February 26, 2011 - Music News

Gordon Lightfoot's longtime guitarist, Terry Clement has passed away, at the age of 63, ten days after suffering a stroke. Terry met Gordon in 1970, and joined his band in 1971. The band will never be the same. I had the opportunity to see them play together live on 5 occasions. They definitely made musical magic together.

In happier news, founding member of Poco, Rusty Young, celebrated his 66th birthday this week, as did long-time Poco guitarist, Paul Cotton, who turns 68 today. Paul overcame a heart attack in 2005. He retired from Poco last year to spend more time at home in lovely Key West, Florida, where he continues to partake in other music projects, including the occasional local gig. Rusty is in fine form and lives happily in rural Missouri. As the only remaining founding member of Poco, he has become the musical and business leader of the band, which continues to tour regularly. They are also in the process of recording new material for what will soon become their first full album of new material since 2002.

After becoming a fan of California-rock supergroup, the Eagles, my musical research lead me to discover that the sound for which the Eagles have, was initially created by Poco. In fact, Poco lays claim to being the pioneers of of country rock. Poco was founded in 1968 after members of folk-band, Buffalo Springfield, decided to part company. In 2004, I saw Poco live for the first time at the historic Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN, where they reunited with founding member of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, Richie Furay, for a full gig of music that was recorded for a DVD. This would be the first of many Poco concerts i would attend over the next 4 years. I was fortunate enough to not only see the band live over 30 times during this span, but i got the chance to become friends with members of the band. They are a great group of guys, who even in their 60s, continue to love making music, and they genuinely respect and appreciate their music fans.

Jenn