Loggins and Messina

The music that stays with you for a lifetime and warms your heart everytime you hear it, is always the music you listened to in your younger days. Recently, my husband and I went to a concert of Loggins and Messina at Radio City Music Hall. When the lights went out the familiar soft strands of "Christopher Robin" played and everyone was transported back to a happier and calmer time and place. The audience sang along to the familiar words, rocking to the melody, as if we were being rocked into a comfort zone. Loggins and Messina might have looked a little older, but their voices were as pure as we recalled.

The concert began on a mellow note and worked its way up to a frenzy, with "Mama don't dance and you're daddy don't rock and roll." At first a handful of people waved their arms above their heads, then a scattered few stood up to dance and by the end of the night almost the entire audience was on its middle-aged feet. When the lights were off the audience danced like they were teenagers. It was only when the lights came up that I could see that most of the dancers around me were past the mistrusted age of 40.

The evening's music consisted of a mixture of sounds- a little bit country, ballads and rock and roll. While shifting musical styles, Loggins and Messina changed guitars more than I changed postion in my seat, which was often. The duo was backed up by a band of six multi-talented musicians.

A photo collage of their earlier years was displayed in the background, as the words were sung-" It's the same old life in a brand new body." I don't know about them, but my body does not feel so brand new. Loggins and Messina, on the other hand, look like teenagers, enjoying the music as much as ever.