Jim Messina (musician)

Jim Messina
Jim Messina in 2009
Background information
Birth name	James Melvin Messina
Born	(1947-12-05) December 5, 1947 (age 69) Maywood, California, U.S.
Genres	Country rock, folk rock, Latin rock, soft rock, jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, record producer
Instruments	Guitar, mandolin, dobro, vocals
Years active	1964–present
Associated acts	Jim Messina and His Jesters Buffalo Springfield Poco Loggins and Messina
Website	jimmessina.com
Notable instruments
Fender Telecaster Ovation Guitars Gibson J-200 Gibson SJ-200 Martin acoustic guitars

James Melvin "Jim" Messina (born December 5, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, singer, guitarist, recording engineer and record producer. He was a member of the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield, a founding member of the country rock pioneer Poco, and half of the soft rock duo Loggins and Messina with Kenny Loggins.

James Messina was born in Maywood, California, in 1947, and raised in Harlingen, Texas, until he was eight. He spent much of his childhood split between his father's home in California and his mother's home in Texas. His father was a guitarist and greatly influenced his son's musical career. Messina began playing the guitar at the age of five. He later became interested in the music of Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson.

When he was 16 years old, he recorded an LP with "His Jesters" titled The Dragsters, which was released in November 1964. One notable track was "The Jester", on which he played lead guitar; it was included on the 2003 CD Lost Legends of Surf Guitar Volume 1.

While with Buffalo Springfield Messina served as a recording engineer, producer, and musician, replacing bass player Bruce Palmer on two songs from their final album, Last Time Around.

After Buffalo Springfield disbanded, Messina and Richie Furay, a founding member of Buffalo Springfield, formed Poco in 1968. Switching back from bass to guitar, Messina played lead guitar and supplied vocals and some songwriting to the band. After recording two studio albums and one live album, he left Poco due to exhaustion from touring and to focus on becoming a record producer.