by Raffaele Galli
Editor’s note: In 2005 I played a concert in Italy with Poco. Rafael was in attendance. He interviewed me for this article recently. Buscadero is a pretty cool music magazine that covers all sorts of music and musicians. Check it out- buscadero.com)
Drummer Face!
We follow Poco and most of us are fans of the band since the beginning of the magazine. So we take with much pleasure this opportunity to talk with you George, that played drums in Rusty Young band for ten years, to know something more about the last events of the group.
First of all I read that you reached Nashville in 1990 to become the staff drummer of Muscle Shoals Studios. Where you came from ? And why did they call you ?
After my career in L.A. I moved from my hometown of Jackson Mississippi to Nashville in 1993 to be the drummer and bandleader for Larry Stewart who was the lead singer for the famous Nashville band, Restless Heart. We toured with Vince Gill as his opening act for three years. After that I toured with other Nashville acts like T Graham Brown, the Wilkinsons and the Kinleys. I also recorded and played local gigs in Nashville with a variety of people, and taught drum lessons at the local drum shop. I didn’t start recording with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, “The Swampers”, until the late nineties after original drummer Roger Hawkins became sick. He and the owners of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio called me to sub for him. Roger and I knew of each other and I knew the owners of Muscle Shoals because I had worked with them at their Malaco Records Studios in my hometown Jackson MS since I was a teenager. I played on a lot of blues albums at Muscle Shoals with some well known blues artists on the Malaco label like Little Milton Campbell, Bobby Blue Bland, Johnny Taylor, and Shirley Brown.
You played for the first time in Poco in the summer of 1999, to substitute Tim Smith. How did it happen?
Yes, Rusty Young and I lived in the same Nashville neighborhood. I had been a longtime fan of Poco, since my teenage years. Rusty knew of my reputation around Nashville. He called me to go play a couple of gigs with him and Paul Cotton. One was a small festival in Arkansas with the Spin Doctors and I can’t remember where the other one was. Neither Tim Smith nor George Grantham were available to play. Richard Neville played bass. Poco was down to a handful of gigs per year by 1999 and sometimes Rusty and Paul Cotton played as just a duo. Rusty and I rehearsed the show in my house, just the two of us.
You entered in the band in august 2004, after George Grantham had a stroke the month before during a show in Springfield, Massachussets. Am I right ?
I think it was less than a month after George’s stroke on stage in Springfield. I was living in Akron Ohio by that time and got a call from Rick Alter, their new manager, who had helped put the band and the fan base back together. He asked if I was available to play the next gig in Cape Cod. I couldn’t due to prior commitments but I could play the following week in California. I told him I could play the rest of the year and hopefully George Grantham could come back and play. It was a severe stroke. After the first of the year, it became apparent that George would not be able to play again. The guys asked me if I wanted to join the band, and I accepted. I was also touring and recording with other artists at the same time I was in Poco, so I was busy, busy, busy.
The band, then made up of Rusty Young, Paul Cotton, Jack Sundrud and you, recorded the album Bareback At Big Sky, in a Montana Ranch owned by Dave Goodwin, who was a big bear of the guy that had a ‘den mother approach ‘. Tell me something about him.
Dave lived in Nashville before he moved to Big Sky Montana and opened his recording studio which was a very unique one. It was a very big lodge with a big great room and a recording studio built onto the back of it. Dave promoted these concerts in his lodge as “live” recording sessions to which he would sell tickets. The band would play in a semi-unplugged fashion to 150 people each night. Dave would then “fix and mix” the recordings. Dave would keep the ticket sales and the band would get an album without the recording costs. It was a sweet deal. The band stayed in the lodge’s bedrooms and Dave and his assistant would cook for us every day. The setting in Montana was beautiful. We took hikes in the mountain woods there. It was a very unique experience.
I like this unplugged record ‘cause its familiar feeling and homey and free atmosphere. You played Poco successes, songs from the previous album Keep the Legend Alive and new compositions I appreciate. Especially the title track and Never Less Than Love, a very good Rusty’s ballad due to its harmonies. My only criticism regards Jack Sundrud’s songs that in my opinion aren’t Pocoish. What do you think about it ?
Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree about Jack’s songs. In the mid nineties I had actually played a concert or two with Great Plains, Jack’s band that had a record deal. You should listen to that record. It was pretty cool. He was an integral part of Poco for over thirty years, thus his songs were Poco-ish by default. Poco was defined by the members that were in it at any given time and every writer and singer got to contribute, so of course the band evolved. Of course Rusty was the only constant in Poco and because he played so many instruments like steel guitar, dobro, lap steel, banjo, etc. that flavor was always there. I think of Poco as more Americana music than country or country rock. And founder Richie Furay was a folk artist before he was in Buffalo Springfield then Poco, so folk music was an ingredient in the first few albums. To me, there is no “Poco sound”. Yes they were among the first innovators of country rock in the late sixties and early seventies, but they evolved into other areas of music that were as equally important as their country rock beginnings. You must realize that the members of Poco, all of them, played on many other artist’s records as session musicians and co-wrote songs with other writers that were very unlike Poco. Bands that last as long as Poco do not like to stand still and keep writing the same type songs over and over again. Poco was not a one trick pony, so to speak.
In may 2005 you toured Europe beginning from Copenhagen , then dates in France, Germany, Italy. Belgium and Holland. Was it a ‘fast and furious tour’ ? Best date ?
Ten dates I believe and, yes, non stop. The two best dates were the Paris gig at the Olympia where we played with Jefferson Starship and the gig in Italy that you were at.
In Italy you played in a Palasport of an educational institution of Chiari, Brescia, where I heard you in Italy for the first time. A strong concert with moments of intensity and warmth. What do you remember of that show ?
I remember the meal that they fed us! After sound check the promoter took us to a really nice restaurant somewhat nearby. We were the only ones there. They served us a gigantic salad feast. We gorged ourselves on that and thought it was the whole meal. We didn’t know that there were like four or five more courses. The food kept coming for days! We were kind of in a food coma, ha-ha. We were late getting back to the concert venue but the promoter said the crowd wouldn’t mind, and they didn’t. Yes, it was a very good concert because the crowd were so welcoming. We thoroughly enjoyed that gig and the people. I want to go back to Italy.
In October you had to play in Norge and Holland but Paul Cotton had an heart attack and I read that Poco were only in three on stage. You weren’t with the band ?
No, I was with the band. Paul fell ill in Lillehamer. He didn’t show up for sound check and we got worried. Jack found him in his hotel room. He was almost non-responsive and his color didn’t look good at all. The ambulance took him to the hospital that had been established during the Olympics. It was fortunate that the hospital was only minutes away. The doctors said that if it had taken any longer he very possibly could have died.
So it was just Rusty, Jack and me. Paul’s vocals and guitar playing were so integral to the songs that we had a hard time playing through the show. We recruited some of the other musicians playing that night to help us out and got through the show, but we were all pretty freaked out because we had literally just found Paul in his bed dying. Paul ended up staying in Lillehammer for a few weeks to recuperate. Our next gig was in Holland and it didn’t go well at all. We played as many Poco songs as we could as a three piece. There was a local band playing before us and their guitar player sat in with us to jam on some other songs. The crowd was not pleased. I was glad that it was the last show of the tour.
When you came back in the States Paul Cotton left the band and Bill Lloyd took his place.
Paul didn’t leave the band per se. He was still recuperating in Norway.
They say that the concerts of the new line up were good also because Bill knew Rusty Young songs
( they were together in The Sky Kings … ). Which is your opinion about this line up and it’s true that in the songs list of that time there were two Beatles covers, Baby’s in Black and If I Needed Someone ?
Yes, Bill was great and those shows came off very well. We all knew a ton of Beatles songs. We all grew up on the Beatles. Rusty always said that he and Richie formed Poco to play songs with country instruments and Beatles harmonies.
Poco went on playing live in the following years and with Michael Webb as the fourth member.
Yes, after Paul left the band Michal Webb was brought on board. He is now playing with Chris Isaak and Cimarron 615 which is a group he and Jack Sundrud started with Rick Lonow, the drummer who followed me in Poco.
You recorded All Fired Up released in 2013 on Drifter’s Church. I say it’s a good record with a nice cover, a good title track with original member George Grantham on drums, a few gems as Regret and Rockin’ Horse, a witty track titled Neil Young … What do you say about it ? To me it has not enough Poco style as we waited. Even less than Bareback At Big Sky …
Drifter’s Church was manager Rick Alter’s label. We all financed the album and split the profits five ways. The basic tracks were cut in Nashville. George Grantham did not play drums on that album, I did. If I remember correctly George played tambourine on the song “All Fired Up”. To be honest I did not think the album was our best effort for several reasons. Most of Poco’s music was guitar based and had high harmonies. When we hired Michael Webb he played mostly keyboards. Stringed instruments and vocals were not his strong suit. So the stringed instrument based songs were not as strong as previous albums. Not Mike’s fault. He’s a killer pianist and organist. I think the record would have been better if we had brought in some other strong Nashville guitar players, but it wasn’t in the budget. Also all of the songs were written by Rusty, Jack, and Michael individually instead of as a group effort or cowriters. So the songs were somewhat disparate. It was a self produced album. If there had been a good producer who could influence the songs to be more cohesive, it might could have been a better album. I’m not a songwriter or a singer, so I can’t really complain. I was just there to play drums and I don’t think I played my best because I was not inspired by some of the material. But it was a fun project and I’m glad I got to play on a Poco studio record.
When did you play for the last time with the band ?
My last date with Poco was July 20, 2015 in Mendecino California and it was a great gig in a very beautiful area. Poco was the longest continuous touring gig that I ever played and the guys treated me like and paid me like a full member of the band, not as a side musician. We had a lot of fun. I really miss Paul Cotton and Rusty Young. Rusty was a very unique and talented guy, and funny as hell. We got along well.
In 2017 Blue Elan released a solo album by Rusty Young called Waitin’ For The Sun. Why aren’t you present in it ?
I wasn’t called to play on it. It wasn’t a Poco album and I was no longer in Poco. I had moved on to other projects after the Poco gigs started becoming fewer in 2015. I was also courting a woman I met in 2017. I chased her to Memphis and she caught me! I moved to Memphis to be with her and retire from the Nashville music business. Georgetta and I have been happily married since 2019.
You recorded and toured with the best musicians and the major recording artists during your professional career. And played all musical genres. Do you have a favourite one?
My forte is soul music, funk music and jazz but I have played almost every type of music-pop, hard rock, fusion, even classical orchestral music.
Which records are you particularly happy to be in ?
My favorite is a record I played on in 1979 with a group called Pages. The album is called Future Street on which I played six out of eight songs. Listen to it if you get a chance. It was the first album I recorded in L.A. I moved to L.A. shortly after that to join Pages and work in the recording industry there.
You are the owner of Not So Modern Drummer magazine. Tell me something about it, please.
Yes, I bought Not So Modern Drummer in 2009. It’s a niche magazine for drummers about vintage drums, custom drums and legendary drummers. It’s a free online magazine for anyone who wants to subscribe at NotSoModernDrummer.com
And before closing and thanking you very much let us know who are in your opinion the best drummers in music field, please.
If I had to limit it to a few of my favorites I’d say, and not in this particular order, Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie, Tony Williams, and of course George Grantham. One of the first records I bought as a teenager was Deliverin’, Poco’s great live album. George’s drumming influenced me as a drummer. The drum beat that George played on the song Come On fascinated me. I learned how to play it and would use it in drum solos I played over the years. Rusty told me that George heard Ian Paice, Deep Purple’s drummer, play that beat in a studio that was just down the hall from where Poco was recording, so that’s where he picked it up. I still am amazed that I got to play in a band that was one of my favorites when I was growing up.