Loggins & Messina
Live: Sittin' In Again
At The Santa Barbara Bowl

Review By Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
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  Well this CD and DVD had to be one of the best surprises of the year for me. I recall enjoying Loggins & Messina many years ago. Hearing their hits on the radio was the extent of my experience however. I did buy some Kenny Loggins CDs over the years and found much satisfaction in listening every time. So the groundwork for what was to come had already been laid down, it was just a delayed reaction by some 30 years.

Live: Sittin' In Again At The Santa Barbara Bowl documents the audio (CD) and visual (DVD) of a great event in music, the reformation of one the most successful duos in rock. The CD offers 13 tracks of prime Loggins & Messina; it served as a nice warm up to the DVD. The DVD of course offers double the tracks and all the visuals of the performance, the ambiance of a warm summer's evening in Santa Barbara, including six tracks of footage from a '73 performance on the Midnight Special.

What blew me away was the how well the duo picked up right where they left off. And to top it off they managed to put together a crackerjack band to help them deliver every track with incredible energy and professionalism. This is what you would expect from veteran performers of their caliber. The musicianship is exemplarily not only from the two stars of the show but the entire band, I think that was the one factor that kept me spellbound throughout the CD and DVD. In addition to that, the styles of music covered are amazing. I realize that they always have fallen into the rock genre, with styles including folk, soft rock and the like, however they did play rock, pop, blues, country, and all of the above rolled into many of their songs, and enough protest and political statements to go along with all the raisin' hell and livin' life themes too. This really put them into a class all by themselves; you just cannot generalize their output because it is too diverse.

There is reason why all of these songs have become fan favorites and still are. This is the kind of music that is timeless and has no boundaries concerning age or for anything else for that matter. Hearing and watching all of this again cemented their importance in my mind and now there is even a bigger place in my heart and soul for all of the great Loggins & Messina music. Thanks for getting back together guys, you gave a lot fans some sweet bliss for one evening, something that comes rarely and in small quantities these days. That is even more reason to cherish this incomparable live set.

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