There are certain welcoming voices in popular music that can be identified as soon as a song starts – they’re immediately familiar musical touchstones, inextricably part of our collective pop culture soundtrack. Singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins possesses such a voice, and for over three decades it’s been inviting listeners in to experience music that reaches the heart and the senses with disarming candor, authentic emotion and rich lyrical and melodic resonance. From Loggins & Messina classics like “Danny’s Song” to signature solo tracks including “Celebrate Me Home” and the GRAMMY®-winning “This Is It,” Kenny Loggins’ expansive body of work speaks volumes with its warmth and directness.
On his latest album, 2007’s How About Now, the 2-time GRAMMY®-winning superstar whose long career has traversed diverse styles on record and in film music – comes home to the soulful, roots-centric singer-songwriter tradition that first made him a household name. In speaking about his 2005 tour with Jim Messina, beautifully captured on the concert album Live: Sittin' in Again at Santa Barbara Bowl, Loggins commented, “I went on the road with Jimmy, we finally did a reunion tour, about 40 shows. During that time I rediscovered a kind of music I was making as a kid that had acoustic guitar at the center. There was a certain level of joy and simplicity to my writing. Working with Jimmy reminded me of that, and I got to thinking, if I was making my half of a Loggins & Messina record today, what would it sound like? That’s what I aimed for.”
Finding Loggins in peak vocal form, the new album was recorded in 2006 in Nashville, TN and Ojai, CA – near his Southern California home – and released in February 2007 as one of the inaugural titles in the “Features” line of the new label 180 Music’s just-launched “Spotlight Music Series,” available exclusively through Target stores nationwide. How About Now streamlines perfectly into 180 Music’s focus on an adult demographic, and on new music from legendary acts.
Eleven of How About Now’s twelve original selections came to life during a period of personal transition for Loggins, who notes that many of them started as journal entries before being crafted into songs. In conceiving the album, Loggins says, “I wanted to find that place that expresses the feelings I was going through, and also the healing that was taking place, the vision of where I wanted to be. I think my best stuff – songs like “Danny’s Song,” “A Love Song,” “Celebrate Me Home” – has always been written in the first person about things that mattered to me the most.” In that vein, his new CD’s title track, “How About Now,” is a hook-heavy, uptempo instant classic that naturally plays to his strengths both as a songwriter and vocalist. “It’s the emotional center of the record,” he says, “you can have a great life, a great day – what about today? This is an album about growing, and moving on, that’s why I titled it after this song.”
How About Now also includes a beautiful reworking of the 1973 Loggins-penned Loggins & Messina ballad “A Love Song,” the album’s only previously recorded track. “I thought,” recalls Loggins, “here’s one I’ve been playing for over thirty years – how can I come up with a new way to do it?” He was delighted to reinvent it with an inspired group of young Santa Barbara, CA area musicians. “It helped to have the eyes and ears of players in their 20s in the mix,” says Loggins, “the song ended up having a whole new sensibility to it.” Other stand-outs include “I’ll Remember Your Name,” a reflection on love lost that also features Kenny’s son Crosby Loggins, who has his own band and album release.
On a number of the album’s remaining tracks, Loggins co-wrote with Nashville-based writers including Mike Reid, Darrell Brown, Richard Marx, Gary Burr, Rachel Proctor and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Loggins says the experience helped him tap into the country rock elements he was intent on weaving into How About Now, adding, “They liked writing with me because it brought the process into a different space than they were used to, in the style of Loggins & Messina and the Eagles and other acts of that era that I was going for.”
In a creative journey that’s encompassed over three decades of hit singles and more than twelve albums exceeding platinum status, one of the earliest highlights in Loggins’ career – besides a stint as guitarist for psychedelic rockers the Electric Prunes – was a publishing deal that placed four of his songs on a 1970 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band LP including the Billboard-charting “House At Pooh Corner.” In commenting on the now-classic song in his liner notes for the 2002 compilation The Essential Kenny Loggins, Rolling Stone editor David Wild noted, “Right there, at the start of his impressive life in music, Loggins managed to write a song about childhood that somehow continues to speak to us at any age.” The timeless track became a hit for Loggins himself when it landed on Loggins & Messina’s 1972 debut LP Sittin’ In, which also introduced “Danny’s Song;” both tunes remain cornerstones of the Kenny Loggins songbook.
When Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina first collaborated, the intent was for Messina, who’d played with the Buffalo Springfield and Poco, to produce Loggins as a solo artist. The collaboration flowed more deeply, though, and their “accidental” partnership ultimately produced five original studio albums, a covers collection, a greatest hits disc and two live albums. Along the way, they became one of pop music’s classic duos and an era-defining act. Before disbanding in ’76, their hits also included “Vahevala,” “My Music,” “Angry Eyes,” “Your Mama Don’t Dance” and “A Love Song.”
Without missing a beat, Loggins went on to even greater success on his own – his solo debut, 1977’s Celebrate Me Home, was a platinum Billboard Top 40 album whose title track is one of his best loved ballads. The follow-up, 1978’s Nightwatch, hit #7 in Billboard and delivered the Top 5 hit “Whenever I Call You ‘Friend’,” a duet with Stevie Nicks that’s another signature song. It also features Loggins’ version of “What A Fool Believes,” the classic he co-wrote with Michael McDonald that was a #1 hit for The Doobie Brothers – and a 1979 GRAMMY winner for Song of the Year for Loggins. His next album, Keep The Fire, netted another GRAMMY, 1980’s Best Male Pop Vocal honor for the smash “This Is It.”
Other solo highlights include 1982’s High Adventure, boasting two major hits, “Don’t Fight It” (a duet with Steve Perry) and “Heart To Heart.” 1991’s Leap Of Faith begat “Conviction Of The Heart,” a masterpiece that Loggins performed with a 25-voice choir and 6-piece percussion ensemble at the 1993 Earth Day concert at the Hollywood Bowl, a star-studded event also featuring Paul McCartney. Al Gore has called the song “the unofficial anthem of the environmental movement.”
Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Kenny Loggins also reigned as one of the most successful movie theme song composers of his era, with massive hits including “I'm Alright” (Caddyshack), “Danger Zone” (Top Gun), “Nobody's Fool” (Caddyshack II) and the Oscar-nominated “Footloose” (Footloose) and “For The First Time” (One Fine Day). Parallel to that, Loggins continued to release expressive, thought-provoking albums including, in addition to those already mentioned, Vox Humana, Back to Avalon, The Unimaginable Life and It’s About Time. December, a Christmas album, has become a contemporary holiday classic, and two beloved albums for children of all ages, Return To Pooh Corner and More Songs From Pooh Corner, are universally appealing, described – knowingly – by Loggins, a father of five, simply as, “music to make and enjoy children by.”
Loggins’ latest, How About Now is a soundtrack through which to enjoy the ongoing flow of life with loved ones of all ages. As expressed by one of contemporary music’s most emotionally perceptive singer-songwriters, it’s an experience to be celebrated on any, and every, occasion.
