By Ken Paulson –
A tribute to the late Rusty Young of Poco has paid a welcome dividend: the birth of a new band.
Five artists, all with significant ties to Young and Poco, teamed up late last year for My Friend: A Tribute to Rusty Young on Blue Elan Records. The quintet, dubbed Cimarron 615 for the recording, contributed five songs to the collection and apparently had enough fun to continue as an ongoing band.
Tonight Cimarron 615 took the stage at the 5 Spot in Nashville for what was described as their “first real live gig.”
These are true veterans of country rock and that showed throughout their lively set.
The line-up:
- Jack Sundrud, who first joined Poco in the ’80s and was also a member of Great Plains.
- Tom Hampton, who joined Poco shortly before Young’s passing, and a member of Idlewheel along with Sundrud.
- Bill Lloyd of Foster and Llloyd, who formed the Sky Kings with Young, and who has sat in with Poco many times while maintaining his own solo career.
- Michael Webb, a member of Poco since 2010, and a touring musician in both John Fogerty and Hank Williams Jr.’s shows.
- Rick Lonow, a member of Poco since 2016, also wrote the group’s hit “Call It Love.
There’s a lot of Poco DNA in that band and harmonies abound. The songwriting appears to be evenly divided among all 5 members, but it all holds together, unified by a very familiar sound.
The set was just 10 songs long, cut short either because of Webb’s looming laryngitis or because that’s all this new band has mastered. Either way, the show was an eye-opening introduction to Cimarron 615, a group that taps into decades of collective experience to create a compelling sound today.
