James Messina (born December 5, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, singer, guitarist, recording engineer, and record producer. He was a member of the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield, a founding member of the pioneering country rock band Poco, and half of the soft rock duo Loggins and Messina with Kenny Loggins.
Early life
James Messina was born in Maywood, California, in 1947, and raised in Harlingen, Texas until he was eight. He spent much of his childhood split between his father's home in California and his mother's home in Texas.
His father was a guitarist and greatly influenced his son's musical career. Messina began playing the guitar at the age of five. He later became interested in the music of Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson.
Career
Jim Messina and His Jesters
When he was 16 years old, he recorded an LP with "His Jesters" titled The Dragsters, which was released in November 1964. One notable track was "The Jester", on which he played lead guitar; it was included on the 2003 CD Lost Legends of Surf Guitar Volume 1.
Buffalo Springfield
While with Buffalo Springfield, Messina served as a recording engineer, producer, and musician, replacing bass player Bruce Palmer on two songs from their final album, Last Time Around.
Poco
After Buffalo Springfield disbanded, Messina and Richie Furay, a founding member of Buffalo Springfield, formed Poco in 1968. Switching back from bass to guitar, 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 due to exhaustion from touring and to focus on becoming a record producer.
Loggins and Messina
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 Messina in December 1970 at Messina's home, where the two recorded several Loggins compositions in Messina's living room. Loggins, at the time, was a songwriter for ABC Dunhill and not a performing artist. Loggins had no agent, no manager, no business manager, and no prior experience as a performing artist. Messina felt Loggins needed some edge and should embrace a more modern sound.
When deciding how to produce Loggins' first solo album, Messina met with Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records. Messina proposed to Davis that he be allowed to sit in with Loggins on his first solo album in the same way jazz artists had done in the past and stated that Loggins also needed more upbeat and diverse material to help him gain appeal as a pop music artist. After reluctantly agreeing, Davis pursued the "Sitting In" concept.
With music trends moving away from folk, Messina presented Loggins with several songs that spilled over from his days with Poco and Buffalo Springfield. He felt Loggins could do both country rock and R&B styles exceptionally well, especially after hearing Loggins perform "Danny's Song."
Among the material Messina contributed was "Listen to a Country Song" (which would be a hit single for Lynn Anderson when she recorded it the following year), "Nobody But You," "Same Old Wine," and "The Trilogy," which included "Peace of Mind". He provided the rehearsal space, amps, and instruments and lent his talents as an arranger, vocalist, and guitarist. Messina worked long hours with Loggins and encouraged him to purchase an electric guitar and play it on his solo debut album.
Messina assembled "The Kenny Loggins Band" by summoning old friends drummer Merel Bregante and bassist/singer Larry Sims (both formerly of The Sunshine Company), multireedist/violinist Al Garth, multireedist Jon Clarke (performing with the Don Ellis Jazz Band), and a friend of Loggins, keyboardist Michael Omartian, who played on the album but dropped out once the touring began. However, Omartian played on the next two albums, and the ensemble was also augmented on each of their studio releases by Los Angeles-based session percussionist Milt Holland.
Though the album was initially intended to be Loggins' first solo album, the two decided that Messina's contribution was so substantial that the album was finally released as Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In, in November 1971. Messina had been reluctant to perform and tour, having begun collaborating with the sole interest of producing. Nonetheless, by the end of 1972, the group, now renamed "Loggins and Messina", had toured extensively; they would eventually sell over 20 million albums.