Poco was one of my favorite bands growing up. Sadly I just learned that two of its driving members passed away, back in 2021 — Paul Cotton (far right) and the band’s soul, Rusty Young (second from right).
By luck, Marlene and I had the pleasure of seeing Rusty sing and perform his famed steel guitar across the lake five years ago at the Bigfork’s Crown Guitar Festival.
While Poco never reached the commercial fame commensurate with their talent, they were considered very influential in the early “Eagle-ish” country-rock genre. Indeed, Timothy B. Schmidt (far left) went on join the Eagles.
I came across this nice tribute recording from Ritchie Furay (second from left, above), Poco’s original founder: