A week ago yesterday, the music blogger and podcaster, who Friday’s blogger calls his muse, wrote a piece about of one of my fave musicians and singer-songwriters; it inspired my most recent playlist.  

Bob Lefsetz wrote about Paul Cotton ’s Poco hit, Heart of the Night.  I wrote back to Bob that Paul — who I got to meet several times — wrote and sang many a great tune, including Bad Weather, which former classic rock DJ (WABC-FM & WNEW-FM) Dave Herman (immortalized on Elton John’s 11-17-70) once told his listeners after playing this Poco classic: "You have to go far and wide through many a stack of albums to find a better song."

I shared links to a number of other Paul Cotton songs in that email, all songs that played often on my turntable back in the day.  

Indeed, he wrote more excellent songs that can fit in a Poco concert set; Poco always included multiple singer songwriters going back to its formation with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield) Richie Furay and Jim Messina (better known for his work with Kenny Loggins).  Thus a typical post Richie Furay Poco concert generally included no more than six songs written and sung by Paul.  

By comparison both the Apple Music and YouTube playlists include more three hours of Paul’s music (each 40 songs); that includes a few solo recordings such as Across the Painted Sky.  Admittedly in several cases — Bad Weather (4), Blue Water (2) Drivin’ Wheel’ (2) Every Time I Hear The Train (2) Indian Summer (2) Midnight Rain (2) Railroad Days (2), Ride the Country (2), Too Many Nights Too Long (3) — I included studio and one or more live recordings (and the live Blue Water segues into Rusty Young’s instrumental Fools Gold and Rocky Mountain Breakdown).

Do enjoy!

p.s. Photo courtesy of Friday's blogger.