The founding father of country rock and the iconic band of smooth jams together for the first time! Come groove at the oasis with hits like, "Whatcha Gonna Do," "Thinking of You," "Cool Love," "Watching the River Run," "Love Will Find a Way," "Your Mama Don't Dance," "A Place in the Sun," "Angry Eyes," "I Want You Tonight," "Peace of Mind," and more!
About Pablo Cruise
In 1975 Pablo Cruise released its first A&M album simply entitled Pablo Cruise. The album cover was shot in the tropical gardens of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and it featured a huge gorilla standing front and center. The band, David Jenkins (guitars, vocals), Cory Lerios (keyboards, vocals), Bud Cockerel (bass, vocals), and Steve Price (drums, percussion) were nowhere in sight. At that point, there was a bit of a mystique surrounding Pablo Cruise and when asked what Pablo Cruise meant, the well-rehearsed answer went something like this: “Pablo” represents an honest, real, down-to-earth individual, and “Cruise” depicts his fun-loving, easy-going attitude towards life. In essence, that’s what Pablo Cruise music is all about. Honest, real down-to-earth vocals, accompanied by fun yet elegant, infectious grooves. To hear Pablo Cruise on a record is one thing, but to experience the band live is an exhilarating event!
From 1975 to 1985 the band toured the United States, Canada, and Japan extensively, welcoming fans to “Climb Aboard The Good Ship Pablo Cruise.” Reaching the top 10 with mega hits like “Whatcha Gonna Do When She Says Goodbye,” “Love Will Find A Way,” and several other top 20 hits, the band went on to sell several million albums and singles collectively and established themselves as well respected writers and performers within the industry. They appeared on numerous TV shows, including Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, The Merv Griffin Show, The Dinah Shore Hour, and in 1979 they broke Elvis Presley’s attendance record at the Sahara Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada, becoming the first rock band to play a casino showroom. They also became the first rock band to grace the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, but by 1985 after completing several national tours and releasing 7 studio albums in all, the band decided to take a hiatus... one that lasted nearly 20 years.
Fast forward 20 years... In 2005 a reunited Pablo Cruise picked up where they left off and today the band performs all over the U.S. and Canada and they’re enjoying it more than ever. Since getting back together, they have released two live CDs and a DVD all through Sony Music documenting their exceptional live shows. “One of the great things about playing shows after all these years is that the core band, David, Steve and myself are still here and lovin’ it," says Cory, "Going out and playing shows these days gives us the opportunity to not only pay tribute to our timeless repertoire, it gives us a chance to see old friends and fans from back in the day as well as gaining a whole new audience!” Today Pablo Cruise is bringing more energy and excitement to the stage than ever before and with the addition of Larry Antonino and Robbie Wyckoff, the band has never sounded better. If you get an opportunity to see Pablo Cruise live, don’t pass it up. "IT’S GOOD TO BE LIVE.”
About Jim Messina
Few musical artists' résumés list membership in a band inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; fewer still can lay claim to being a founding member of the seminal band credited with creating Country Rock; and only one artist can include all the above in addition to being one-half of the most successful duos of the 1970s.
A supremely talented guitarist, Jim Messina began working with the legendary band 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 up until the completion and release of their album Last Time Around.
In 1968, when Buffalo Springfield disbanded, Messina signed a contract with Epic Records as a producer and a recording artist. Along with fellow Buffalo Springfield member Richie Furay, he formed Poco (originally named “Pogo” after the famous comic strip character). The band’s aptly titled 1969 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 the then-new musical genre uniting country with rock music and it blazed the pathway for future multi-million selling artists like the Eagles.
On the band’s, self-titled second album, Poco (also released in 1969), Messina both produced and penned the band’s first hit single "You Better Think Twice” which has endured as one of the group’s signature songs. A copy of the Poco album now hangs in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. After producing three albums for the band, Pickin’ Up The Pieces, Poco, and Deliverin’ (recorded live in 1970 and released in 1971) - 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 with Loggins, 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 reunited with Poco for the 1989 album Legacy, and established the Songwriters’ Performance Workshop whose purpose, explains Messina, “is to empower the amateur to let go of the fear and embrace the joy of writing and performing their original music.”
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. Messina also excavated, remastered, and released a single disc collection of the original master analog recordings that he had produced and mixed for the duo during their tenure at Columbia Records entitled The Best: Sittin' in Again.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Messina’s next musical journey found him releasing the Latin-tinged EP Under a Mojito Moon: Part 1 in 2009 containing new Messina originals recorded only on his Flamenco guitar with sounds reminiscent of Spain and Cuba. Most recently, Messina has released two live albums. In 2010 he released both a DVD and 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” the size of a credit card and is entitled Jim Messina “Access All’ Music/Video/Data, and can be used for future downloads and discounts. Because the vinyl LP can only hold 71 minutes of recorded music, it only contains the concert set and not the encore. However, since the “Flash Drive” is 8 gigs, it holds the entire 101-minute concert and encore. In addition, the Flash Drive contains a 27-minute video encore (You Need a Man and Your Mama Don’t Dance), the album’s artwork, the original set list (that was edited down), and the song lyrics.
The album LP Vinyl and the “Digital Flash Drive” contain a number of new songs, many of which Jim didn’t have room for on his previous “LIVE” album. Since Rusty Young is Jim’s special guest at this concert evening, Jim wanted to include Rusty on the songs that they recorded together while working on the Buffalo Springfield and Poco projects. Songs like; Child’s Claim to Fame, Kind Woman, You Better Think Twice, and a few more surprises to boot! 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, iconic American groups. Concludes Messina: "The road most traveled in my innocence was with this band of poets, and is the same road that "Twists and Turns" as I journey along my musical road of life. For 'I ride with "Sinners" and I sing with "Saints" and I do what I can to avoid what I cain’t, I’ll pass on the judgment, now you make the call, I’m a playin’ my hand. Oh... the way the cards fall.'"
