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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Richie Furay: One of the legends...

With old band and new, Buffalo Springfield co-founder Richie Furay is back to the future

By Jeremy P. Meyer


Richie Furay could be the forgotten rock-'n'- roll pioneer.

The 67-year-old Broomfield pastor has roots deep in the annals of rock music — he is the co-founder of the seminal 1960s band Buffalo Springfield and is regarded as an architect of a genre that dominated the radio in the early 1970s.

But aside from rock historians and music geeks, few people know anything about Furay, whose own band has trouble booking shows in Colorado.

Inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, Furay doesn't like to play up his accolades.

"Put me on the river, put me on the golf course, put me on the stage — I'm having fun," he said recently, sitting in the office of his small church.

Furay's relative anonymity is already changing, thanks to the reunion of Buffalo Springfield, the group he formed in 1966 with Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Bruce Palmer.

Although Buffalo Springfield disbanded after two years and three albums, critics for decades have heralded the group for its four-part harmonies and instrumental prowess, saying the band had the makings to become the American Beatles.

Last October, Buffalo Springfield reunited — for the first time in 42 years — for the famed annual Bridge School benefit concert in San Francisco.

And last month, the band went on tour, playing a series of concerts in California and at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee.

Fans were drawn to see rock history and the group's major players, Young and Stills.

Many probably left the sold-out events wondering who that other guy was, the rhythm guitarist and singer standing between Young and Stills.

"In Springfield, Richie was a key singer and key writer," said Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke, who attended a show in Oakland. "In a sense, Richie was the anchor. He was the center as well as a central figure. I thought he was one of the highlights of the show."

While he may be less famous than Young and Stills, Furay is a strong root of rock's family tree.

Furay helped develop the country-rock style that defined the Eagles, Jackson Browne , Pure Prairie League and Linda Ronstadt .

Furay grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His musical career started in New York in a folk band with Stills.

Furay and Stills later moved to Los Angeles, where they met up with Canadians Young and Palmer and formed Buffalo Springfield.

The group's first single, "For What It's Worth," written by Stills, reached No. 7 on the charts.

Furay's lilting countryesque ballad "Kind Woman" became the blueprint for the country-rock genre that dominated radio over the next decade.

Furay's vocals and harmonies gave Buffalo Springfield its sound, said Jim Messina, a late addition to the group.

"Richie's voice was great texture along with Stephen's voice and the angst that was going on at that time," Messina said. "When he (Richie) sang, he wasn't only singing, he was bolting out electricity."

But creative tensions and personality conflicts caused the band to implode.

Furay and Messina then formed Poco, but the new band never took off. And when the Eagles debuted in 1972 with the hit "Take It Easy," a song that borrowed heavily from Poco's style, Furay knew the band was done.

His next group, the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band , also failed to produce a hit.

He soon left smoggy Los Angeles for the clean mountain air of Colorado. He bought a home on Sugarloaf Mountain, west of Boulder, and tried to make it on his own, putting out some records as the Richie Furay Band before getting frustrated with the music business.

In the 1980s, he gave up being a professional musician and focused instead on being a pastor — devoted to the faith he found during a troubled time in his marriage. His marriage to Nancy survived and is in its 44th year.

Since 1983, Furay has been pastor of Calvary Chapel in Broomfield.

On a recent Sunday, Furay played guitar with the band and preached a sermon for nearly an hour on the final chapter of the Book of Daniel .

"Most of the people here know him as Pastor Richie and don't know anything about this other stuff," said Scott Sellen, worship leader at Furay's church and multi-instrumentalist in his band.



Years ago, Sellen gently encouraged Furay to begin performing again, at first as a duo with Sellen.

More members were added, and now the Richie Furay Band includes Furay's daughter, Jesse Lynch; Sellen's son, Aaron; and drummer Alan Lemke.

Every Sunday , the band gathers on a stage in the cinder-block church, playing upbeat devotionals with a country-rock feel as tight as any professional group.

Tonight, the band will play at Denver's Bluebird Theatre, with a song list that spans Furay's career — from Buffalo Springfield and Poco to recently written tunes.

Even though Furay is a rock pioneer, his band still has difficulty getting in-state gigs.

"I don't think Colorado has been kind to Richie," Sellen said. "But he's got more history than anyone in Colorado."

But next year, fans across the U.S. will be able to see Furay when Buffalo Springfield embarks in February on a cross-country tour.

When Young called Furay last year, reuniting with him and Stills was the furthest thing from Furay's mind.

Two of the original band members — bass player Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin, added shortly after the band formed — have died. And Stills and Young were successful out on their own and didn't need to reform the group.

But Young thought it would be fun to perform again, this time to benefit his Bridge School for children with disabilities.

Young said it didn't have to happen in 2010. Furay disagreed.

"I said, 'Time is moving on. We better do it now,' " Furay said in a Rolling Stone interview.

Furay, Stills and Young gathered to rehearse the old tunes.

"It was almost like we picked up in the good times," Furay said. "No agenda. No egos. Let's just go out and play this music and have some fun."

The sound meshed seamlessly, and the show was a success. The three were so enthused, they agreed to last spring's tour.

"Reuniting is no big deal anymore, everyone does it," said Fricke of Rolling Stone. "The remarkable thing about Springfield is they sounded as great as they did. There was a connection there that clearly had not been broken."

The band performed songs from all three albums, playing some live for the first time, including "Broken Arrow."

The live performances reminded Furay of 1966, when Buffalo Springfield made its splash as the house band at Whisky a Go Go, the Sunset Strip venue that launched many careers.

"It sounded like the first time, when it was exciting," Furay said. "It was the best it ever was."

Friends, too, are excited about Furay's rediscovery.

"I am glad to see Richie performing again," said Messina, who in the 1970s had moved on to partner with Kenny Loggins in the pop group Loggins and Messina.

Messina said he always looked up to Furay, admiring his clean and moral life and devotion to his marriage.

"I respect his choice to leave the business to become a pastor," Messina said. "But I am glad he is spending a little more time to focus again on his music. It is the gift God gave to him."


Link:
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_18488968

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