Reunited duo brings old sound to Gorge stage

Jimmy Messina was a producer at CBS and Kenny Loggins was a kid with a beat up guitar in 1972.

Messina had played with Buffalo Springfield and formed Poco; Loggins attended high school.

For the two to become soft-rock celebrities was about as unlikely a pairing as it gets.

The public loved it.

Under the Loggins and Messina moniker, the two put out six albums between ‘72 and ‘76. But even after five years together and millions of albums sold – with Loggins as the primary lead singer – the hierarchy within the duo never sat well with Loggins.

“Right from the beginning, Jimmy was the producer; I was the artist,” Loggins said on the duo’s Web site. “So Jimmy was the lead and in that way, he became my mentor. Our relationship had become a teacher-student, father-son, big brother-little brother, and eventually it was not healthy for me.”

The duo’s dynamic is quite different now, nearly 30 years after the ‘76 split.

The band, which plays at the Gorge Amphitheatre at 7 p.m. Saturday, has a lot more history than that of the ‘70s. Tickets are between $40.50 and $85 through www.ticketmaster.com or (206) 628-0888.

Loggins has made a name for himself as a solo artist, releasing a string of successful albums in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including his ‘77 solo debut “Celebrate Me Home” and “Keep the Fire” in ‘79. He even made music for golfers to dance to with “I’m Alright” for the 1980 movie “Caddyshack.”

Loggins so enjoyed his solo experience that when he was asked in the ‘70s and ‘80s about when he and Messina would get back together, Loggins wasn’t inclined to set a date.

“And I’d say, ‘Why would I?’ ” he recently told CBS News of the past questioning. “I was having so much fun.”

Now that Loggins and Messina have attained success away from the duo, the insecurities and competitive inclinations have taken a back seat to simply exploring the classic Loggins and Messina hits such as “Your Mamma Don’t Dance,” “Danny’s Song” and “House at Pooh Corner.”

“When we first started this project, we were thinking we should do an album of new original material, but then we decided to grab the old arrangements and just have some fun,” Messina told the Associated Press.

“If we get inspired, we’ll have plenty of time on the bus to write a new tune, but this is about us getting reacquainted and playing our music that we’ve created in the past.”