recording duos ever.

Following the split, Messina recorded four critically acclaimed solo albums: 1979's sublime Latin rock with a touch of jazz album Oasis; 1981's eponymous Messina featuring guest performances by Jeff Pocaro, Joe Pocaro and Victor Feldman; 1983's One More Mile; and 1996's re-imagined retrospective of concert favorites Watching The River Run Revisited. Messina also reunited with Poco for the 1989 album entitled Legacy.

In 2004 Messina joined Loggins at a benefit at Santa Barbara's Arlington Theater and the nearly three decade gap was bridged in an instant; says Loggins: "As soon as we hit the harmonies, I was struck by the fact that I hadn't heard that sound in a long time," he says. "It hit me like the Everly Brothers hit me the first time they got back together. There was something that in thirty years I had not been able to duplicate with anyone else. There was a spark that I'd completely forgotten about. It's still there!"

That spark fueled a series of festive shows in 2005 with the duo playing their seminal songs that, says Messina "spoke to a generation, not just to a radio station." The resulting sold out nationwide tour culminated in the CD and DVD release Loggins & Messina Live - Sittin' in Again at Santa Barbara Bowl.

In 2010, Messina released both a DVD and a CD entitled Jim Messina LIVE at The Clark Center for the Performing Arts. It contains the video and audio performances of his musical body of works, those he performed with The Buffalo Springfield, Poco and Loggins and Messina, including a number of his newest songs such as "She's Gotta Rock" and "Sinners and Saints."

Messina's most recent album release, Jim Messina In The Groove with special guest Rusty Young*, was recorded live in concert at The Clark Center and The Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara. It has been released both on a 12" Vinyl LP, as well as on an 8 gig flash drive.

Now, nearly 50 years after first stepping into the studio with Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay to engineer Buffalo Springfield Again, Jim Messina is hitting the road with guitar in hand to tell the stories and sing the songs that made Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and Loggins & Messina the iconic American groups that millions know and love.

*Note: it was incorrectly noted on the Harris Center website that Rusty Young would be performing at the Harris Center with Jim Messina. The error has been corrected!

This Year Marks Eight Seasons of Great Shows. Up Close. In Folsom!

The Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College brings the community together to share in cultural experiences featuring the work of artists from throughout the region and around the world. Built and operated by the Los Rios Community College District, the $50 million, state-of-the-art regional performing arts center boasts three intimate venues with outstanding acoustics, an art gallery, a recording studio, elegant teaching spaces, plenty of safe parking and all the other amenities of a world-class performing arts venue. Each year the Center hosts over 400 events attracting more than 150,000 annually.

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