COUNTRY ROCK GROUP APPEARS AT TROUBADOUR

By Robert Hilburn

Los Angeles Times

Poco, appearing through Sunday at the Troubadour, is one of several country-oriented groups trying to breathe new life into the current rock music scene.

Though the sound has a heavy rock base on most selections, much of it, particularly in the emphasis on pedal steel guitar, is straight from the pre-Presley days of country music.

In the opening song Tuesday, Poco made little secret of its roots. "We're bringing you back home where folks are happy, sittin', pickin' and a-grinnin'..." it explains in its best song, "Pick Up the Pieces."

It is ironic that the new country-rock groups, like Poco and the Flying Burrito Brothers, are adopting elements of the old hillbilly sound at a time when most of country music is moving away from it.

The reason is that many of the new country artists were raised under the shadow of the stereotype that hillbilly musicians are bad musicians, whereas the country-rock groups can use the old sound without the stigma.

The result in Poco's case is an infectious combination of gentle-country and hard rock. The group is compose of Richie Furay (electric guitar) and Jim Messina (bass and guitar), former members of Buffalo Springfield, and George Grantham (drums) and Rusty Young (steel guitar), former members of a Denver-based group known as Boenzye Creque.

Above all, they are excellent musicians. They sound like a super-charged Buck Owens and the Buckaroos on "Grand Junction," a lively country instrumental, and like a superb rock group on other songs.

The only reservation about Poco is over some of the group's material. There is much charm in the lyrics of such songs as "Pickin' Up the Pieces," "Consequently So Long, " and "Just In Case It Happens, Yes Indeed," but the lyrics to most of the other songs are merely ordinary.