The Buffalo Springfield was Richie Furay‘s ticket into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But his next band, Poco, provided the inspiration for “We Were the Dreamers,” the autobiographical opening track and first single from Hand In Hand, Furay’s first new solo album in eight years.
“It’s the story of Poco,” Furay tells Billboard about the track. “Not that I sit around and dwell about Poco, but the lyrics began to tell that story and I just went with it. It was one of those natural things that just had a flow to it, and the (music) reminded me of what we were trying to do back in 1969. We wanted to bridge that gap between country music and rock ‘n’ roll music. The Byrds were doing it. The (Flying) Burrito Brothers were doing it. And Poco was certainly instrumental in creating that country-rock sound in southern California. So there was the song.”
Watch Furay perform “We Were the Dreamers” below.
Photos: Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Buffalo Springfield Rock Bridge School
And as he notes in the song’s last verse, Furay says he still hears plenty of Poco influence in today’s country music. “Its seems to me that what Nashville is doing today, at least a lot of the time, is very similar to what we were creating back then,” he explains. “We were plowing some ground back then. As the songs says, we were pioneers. Somebody has to break that ground. There were people who got it on the Nashville side, Waylon Jennings and folks like that, but there were a lot of other people that definitely wanted to keep you at arm’s length. So it feels cool that was part of my legacy, to pioneer the ground for the acceptance there.”
Furay says he worked on “Hand In Hand” during the past couple of years, but it accelerated after his sporadic reunions with Buffalo Springfield mates Neil Young (who guests on a bonus rendition of Springfield’s “Kind Woman” on “Hand In Hand” bonus track “Kind Woman”) and Stephen Stills during 2010 and 2011. “That definitely got the ball rolling for me again,” Furay recalls. “I had these pieces of things laying around, then all of a sudden they became songs. It was like, ‘Wow…’ I really felt there was something special about the whole collection of songs, so it all got right down to the fast lane for me and moved forward.”
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Furay does, however, acknowledge that part of the delay was staying open for the possibility of more Springfield performances, and perhaps even some new recording before the group went on an indefinite hiatus in early 2012. “I think I certainly had that thought in the back of my mind,” Furay says. “I know I’d play some of these riffs while were doing sound checks and Neil would look over — ‘New song, eh?’ I think Stephen and I thought maybe there would be a Springfield album that came out of it. But things change, as they do and that’s OK. There were a lot of fans out there that wanted to see the Springfield, and I would have liked to make that exclamation point a bit deeper. But (Young) didn’t feel the same way and, y’know what? That’s just the way it goes. I’ve rolled with a lot of punches. I was just happy and satisfied I still had a place to go with my music after that.”
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Hand in Hand comes out March 31 and Furay, who was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame with Poco earlier this year, is in the midst of a tour that includes a performance at Daryl’s House on March 22 in Pawling, N.Y. He’s also contributed a version of the late Dan Fogelberg‘s “Run For the Roses” for an upcoming tribute album.