Kenny Loggins - vocals, guitar; Brian Mann - keyboards; Mike Hamilton - lead guitar; Ron Green - percussion, vocals; Tris Imboden - drums; George Hawkins - bass, vocals; Jon Clarke and Vince Denham - horns
This show provides a glimpse of Loggins at the outset of his solo career, only two months following the release of his debut, Celebrate Me Home, and less than a year after the split of Loggins & Messina, the successful pop-rock duo with Jim Messina in which he originally wrote and performed most of the songs featured here, including "Danny's Song" and 1972 hit "Vahevala." Loggins and his seven-piece backing band performed 11 tunes for this King Biscuit Flower Hour recording, which was originally broadcast on July 24, 1977.
After the two energetic opening cuts, he introduces a low-key medley in which he tells the audience he is about to "take [them] back a few years now to a time when [he] met a fellow named Jimmy Messina." This mostly acoustic medley opens with the A.A. Milne-inspired "House at Pooh Corner," a mellow ballad that, in addition to being his earliest calling-card as a songwriter, is the very tune that launched his recording contract as a song he wrote for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1970 record, Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy. It is followed up by "A Love Song" and "Danny's Song," eventually giving way to two upbeat, soul-influenced cuts from Celebrate Me Home, showing Loggins in top form as a singer and showman.
The April 1977 release of Celebrate Me Home marked a smooth, more jazz-influenced turn in his sound, which can especially be heard at this show in the horn parts on "Why Do People Lie" and the extended renditions of older Loggins & Messina songs at the show's conclusion. These three final three tunes take on a more extended, wandering quality in the live setting, and are played by a band featuring many of the same members who played in Loggins & Messina's band: namely, George Hawkins, Jon Clarke, and Vince Denham, all of whom are introduced in the interlude following the acoustic medley.
Kenny Loggins continues to write and record today, having scored several hits in the decades since this performance. In 2005, he reunited and toured with Jim Messina for the first time in nearly thirty years.