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Music

Good intentions reunite duo

Loggins & Messina go back on the road after a joint charity appearance reminds them how much they like to play together.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published September 29, 2005

	[Publicity photo
	Kenny Loggins, left, and Jim Messina have been touring together since June. Expect to hear such hits as Your Mama Don’t Dance when they perform at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Friday.

Dueling charity events led to the reunion of one of the most popular bands of the 1970s.

Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina both live in Santa Barbara, Calif., but they had scarcely performed together since their split nearly 30 years ago.

Last fall, they coincidentally scheduled concerts to benefit local organizations on the same day.

"I didn't want my event to take away from his charity," Messina said in a phone interview. "We bought something like $3,000 worth of tickets for his event and I offered to play a few songs with him if he wanted."

Messina rushed across town from his event to his old friend's. Loggins & Messina played onstage and realized they missed each other and that their fans missed them.

"I think that was very good for both of us," Messina said. "I think Kenny got to see how people reacted to us, and also he could hear, as could I, a sound that we hadn't heard in 30 years."

They've been touring since June, and they'll appear at Ruth Eckerd Hall Friday night, near the very end of the tour.

"It's been great from the start, but I'm realizing that the music has just gotten tighter the more we play together," Messina said.

Loggins and Messina pack the show with hits, such as House at Pooh Corner, My Music, Your Mama Don't Dance and Danny's Song. They're on the road to play, not to promote new songs.

"Kenny and I, and I'm very glad we did this, decided that if we were going to work together we weren't going to complicate it by letting management push us into putting out a new record," Messina said.

There actually is a new Loggins & Messina CD, though. Sittin' In Again is a collection of the best-known songs from the duo's catalog.

Messina put the CD together because he was disappointed with the way previous CD versions of Loggins & Messina records sounded.

Loggins & Messina recorded in the days of vinyl records. When CDs were introduced, their albums were transferred onto the new format. But the nascent technology meant that early CDs didn't sound as good as records. Messina went back to the original master recordings to make the new CD. The songs sound as good as ever, he said, thanks to more sophisticated technology.

The first half of the current show consists largely of Loggins & Messina hits. Then the boys come back for an acoustic set during which they play anything they want, and even take requests.

Messina didn't know until last week that Poco, a band he co-founded, would be playing the same night at the Largo Cultural Center. He said he planned to contact them and see if they could make it over to Ruth Eckerd to join Loggins & Messina for a few songs.

Loggins & Messina, 8 p.m. Friday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. $75-$125 plus service charge. Call (727) 791-7400 or go to rutheckerdhall.com.

[Last modified September 28, 2005, 10:06:07]