Jim Messina (musician)

Jim Messina (born James Melvin Messina, December 5, 1947, Maywood, California) was a member of Buffalo Springfield, then an original member of the country rock band Poco, before he joined with Kenny Loggins to form the soft rock duo, Loggins and Messina.

Career

While with Buffalo Springfield, he served as a recording engineer, producer, and eventually as a bass player (he replaced Bruce Palmer) on their last album.

Messina and Richie Furay, another Buffalo Springfield member, formed Poco after Buffalo Springfield broke up. Messina played lead guitar and supplied vocals and some songwriting to the band. After recording two studio albums and one live album, he left Poco.

After Poco, Messina signed a contract with Columbia Records, as an independent producer. Messina was first introduced to the idea of producing Kenny Loggins in the summer of 1970 while still performing on the road with Poco. Loggins first met with Messina in December 1970 at Messina's home, where the two recorded a number of Loggins' compositions in Messina's living room. Loggins, at the time, was a songwriter for ABC Dunhill and not a performing artist. The songs he presented for his album leaned more toward being a folk artist, a style Messina felt might anchor Loggins in a past trend as opposed to being a part of a future trend.

In the course of deciding how to produce Loggins' first solo album, Messina met with Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records. Given Loggins had no...
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