An ethical/procedural question: Should an ex-roadie/guitar tech be allowed to review his former boss in the local paper of record? I am anything but a disgruntled former employee of the artist Jim Messina, and have a great memory of his hiring me back in the ‘90s for a short string of gigs down south. He even let me sit in as the appointed “king of the country bass” on one of my favorite songs of all time, “Kind Woman.”
But that’s just one Santa Barbaran’s tale linked to Messina’s long and locally active stint in town. He touched many people while here, musicians and normal, well-balanced citizens alike, including tapping some of the city’s finer musicians — e.g. Jeff Elliott, Tony Moreno, Craig Thomas, Jim Studer, Dom Camardella, Randy Tico, and others I’m forgetting — for his Latin-tinged band Sunshower. He posed, barefoot, in front of Montecito’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel church for the cover of his Boz Scaggs–ish album Oasis, from 1979. Messina ran his Goldmine studio in Carpinteria, hosted songwriter workshops there and at Oscar’s and SOhO, and had other local ties.
Although he has called Nashville home for a decade now, there is a strong homecoming vibe when Messina plays in town, as he did at the Lobero Theatre last week. At 78, Messina appears in fine form, musically, with his clear and ever so slightly twanged and nasal voice in check and on top of his signature country- and jazz-spiced guitar style, warmly familiar to the ear.
Of course, as reflected in his two-set show, Messina as solo artist is only a small part of his bigger story, compared to his associations as producer-turned-partner in Loggins and Messina, and producer-turned-adjunct member of Buffalo Springfield. Another significant chapter in the Messina story is the country rock sensation Poco — whose Richie Furay was the quirky genius behind “Kind Woman,” replete with its odd metric system design.
At the Lobero, the aforementioned Messina career and musical trajectory was told in song and with scattered anecdotes along the way. One of the most interesting tales from his illustrious past concerned the producing gig he got as a very young man, through Atlantic Records head Ahmet Ertegun, to produce soon-to-be-mythic Buffalo Springfield.
What he looked forward to as a chance to work with “the cats” turned into an odious task of “herding cats,” according to Messina, and at an MIA session in New York City he ended up using the open time to sing and work with session musicians on his own song. Voila, the assigned producer becomes an adjunct band member and cameo man, and his long career in the spotlight begins.
The liberal number of Loggins and Messina tunes on this night at the Lobero managed to convey the diversity of that popular act, from the pithy crowd pleasers “Mama Don’t Dance” and “You Need a Man” to the ambitious micro-suites, almost with a progressive pop attitude, of “Trilogy: Lovin’ Me — To Make a Woman Feel Wanted — Peace of Mind” and “Angry Eyes.” Messina’s sharp band of mates at present, including in-demand drummer Jack Bruno (who has played with Elton John and Peter Frampton) and bouncy multi-instrumental utility man Steve Nieves, had no trouble navigating the varied turf of any musical challenge thrown its way.
After the concert, Messina returned to the stage for a short Q&A klatch with members of the audience who stuck around, talking about the old days. He spoke as an ex-Santa Barbaran and, more generally, as a seasoned member of the ‘70s “Yacht Rock” scene, who brings to his live shows a lived-in sense of how the strains of country, pop, and R&B — with Latin touches on the side.
He’s been there, done that, and still doing it, at a high level. Apparently, Messina is part of the club of veteran pop artists holding the opinion that retirement is for sissies.
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