Poco, one of the first country-rock bands to achieve artistic and some commercial success in the late 1960s and early ’70s, is certainly not completely under the radar. But their early catalogue to some extent apparently is.

The group that came from the splintering of Buffalo Springfield, with singer/songwriter-guitarist Richie Furay and guitarist-producer Jim Messina from the Springfield joining with pedal steel player Rusty Young, drummer George Grantham and bassist Randy Meisner, produced some of the most pleasing harmonies, hottest picking and well-written songs in the early days of country-rock.

By the time first Meisner, who is credited on the first album but was out by the time it was released, then Messina, Furay, and later addition bassist Timothy B. Schmit had departed, the group recorded six outstanding albums. Poco has marched on over the years, made some interesting records and is together today with Young and Paul Cotton, who replaced Messina, still in the band. They enjoy a loyal following and have actually staged some reunion gigs with original members this year.

When a few years ago, it came time for me to track down the early records that I liked so much, I found it wasn’t easy finding what I wanted as the CDs released in the early ’90s were scarce. In Europe, Beat Goes On Records issued a number of two-fers of these albums but I was unsure about the mastering quality.

BGO has a mixed reputation and even though I have some nice masters the company made of the Robin Trower catalogue and BLT, Trower’s project with Jack Bruce of Cream in the early ’80s, I held back on getting the Poco releases.

Then I noticed the early Poco albums were around again and in some cases available at dirt cheap prices, anywhere from $4 to about $12. I figured those couldn’t be remasterings and I was right. They were the original CD releases simply re-released. How bad could they be?

Finally, I found an interesting prospect over at Amazon’s UK store, the first five studio albums, with the exception of Deliverin’, one of the best live shows on record from that time, bundled in one of Sony’s Original Album Classics packages for 11 pounds. Let’s see 11 pounds. That’s about $18.50! Are you kidding? Even at $4 a pop for the domestic releases, with shipping we’re talking about $40. Suffice to say I ordered it.

Nicely packaged in stable cardboard album-like slipcases but with absolutely no frills — I mean nothing but the running order and the artwork — I’m indeed glad I ordered them. These albums are obviously suffering from a little compression, but they were apparently taken from early generation masters if not the originals and sound much like the vinyl I still have. The production of the originals corresponds much more to the sound of each individual album than any shortcomings in the mastering process and by the second album they sound quite good.

The group’s first LP Pickin’ Up The Pieces includes several classic cuts, including What A Day, Nobody’s Fool, Calico Lady, Make Me Smile, the title track and the screaming instrumental Grand Junction, among the 13 original tracks, along with the only bonus cut on this set, Do You Feel It Too. Poco, the second release, sounds wonderful and contains You Better Think Twice, which alone is worth the price of admission, a country-rock gem, along with Hurry Up and a re-recording of Nobody’s Fool, combined with El Tonto De Nadie, Repressa, which lasts 18 minutes as an extended instrumental with rock and Latin influences.

Of the remaining three albums, I prefer Crazy Eyes, which includes that epic title cut, but From The Inside, produced by Steve Cropper of Booker T. & The MGs, and A Good Feelin’ To Know each have their charm, filled with country based tunes that still hold a rock ‘n roll feel, something Poco executed as well if not better than any other artist.

I’ve seen Poco live twice, the first time Nov. 5, 1970, at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. Richie Furay was still in the band but Paul Cotton had replaced Jim Messina on guitar and Schmit was on bass. A reader asked me not too long ago if there were any concerts I was disappointed with since most of the reviews I’ve written so far in my concert series have been generally positive with the exception of Cream on the Farewell Tour in 1968.

This concert was a big disappointment, but not necessarily because Poco played poorly. It was because of the combination of the room’s acoustics, which were horrible for rock ‘n roll since the Shakespeare Theatre had mostly hard surfaces and was very alive, and the sound mixing, just terrible from where we sat about 20 rows back center right. Some of my friends fared better in their seats.

Basically Furay was set up stage left and his big Fender Showman amp was pointed directly at us and that’s all we heard. It was so frustrating. They played songs from their first two albums and what were some new tunes at the time but that aggravating mix was what, more or less, I remember from the concert.

Happily, I would see Poco play again in 1973 at the Palace Theatre in Times Square, New York, at a filming of Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert, again the band with Furay, Young, Schmit, Grantham and Cotton, and they were extraordinary, though they would probably recall it was absolute torture.

My girlfriend, Archer Rowbottom, and I landed tickets through Sam Gordon’s Publishing office, which Beau Segal, Peter Neri and I were affiliated with through our group Island, which by this time had broken up. We had seats up close slightly to the right of the stage.

The Isley Brothers opened and played several songs, including That Lady. They were followed by Billy Joel, who I was not very familiar with and of whom I remember very little. Evidently he played Piano Man.

Mahivishnu Orchestra followed, the classic lineup, and they absolutely blew me away. I was familiar with them but seeing them live was quite an experience. I was not a huge John McLaughlin fan at the time, but he quickly converted me with his astounding technique, speed and feel.

Of course, keyboardist Jan Hammer and especially drummer Billy Cobham were quite impressive as were Rick Laird on bass and Jerry Goodman, violin. I don’t remember the specific tunes but a site that has a listing of the Kirschner shows lists Sister Andrea and Dream.

Then Poco came on and started Fool’s Gold segueing into Here We Go Again, but a few minutes in, the control booth stopped them because of technical difficulties. They started again, another false start, and another, not because of the band, all because of the control booth. Then the band had a few glitches in its performance. Finally, they got more than half-way through the tune and were stopped yet again. How they didn’t self-destruct at that point I’ll never know. One last take though and they made it all the way through with a nice performance and no technical problems.

They played one other tune, Keeper Of The Fire to finish what had to be a trying performance. Still, they persevered just as Rusty Young, Paul Cotton and, at various times, George Grantham, who had been in and out of the band before having a career-ending stroke a few years back, have over the years. It’s nice to finally have these albums in my collection on CD.