Seattle Theatre Group (STG) presents Loggins & Messina, with special guest Gabe Dixon Band, on November 2, 2009 at 7:30pm at Benaroya Hall.
Over 35 years since first Sittin' In together, Kenny Loggins and Jimmy Messina are again side-by-side in Loggins' living room. The two men are in the Early Stages of putting together a new nationwide tour that picks up where 2005's hugely successful "Sittin' In Again" reunion tour left off.
All this shared activity marks the unexpected and unlikely return of the most successful duo of the early Seventies - a group whose most enduring songs were so well crafted that they have never really gone away. At the same time, Loggins & Messina find themselves rebuilding the personal connection that was lost long ago.
"This is less about a musical reunion and more about reuniting a relationship that's become more of a friendship than ever before," says Jimmy Messina, "It's funny how our separate journeys have somehow brought us back around, into each others lives again," Kenny Loggins says.
Until a series of low-key benefit performance together in the middle of this decade, there had been precious little contact between the two men. "It wasn't that we were enemies," Loggins says, "We'd just let our friendship atrophy, the way friends sometimes do over the years." When Jimmy joined Kenny at a benefit at Santa Barbara's Arlington Theater in 2004, Loggins noticed something else: "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!"
"You know I spent years trying to leave Loggins and Messina behind me," Loggins jokes to Messina."I guess being able to reconnect now is somehow proof that I did." Today, Messina too, seems struck by the harmonic convergence and of the sound of their original band -- Al Garth, Jon Clark, Michael Omartian, Merle Brigante, and Milt Holland. "All the forces came together to create one hell of a band," Loggins recalls. "We were very lucky."
As for hitting the road again, both men want to celebrate the past while leaving the future an open and intriguing question.In fact, Messina recently joined Loggins to duet on the old Beatles tune "Two of Us" on Loggins' recent children's CD, All Join In. This marks the first time Jimmy and Kenny have sung together on a record in over 30 years! "I'm proud of this collaboration," says Loggins. "And the best news is, we had fun doing it, so who knows what tomorrow may bring?"
For both men the new tour represents what Jimmy Messina calls "a great and meaningful opportunity." Kenny Loggins adds "I'm especially looking forward to the L&M audiences. I love to see the good old friends from the 70's, and the ones we made in '05 too, as well as the friends I've picked up as a soloist along the way. This reunion proves to me that anything is possible. Now we get to see where it goes from here."
Tickets: $65.00 not including applicable fees. Tickets are available Saturday, August 8th at 10:00am at all Ticketmaster locations, charge by phone 800-745-3000, online at www.ticketmaster.com, or the Benaroya Hall box office. More info can be found at STGPresents.org.
Seattle Theatre Group is the 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization that operates the historic Paramount and Moore Theatres in Seattle, Washington. Our mission is to make diverse performing arts and education an integral part of our region's cultural identity while keeping these two landmark venues alive and vibrant. STG presents a range of performances from Broadway, off-Broadway, dance and jazz to comedy, concerts of all genres, speakers and family shows - at both historic theatres in Seattle and venues throughout the Puget Sound and Portland, Oregon.
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